Experimenting with RTTY
This weekend I took the opportunity presented by the 2007 ARRL RTTY Roundup, and made an attempt to test some of my HF station’s receive capabilities. I’m still a technician without HF privilieges, so I can’t transmit and really participate. But I can listen.
With the solar cycle approaching minimum, it can be hard to tell if my antenna system (aka my apartment building’s rain gutter system) is working. Are the bands that quiet, or is my antenna not doing anything? So my theory is that during a contest, I know there will be many stations trasnmitting. If I hear only static, chances are my antenna is the problem. If I hear stations from far enough away that signals are getting here via skywave, then my antenna may have a future. I also have an interest in RTTY; so I figured I could test my recently downloaded RTTY software (cocoaModem) at the same time. A successful test today would be “seeing text from other stations”.
After some tuning (understatement!), I found N4BP on 15 meters. In the space of about 15 minutes, I watched him rack up contacts with stations in 11 states and two Canadian provinces. First goal then, seeing text from other stations, definitely satisfied. Second goal, seeing stations from far away, also satisfied. Some of the farthest stations east were in Dollard des Ormeaux Quebec, Manchester NH and Sterling MA. Farthest west were from Redwood City CA and Seattle WA. I didn’t have beam headings, power levels, or any other details from these stations, but for today I was just happy to hear them. My antenna is on the west facing side of a two story building, which didn’t seem to matter as much as I thought it might.
I’m still trying to find someone (that I can hear) participating in the Roundup on 10 meters, to make my test 100% successful. I’m happy with the results so far though. And yes, the RTTY bug bites hard… hehe…
