Me and my K3 in the ARRL RTTY Roundup

[Jim Sheldon]

I decided to jump into the RTTY Roundup with both feet this year.  Of course, having just gotten me a K3 and P3 just before Christmas was a pretty big factor.  I'm a big fan of N3FJP's simple but powerful contest logging programs.  He produces a dedicated program for each contest, so you don't have to spend a month beforehand trying to set up all the MACRO's for the contest yourself as with some of the other available software.  He used a program written by K7RE to add some RTTY functionality to his general ham log and to the RTTY contests.  It uses the encoder/decoder engine from MMTTY and in spite of it's simplicity, it works pretty well with the K3, especially if you let COM1 talk to the log and COM2 do the PTT and FSK keying.  I built up W3YY's opto-isolator interface to give me the PTT and FSK drive from a com port and along with that came a CW key out as well.  RTS provides PTT and DTR provides CW keying.  When the PTT and FSK from the interface are connected to the K3
 through the accessory connector, you don't need to worry about the menu item selecting DTR or RTS for PTT and / or KEY, just leave them OFF.  Works like a champ..

I'm not a serious contester, and I didn't operate the full time of the contest.  Stopped to watch the Seattle/New Orleans football game and went to bed after the game.  Started again this morning (Sunday) and kept at it on and off through the day.  At times, my QSO rate was actually up around 40 per hour which I think is better than I ever do even in a CW contest.  Wound up with just shy of 245 contacts and a fair amount of those were actually DX.  

Now, the main observation.  There were an awful lot of "Alligator" stations out there that don't have very good receivers.  If I could decode the signals, I called them.  Many of the weaker signals came right back to me, but an awful lot of the S9+ stations couldn't seem to hear anything (not just me, but a lot of stations).  Sure makes the K3 look better and better and BOY what a super tuning aid the P3 turned out to be.  I wound up relying on it to find those weaker stations between the "big guns" and worked 90 percent of them.  The power company is working on a serious line noise problem around here, and they haven't gotten it all located yet though and I had to put up with a lot of insulator arc noise as it was very windy all weekend.  I'll be glad when they get it all fixed (they promised me they wouldn't quit till the noise was gone after some prompting from the FCC).

I also HAD problems with my previous radios (including a K2) and another ham that lives about 5 blocks from me.  When he was on the same band and mode I was, he'd most times overload my front end bad enough I'd have to kick in the attenuator even when he was running 100 watts, not the KW he usually runs in contests that allow it.  He was operating the NAQP contest this weekend at the same time I was in the RTTY contest.  The only reason I even knew he was there was I came across him calling CQ.  I was able to copy weak cw signals on 20 meters within 1KHz of him (400 Hz 8pole filter was in line with the DSP set to 250Hz) with no noticeable degradation and I didn't notice any phase noise from him until I got within that 250 Hz DSP filter.  I suspect if he had his Alpha 9500 on running full bore I might not be able to get quite that close without noticing him, but unless his FT-1000MP is really noisy, the problems are gone.

Took a while to come up with the money to buy this K3, but it ain't leaving the shack except maybe to demo it at a hamfest like I used to do with the K2!!!

Jim - W0EB
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[W8JH]

Jim,

I had a very similar experience with limited operating time here as well.  I used the N3FJP software also but had no keying interface.  I used the K3 Utility program for the whole time.  Kept the N3FJP logger open in a second window and entered the call/exchange after working them then jumped back to the K3 utility window.  Despite this inefficient (but blockhead simple) setup I exceeded 40 QSO's/hr rate search and pounce without much trouble.  Ended up with 230 Q's and a lot of fun.  Worked about everything I heard with 100 W and wire antenna.

Despite being first licensed in 1972 this is my first year trying RTTY.  Many thanks to the K3 and K3 utility program for making it so simple.

73,

Joe,  W8JH    K3 1713

[Mike Harris]

G'day,

Don't forget that big signals attract many callers.  It is very
difficult to pull RTTY sigs out of the pile if they are all on top
of each other and calling at the same time.  Once the pile builds I
regularly have to go split to make any progress with a whole one or
two kHz worth of waterfall looking like Niagara Falls.

On the subject of interface boxes.  I've used both, direct audio
into the PC and more recently via a Digi Keyer II.  The audio card
in the PC isn't as good as that in the DK.  I don't have a problem
getting TX audio level to five bars on the ALC.  My new PC will not
have an RS-232 port so the all in one functionality of the DK suits
me fine.  There have been regular reports in the past of PC noise on
the RS-232 interconnect and I had the same until I home brewed a
cable from CAT6 material as per Jim K9YC.  I also noted that using a
simple USB<>RS-232 interface also injected noise.  This was not
present when using the mH CW Keyer as a CAT interface for either my
K2 or K3.  Neither do I get injected noise using the DK.

You pays yer money you takes yer choice.

Regards,

Mike VP8NO

<snip>

> Now, the main observation.  There were an awful lot of "Alligator"
> stations out there that don't have very good receivers.  If I
> could decode the signals, I called them.  Many of the weaker
> signals came right back to me, but an awful lot of the S9+
> stations couldn't seem to hear anything (not just me, but a lot of
> stations).  Sure makes the K3 look better and better and BOY what
> a super tuning aid the P3 turned out to be.  I wound up relying on
> it to find those weaker stations between the "big guns" and worked
> 90 percent of them.  The power company is working on a serious
> line noise problem around here, and they haven't gotten it all
> located yet though and I had to put up with a lot of insulator arc
> noise as it was very windy all weekend.  I'll be glad when they
> get it all fixed (they promised me they wouldn't quit till the
> noise was gone after some prompting from the FCC).

<snip>

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[wt6p]

Hi all.

I must chime in here as well.  I rarely post to reflectors, but must echo the feeling of Joe and Jim!

I have been running RTTY for a number of years, beginning with a modified Hallicrafters HT-37, TS-570, Kenwood 940, ProIII, 1000mp and K2.  I must admit I was totally amazed with the performance of the K3.

I too built the keying interface using transistor switching and being able to run pure FSK has made all the difference as well as being able to use the Dual Bandpass filters.  I only have a 5 band fan-dipole at 38' right now, but with the radio features, I was able to maintain a 37 qso/hr rate for the 8 or so hours I was able to work the RTTY Roundup.  For those whom I worked, I used my club call, NA6E.

I do not have the PanAdapter, so I scanned the band for search/pounce and the DBF let me key in on each signal without the annoying side signals.  Running stations was a dream, requiring only minor RIT adjustments to keep the lines centered!

Writelog and MiTTY worked flawlessly, decoding right through the filter without issue.  The K3 transmitter held up fine business at 75 watts for the entire time and the final temperature never rose above 42c.

I have had many radios and finally have one that will be a permanent fixture (only rig!) in the shack.  The tower and HexBeam are next!

Many thanks to Elecraft for another great product and many future years of hamming fun!

Mark - WT6P, NA6E Memorial ARC
Kingman, AZ

[Richard Ferch]

Jim,

W0EB wrote:

> Now, the main observation.  There were an awful lot of "Alligator" stations out there \
> that don't have very good receivers.  If I could decode the signals, I called them.  \
> Many of the weaker signals came right back to me, but an awful lot of the S9+ \
> stations couldn't seem to hear anything (not just me, but a lot of stations).

I suspect this particular problem doesn't have much to do with their
receivers. I believe it may be characteristic of RTTY, caused by the
presence of multiple stations responding to a CQ. In CW or SSB, the CQer
can often pick out one or more calls by ear from a pileup, with the help
of small differences in tone/pitch, speed and signal strength. In RTTY,
if none of the responders' signals is strong enough to dominate the
input to the decoder, the operator is likely to see only garble on his
screen and not be able to pick out any call signs until the pileup thins
out.

I believe this may be why the problem seemed to be worse with louder
stations - they are the ones who are most likely to attract a big pileup
every time they CQ.

73,
Rich VE3KI


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[alsopb]

Of course, the solution (given the capture effect of RTTY decoders) is
to be stronger than anybody else calling.

As unfortunate as it may seem, might makes right for RTTY.  Operator
skills on the TX side play less of a role.

73 de Brian/K3KO

On 1/10/2011 16:07, Richard Ferch wrote:

> Jim,
>
> W0EB wrote:
>
>> Now, the main observation.  There were an awful lot of "Alligator" stations out there \
>> that don't have very good receivers.  If I could decode the signals, I called them.  \
>> Many of the weaker signals came right back to me, but an awful lot of the S9+ \
>> stations couldn't seem to hear anything (not just me, but a lot of stations).
>
> I suspect this particular problem doesn't have much to do with their
> receivers. I believe it may be characteristic of RTTY, caused by the
> presence of multiple stations responding to a CQ. In CW or SSB, the CQer
> can often pick out one or more calls by ear from a pileup, with the help
> of small differences in tone/pitch, speed and signal strength. In RTTY,
> if none of the responders' signals is strong enough to dominate the
> input to the decoder, the operator is likely to see only garble on his
> screen and not be able to pick out any call signs until the pileup thins
> out.
>
> I believe this may be why the problem seemed to be worse with louder
> stations - they are the ones who are most likely to attract a big pileup
> every time they CQ.
>
> 73,
> Rich VE3KI
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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