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Season's Greetings! The New RTTY Journal© P.O. Box 236, Champaign, IL 61824-0236 Volume 47, Number 4, November 1999 $5.00 Season’s Greetings! Current Status of Sunspot Cycle 23 Saint Nick projects a fantastic Winter contesting Season! RTTY Contest Schedule . .2ARRL SW Division Conference Pictures . .6 Hits and Misses . .3170 Shift, 2125 Mark, and ALL That Stuff . .8 Green Key Night . .4D2K (Dayton 2000) . .9 Contesting News . .4DX Contesting at Prince Edward Island . .10 ARRL/TAPR Conference Pictures . .5CQ/RJ World-Wide WPX Contest Rules . .13 Stocking stuffers from HAL... P38 16 Bit ISA Bus Free Dos Software RTTY CLOVER AMTOR P-Mode RTTY-1 10-18 VDC Easily tunes RTTY Works with any modem DXP38 DOS & Windows Software DSP X-Tuning RTTY CLOVER AMTOR P-Mode Call for Super Christmas Prices HAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP. 1201 W. Kenyon Road, P.O. Box 365 Urbana, Illinois 61801-0365 Phone: (217) 367-7373 FAX (217) 367-1701 www.halcomm.com RTTYCONTEST SCHEDULE- WINTER1999 Date & Time Name & Sponsors Updated information available at: 12/180000 toOK DX RTTY Contest 2400 LA9HW RTTY Page: http://home.sn.no/~janalme/RTTY.html Jim’s Gazette: http://www.n2hos.com/digital 1/10800 toSARTG New Year’s Day Contest 1100 N1RCT Web Site: http:// www.megalink.net/~n1rct SM3CER Contest Service: http://www.sk3bg.se/contest 1/81800 toARRL RTTY Roundup 1/92400 ARRL: http://www.arrl.org 2/120000 toCQ/RJ World Wide WPX BARTG: http://www.bartg.demon.co.uk 2/132400 OR - The New RTTY Journal will airmail a printed copy to you. Green Key Night For each contest, send $3.00 for U.S., Canada, or Mexico des- 2/20 0000 to tinations or $4.00 to other countries. Please allow 3 weeks for 2400 processing and delivery. Dates and Times subject to change The New Page 2 RTTY Journal November 1999 The New RTTY Journal© Hits & Misses George W. (Bill) Henry, K9GWT Publisher and Editor Bill Henry, K9GWT [email protected] All Correspondence: P.O. Box 236 Here it is November, again. Time to be think-My Summer Vacation: I'm sure that at one Champaign, IL 61824-0236 ing about winter projects and activities. time or the other, all of us had to write a school paper about what we did last summer Tinkering Time: Traditionally, we "Teletypers"- visit grandma's, go to the zoo - you know the Voice: 217-367-7373 do a lot of makin' and fixin' when cold weath-whole boring list! It was a dreaded chore and FAX: 217-367-1701 er hits. Oil-up the Model 15, re-wire that rat'sbest done quickly. But, once in a while some- nest of loop and audio cables, and every-one at school had a really interesting summer body's favorite RTTY project, build anothervacation and funny write up. Ron Stailey STAFF TU. Many of us built a new TU every year,wrote one of those for us this month. Getting and sometimes the new one actually workedto Prince Edward Island (PEI) for the CQ/RJ Linda Henry . Accountantbetter than the one it replaced! We don't hearWW DX contest last fall turned into a saga of Joe Wittmer, KB9SIZ . Assistant Editormuch about RTTYers building stuff anymissed planes and bad weather, told as only [email protected] more. Is the experimenting and tinkeringour Texas friend can tell a story. Turn to page aspect of the RTTY hobby dead? Not at all.10 and tilt the recliner back. SUBSCRIPTION RATES The emphasis has just changed. While we don't drill many chassis's or wire tube socketsNostalgia Time:Over the last 50 years, our USA/Canada/Mexico these days, we spend a lot of time working onRTTY hobby has evolved from one based on our PC's. Some of these computer systemsmechanical skills and aptitude to a hobby 1 year (4 issues) . $15.00have become pretty fancy - multiple comput-dominated by mental gymnastics - PC soft- 2 years (8 issues). $28.00ers, multiple modems, monitor multipleware, in particular. The PC allows us to do 3 years (12 issues) . $41.00bands at the same time - all with ONE opera-things on RTTY that none of us could have tor. Wow! Think about what kind of a sys-expected. The world of modern RTTY is def- Foreign tem that would have been with Model 28'sinitely a fun place. BUT, many of us - par- and TTL/II Terminal Units! No, we don'tticularly those over 40 - once in a while get a 1 year (4 issues). $20.00make our own demod's or Teletype Service"twinge" for "the good old days". We recall 2 years (8 issues). $38.00Manuals anymore. We really don't have to.the sound of the Model 28 hammering letter 3 years (12 issues). $56.00But, think of the time that we all spend work-by letter on rolled paper, the smell of ozone ing out PC software problems and interfacingand hot oil, the glow, heat, and hot dust smell radios, modems, and PC's. RTTY experi-that came from all of the tubes in the shack. The New RTTYJournal is published fourmenting and tinkering hasn't disappeared atAfter all these years, we probably don't recall times per year: Feb., June, Aug., & Nov.all, it's just evolved to new levels. the mess on the floor when oil drips meet tape Subscriptionsandadvertisements must be punch chad (I tracked little white dots around Contest and DX Time: The winter monthsthe house for weeks). You probably don't pre-paid by check or money order in U.S.are also the time for RTTY contests and find-remember that dandy shock when you funds drawn on U.S. banks only. Visa anding those rare DX stations on RTTY.grabbed a live loop plug one night, or MasterCard credit cards are accepted. Working contests and chasing DX are by farscorched finger tips from changing tubes the most popular and rapidly growing seg-before they cooled down. Well, February 20 ments of RTTY and even ham radio in gener-is your day to recall and experience all this The publisher assumes no liability or respon-al. HF propagation is good again and we haveand more. Read all about the "Green Key sibility for errors, omissions or editorial con-more hams on RTTY now than ever before.Night" QSO party on page 4. tent. Written permission from the publisher ofMany stations routinely work 100 countries The New RTTYJournal is required prior tofor DXCC over a contest weekend, all usingY2K? Yep, "Year 2000" is about to happen. I and for any reproduction of all or any portion60 wpm Baudot RTTY! Terminal software ishave sure filled out a lot of Y2K forms for of this magazine. very fancy these days. The PC scans thegovernment agencies. It's kinda silly to be incoming signals, finds call signs, checks thedoing that for products that never had calen- Expiration Date: Your address label showslog of stations worked, and then points outdar functions. I guess it's easier to mail forms the date of your last subscription issue. Pleasethose call signs you haven't worked before -than read manuals - "our tax dollars at work". contact us if this does not agree with your on 2 or 3 bands at the same time. The oldI got the oil changed in my generator and calculations. paper log and dupe sheets are now in com-tucked an extra jug of my favorite anti-freeze puter memory. When the contest is over,in the kitchen cabinet. We're ready! punch a button and out pops your log in digi- POSTMASTER: tal ("Cabrillo") form, easily read, checked,That's about it for another year of The New Please send all address changes to: The New and scored by the sponsoring group. OneRTTY Journal. We'd like to hear from you, RTTYJournal, P.O. Box 236, Champaign, ILprogram (WriteLog) even makes a digitalour reader. What you like, what you don't 61824-0236 audio recording of the entire contest! Youlike, what you'd like for us to add (or can play it back at your leisure. The cost?remove). I'd like to again ask for articles - The New RTTYJournalis a continuation ofVery modest in dollars but you'd better belong, short, technical or non-technical. Don't the magazine formerly known as RTTY,willing to spend quite a few evenings figuringbe bashful. Whatever you're doing in the RTTY Journal, RTTY Digital Journal, Digitalout all of the software bells and whistles andRTTY hobby, we'd like to know about it. RTTY Journal, and Digital Journal. how to make the radio, modem, and PC talk to each other. 73 until Februaryde Bill, K9GWT The New November 1999 RTTY Journal Page 3 Green Key Night Contesting News February 20, 2000 Cabrillo Log Submission Format We have been hearing the buzz of a very sig- nificant improvement of the electronic log You are cordially invited to participate in aof the FCC Rules and Reg’s. FCC Docketssubmission process. It is called Cabrillo, celebration of the 47th anniversary of the start10073 and 10173 changed all that. Now wedeveloped by Trey Garlough, HC8N/N5KO. of U.S. amateur HF RTTY. Jim Haynescould use 5-unit start-stop 60 wpm teleprinter (W6JVE), The New RTTY Journal, and hamscode with 850 shift FSK modulation on 80,The goal of Cabrillo is to automate the col- of the Greenkeysreflector ([email protected])40, 20, 11, and 10 Meters (note – no 15 Meterlecting, scoring, and reporting of contest are holding a Green Key NightQSO Party onband in those days but 11M was still a hamresults.
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