that the place to start is by looking into the past to see what was done RTTY-wise prior to this
years CQ W.W. RTTY GiG. This is what I discovered:
- [x] 2013 - WQ6X & N6GEO do CQ W W RTTY as a Multi-Single
- [x] 2014 - N6GEO & WQ6X as W6R WoW the CQ W.W. RTTY
contest for 2014 - [x] 2016 - WQ6X Survives the 2016 CQ WW RTTY Contest
- [x] 2017 - WQ6X rallies in RTTY and raises antennas
- [x] 2018 - WQ6X RUNS World Wide RTTY to it's WIDEST
- [x] 2019 - WQ6X Runs CQ W.W. RTTY Remotely and Raucously
2013 - Teams Up w/N6GEO
Where RTTY is concerned, 2013 was a learning year for N6GEO & WQ6X. In preparation for our upcoming WP2/WQ6X + NP2/N6GEO expedition to St. Croix for the 2014 RTTY RU contest, George came up with the idea that we should run the contest by way of a 5-Watt Flex-1500 SDR radio, feeding a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-45b (45 watts) which can then drive yet another amp at the WP2 site giving us 149.49 watts to qualify as a low power operation (from which we took 1st-Place Worldwide).In September of 2013 we were still debating the details regarding how this combination will actually work. Because we used our own computers on St. Croix, testing the configuration during the 2013 CQ W.W. RTTY GiG turned out to be an excellent idea.
2014 - Teams Up again w/N6GEO
Coming off our RTTY RU 1st-place win from January we decided to upgrade things a bit to a Flex-1000 SDR and larger screens. For this occasion I reserved the W6R callsign. Work commitments kept me in San Jose much of the time, relegating N6GEO to pickup the slack; which he did.
2016 - Single-OP from Concord
Switching my biofeedback work back to private practice in August-September of 2015 made it impossible to find the time for playing in the CQ W.W. RTTY contest. By 2016, I had taken possession of a Yaesu FT-1000mp which I had been told was an outstanding RTTY transceiver.
While setting up at W7AYT's QTH in concord did eventually prove the veracity of the Yaesu transceiver, it was ad-Hoc all the way. Thanks to the 2016 GiG, I learned a LoT about how
NoT to run a RTTY contest w/the FT-1000mp.
The biggest problem of all was Space-WX: A-Index=22, K-Index=5.
2017 - Single-OP Remotely from Concord
While a completely new antenna system had been installed at W7AYT's QTH, the RTTY cabling problem had not yet been resolved. This of course opened up the possibility of running CQ W.W. RTTY remotely from NX6T. The usual appearance of Murphy (by way of the internet) taught me different ways that RTTY contest operations can get around problems. When it was over, the decision was made to submit a 40-meter log, to have any chance of placing high[er] on the list.
2018 - Single-OP Remotely as NX6T
During 2018 I was experimenting with various custom approaches for producing AFSK RTTY by way of the FT-1000mp in Concord. It occurred to me that old phone patch units could be repurposed into a RTTY interface. The experiment was repurposing a 50+ year old Heathkit HD-15 phone patch unit.
Unfortunately the WQ6X RTTY Rigger was not ready in time for the RTTY contest, so I took the easy way out and ran remotely from NX6T. After the contest I found leisure time to confirm the novel idea of Phone-Patch ==> RTTY.
2019 - Single-OP Remotely as WQ6X
For 2019, work commitments kept me in Alameda. While I had commissioned an improved internet connection from the bay area end of things, internet in Fallbrook was HORRIBLE. It was during this event that I discovered it is possible to run a RTTY contest without audio on the receiving end. "Do whatever it takes" is my operating approach.
While this Blog entry was written AFTER the 2020 contest event, reviewing the above operations helps to put the 2020 CQ W.W. RTTY contest in perspective.
Do YOU work the CQ W.W. RTTY contest events?
Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?
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