Actually there were two RTTY contests last weekend. Both were new contests. The DLDC took the place of ANARTS and was held June 13-14 in three 8-hour segments starting at 0800Z on the 13th. During the DLDC off period on Saturday, the BARTG 75 Sprint took place. It was a great opportunity for me to put the ‘7600 to the test in a real RTTY contest setup.
The results were pretty much what I thought they were going to be with one exception. The ‘7600 was equal to the PRO III in all areas but one when it came to receive. The only difference I did see was with the Twin Peak Filter (TPF). When using the TPF on the PRO III, I would normally have to turn the RF gain control down until the S-meter reads between 10-20 dB in order for the noise floor to lower to the point where the signal-to-noise ratio “seems” to be the best. I say “seems” because I can only measure this by ear or by the way weak signals print. The ‘7600 seems to be quieter than the PRO III when using the TFP. On the ‘7600, I only have to turn the RF gain down to where the S-meter reads S9 before I get the same signal-to-noise ratio that works best for weak signals. I don’t know why this is or if this gives an edge to the ‘7600 over the PRO III or not. I think more experience might tell.
The ‘7600 and the PRO III basically received the same over the course of both contest. So there was no significant difference. Since the bands weren’t crowded, the roofing filter in the ‘7600 was not a factor. However, the spectrum display on the ‘7600 continues to be a major plus for this radio. Not only can you set up the display to center on your transmit frequency, you can map the display for any band segment you want. This means you can map the display to show just the RTTY subband on each band. On 20 meters, I set it to show 14060-14150 kHz, on 40 meters, I set it for 7025-7060 kHz. So with one push of a button, I could see the whole RTTY segment on whatever band I was on. It was really cool and gave me a chance to take quick looks at the band segments to see if there was anything outside the area I was working in.
It was exciting to use the ‘7600 in a RTTY contest because it’s such a pleasure to operate. But almost equally exciting this weekend was using a new Bluetooth wireless keyboard and keypad I purchased for my Dell laptop. Because neither contest had a low power category, I decided to run amps on both radios. When I set the station up earlier in the week and ran high power tests, I had bad RFI into the USB keyboard which is normally on the laptop. The laptop is not my main PC and is only used when contesting SO2R. I have a 17″ monitor, USB mouse and USB keyboard set up on the laptop and leave it on the side with the lid closed when contesting. I tried getting the RFI out of the USB keyboard with ferrite rods but they didn’t work. So I bought a Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 which has a separate Bluetooth numeric keypad. The keyboard is a mini keyboard since the number keypad is separate. One problem I had was that since I run SO2R on two separate PC’s, having two full size keyboards on the operating desk is a pain in the butt. And with the Icom radio tuning knobs offset to the right side of the radio, that means I would have to reach over the top of the right-side keyboard to tune the radio. With the Bluetooth keyboard and keypad, I now have more space which is great. Additionally, using WriteLog’s keystroke mapping utility, I can map important functions and macros to the keypad such as Insert, ESC, CQ and my callsign. I am now able to push the mini keyboard farther off to the right and get it competely away from the front of the PRO III (right radio) and perform most of the contest using just the keypad. There are a couple of things I don’t like about the Bluetooth keyboard and keypad. The main problem is that if they are not used for a certain amount of time, they go to sleep to save the batteries. So after they sit for a couple of minutes with no activity, the first keystroke wakes up the unit but is not delivered to the laptop. Because both contests were somewhat slow compared to others, this occured a few times but I got used to it and remembered to hit the ESC key a couple of times before I started using the other keys. I think this is a small inconvenience compared to opening up desk space in front of the radios. I don’t like the curveature of the keyboard either because I’m just not used to it and have to twist my wrist out more in order for my fingers to be on the right keys. In the future, I plan on mapping additional keys to the keypad to the point where I won’t need to use the keyboard much at all during contests. The biggest plus to the purchase was that I no longer have RFI problems on the keyboard. It worked great running 500 watts on all bands.
That’s it for now but am VERY excited about a new discovery inside the ‘7600. It has a built-in soundcard! I installed the USB driver for the radio last night and not only am I able to control the radio with CI-V through the USB connection, I now have a soundboard where I can direct the receiver’s audio directly to the MMTTY plug-in for WriteLog. The new possibilities are intriguing. It’s an exciting discovery that I will post next on the blog page. Stay Tuned!
