CQ WW WPX RTTY 2011

This contest started Friday at 6:00pm CST for Me and I thought I'd play a bit and try to figure out My PC-Radio issues. A RTTY contest is the best time to guarantee finding RTTY signals to contact. I really wanted to have My Yaesu FT-950 working so I could take advantage of the excellant Rx filtering and noise cancelling this rig has to offer.
Tuning across 40m showed lots of signals but the level still didn't seem as high on the MTTY program as it should--hmmm. I had already turned up the Menu function 051 " data level out" from its default of 50 to about 80. I decided to turn it up all the way to "100" and that certainly did the trick. I do remember from troubleshooting with the scope the level at default was lower than the level out of the Ft-857. The Ft-950 level seemed more suited for a Microphone input . Maybe the span actually is wide enough to accomedate mic- or line input! Whatever the case it now was decoding very well. I tried the various "width" adjustments all the way down to 200hz-- wow! Like threading the needle! What a difference from 2400 hz that I used on the Ft-857 with no optional filters installed. Too many neighbors?? Adjust the width to eliminate them. This also kept them from interfering and messing up the decode. Eventually I'd realize how many "AGN?" exchanges it would save.
Next was to figure out the TX problems. I have only used AFSK and had added circuity for FSK to the radio, but no matter what I tried, it just would not "diddle". I decided to try instead the AFSK mode- this required several changes to the MTTY program and eventually if using N1MM it also required a minor change to that program too. I first tried RTTY into a dummy load so I could adjust the level. It seemed to sound best with the gain adjust not too high. I also have the power out backed off from 100w to 50w since this is a full duty cycle mode. Next if I wanted to log this contest I needed N1MM running and using the MTTY RTTY engine . I won't explain exactly how to do this but its not too complicated. Again it takes some configuration changes to the program.
Lets-contest!! Sounds easy and -Yes it is . First try I had an answer back and I was contesting.It appears My uninstalling the webcam did the trick !Now the fun began.What a difference a radio makes!! This Ft-950 is superb in filtering and noise abatement. Nearby signals-no problem! Adjust the bandwidth down,down down. I found 800hz good for most S&P and if nearby signals bothering-- 500hz was usually narrow enough although several times I did drop down to 400hz,but 200-300 seemed most time to be too much. I don't know if its frequency stability from the other end or just propagation but 500 and up was best.
Amazing what 50w and a simple dipole or ground mounted vertical can do! Was I beat out? Absolutely but many times I beat others too. Fun!! I ended up over the course of the weekend contacting Cape Verde,Canary Islands, lots of South America and Europe. I did hear some 'JA's" towards the end of the contest on 40m but the pileups were ridiculous so I passed them by. One regret was hearing Saudi Arabia and because of the pile up and wanting to increase My score I bypassed them too. I reasoned I would run across them again-but of course I didn't!
The bands seemed very good all weekend except for a short time on both Saturday and sunday. I operated as much as My schedule would allow- needed time for chores,family and precious sleep! Total time was around 8 hours or less but I ended up very happy with My score. I should have done some frequency "running" but I was having such a good time just meandering around the bands I just never did.
here's the numbers-
218 QSOs, 133 WPX's for a total of 58,254. Not too bad for a contest to "troubleshoot" My RTTY setup. Never intended to run this contest!- I had fun and glad I participated!
73---Tim