First RTTY contest

Wayne VK4ACN

Hadnt bothered with contests, but I thought Id try the RTTY one this weekend.  What a blast.  Really had a good time.  Although im mainly using the maestro out of the shack, mainly cause I find the pc screen bigger and easier to see, I found the maestro much better than the monitor for the contest.  Once i got used to it it was a lot easier than using ssdr on the pc.  Think I'll leave the maestro in the shack for everyday use now.  But the 6500, maestro and n1mm+ really worked well together.  Not a hitch.  Now have to try a few more contests that are coming up.
Thanks Flexradio .

Wayne
VK4ACN

Mike va3mw

Wayne Good for you! What I found on my first RTTY test with the 6300 was that I could copy more signals than ever before. The filtering blew away every other radio I had used as it was so sharp. Amazing! 73

Wayne VK4ACN

I did notice with the filtering, if a strong station came up right beside the one I was copying, they had no effect because of the sharp cutoff

Kevin

For me, it's the ability to visualize the band. Tuning across a band with a traditional radio is like hunting stations in the blind. Seeing it all spread out before me makes it easy to cherry pick. I like to start with the strong sigs and work my way down. Then move up a bit and repeat. No clue if that's a winning approach but it sure is a lot of fun.



I'd like to see some sort of markers added to the waterfall that might indicate sigs already worked. I guess the band map in N1MM already kind of does that though.

NAQP RTTY is coming up soon. That should be a blast. 

I wonder if anyone might find this interesting. I suppose it is North America only? Don't know.

14. Team Competition: You may wish to form a team with fellow NAQP participants. If so, your team must consist of from two to five Single-Operator stations whose individual scores are combined to produce a team score. Although clubs or other groups having more than five members may form multiple teams, there are no distance or meeting requirements for a team entry. Teams must register prior to the start of the contest. Use one of the following online forms to register your team: CW team registration: www. ncjweb.com/cwnaqpteamreg. php SSB team registration: www. ncjweb.com/ssbnaqpteamreg. php RTTY team registration: www. ncjweb.com/rttynaqpteamreg. php These team registration forms automatically provide confirmation of team registration by return e-mail. Inclusion of team information in submitted Cabrillo logs is not required, as teams are determined ahead of time through the team registration system.

Maybe the 6300s vs. 6500s? Signature vs. Legacy? Us vs. the Everybody Else?

Glad you had a good time Wayne. 

73,
Kev K4VD

Wayne VK4ACN

Kev
I agree with you on the visual aspect of the screen and I would feel working blind if I went back to the ft5000. Tuning in stations with the maestro was so easy, usually the touch screen got most spot on, some had then to be tuned slightly with the knob.  I found being the other side of the world from the rest of you that most of the stations spotted on the bandmap, I couldnt even hear here, so getting the local rtty skimmer working would be a lot easier, but it was a lot of fun.

73
Wayne