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RTTY Message Examples for the Work All Europe (WAE) RTTY Contest
These are only examples. You can choose to program your messages any way to want or you can use the examples as shown below.
The WAEDC (Work All Europe DX Contest) RTTY Contest is a unique contest because of the QTC exchange. With WriteLog, Shift+F8, Shift+F9, Shift+F10 & Shift+F11 are special with the WAE module because they are used in conjunction with sending and receiving QTC traffic. The exchange in the WAE RTTY contest is RST and consecutive serial number starting with 001.
Beginning in 2004, I removed all ending characters such as "K" or "BK" from my messages. These characters lengthen the message unnecessarily and are simply not needed. Instead, all messages are end with a space. This separates the end of the message from any noise characters that may be printed on the receiving station's screen. A %R could be used instead of a space. A %R causes a carriage return on the receiving station's screen. Be aware that a %R is actually two characters sent - a carriage return (CR) character and line feed (LF) character. So you would be sending two characters instead of one if you sent just a space (important for SO2R stations trying to shorten their messages). All messages end with %E to end the transmission.
It is recommended that you begin most messages with %R. This way, the text will start on a new line on the receiving station's screen. It is not necessary to start all messages with %R as you will see.
F2 - Short CQ message. If you are having trouble getting
replies, add another CQ or send your call 3
times. It is important to place a "CQ" at the end of your CQ message so
stations coming across your signal in the middle your CQ message sees the "CQ"
at the end and know you are calling CQ and not calling another station.
F3 - Short exchange message. Leading %R so that the receiving station sees
their callsign fully with no noise characters in front. SEND RST ONLY ONCE!
I choose to send my serial number twice. This exchange message is used whether I'm CQ'ing or answering a CQ
and does not include my callsign. You
may elect to make another buffer the same as this but with "DE YOURCALL" at the
end to be used when in S&P mode and sending your exchange to the CQ'ing
station (see Shifted F3 message below). NEVER SEND YOUR EXCHANGE TO THE CQ'ING STATION UNTIL HE HAS
ACKNOWLEDGED YOUR CALL AND SENT HIS EXCHANGE FIRST!
I choose not to separate the numbers with hyphens. If you want to separate the
numbers with hyphens (dashes) "-", that is perfectly
acceptable. Just don't use anything else, like commas or slashes.
F4 - Confirmation & QRZ message. Used to confirm the exchange of a station
worked and send QRZ when running. Leading %R so that the other stations
sees their call clearly on a new line. This is important in case you got
the the callsign wrong when you first sent the exchange then edited the call.
When you send the confirmation message, the receiving station will see the
corrected call clearly.
F5 - My callsign 2 times when answering someone else's CQ. No leading %R.
The message starts with "DE". If "DE" takes a hit at the beginning of your
transmission, it's OK because it's not important information. Your CALL is
important information. And if you are using the MMTTY Plug-in for
WriteLog, you can "chain" messages together meaning you can actually press F5
twice and it will send "DE AA5AU AA5AU DE AA5AU AA5AU ". A PK232 also
allows sending more than one message at a time, but not all TNC's do this.
F6 - Simple QRZ message (may or may not need to be proceeded by a %R).
F7 - My callsign only once.
F8 - I use this message when two stations have answered my CQ and I receive both
callsigns clearly. I work one station, log the QSO, then put the callsign of
the 2nd stations in the Entry Window and press F8. %P1 send the callsign
of the station I just logged.
F9 - I use %B to map stations who's callsign is in the Entry Window to my bandmap. Pressing F9 is a fast &
efficient way of mapping a station to the bandmap. There are many ways to
place a callsign on the bandmap including the "MapCallOnSpace=1" entry in the
[ENTRY] section of the writelog.ini file (for more information on
"MapCallOnSpace=1", see the WriteLog help file). In order for
"MapCallOnSpace=1" to work, the cursor must be in the CALL field of the Entry
Window. If you click on a callsign in the Rttyrite window with the mouse,
the cursor goes to the next field. So instead of tabbing 2, 3 or 4 times
to get the cursor back to the call field so I can use "MapCallOnSpace=1", I
press F9 instead. This is a time saving technique that helps SO2R
operators more than SO1R ops. %B may also be used in an actual message but
I've not found where it would be helpful in any other messages.
F10 - Used to ask for a repeat of the serial number if I did not receive it properly.
F11 - My serial number when asked to resend it.
It is important to have messages such as F10 & F11 to ask for (or repeat) specific information instead of asking for an entire repeat or sending an entire repeat of an exchange. Repeating the entire exchange when only one piece of information in needed is a waste of time.
Shifted Messages
This is the only contest where I use all ten (10) shifted messages.
Shift+F2 - Used to ask a station if they have QTC's to send to me.
Shift+F3 - Same as F3 except with my callsign at the end and used to ask for an exchange of QTC traffic during the exchange.
Shift+F4 - Used to ask another station if they can receive my QTC traffic.
Shift+F5 - Sends my call five (5) times.
Shift+F6 - Used to ask a station for entire repeat of all exchange or QTC traffic.
Shift+F7 - Sends my call three (3) times.
Shift+F8 thru Shift+F11 are special keys used with the QTC dialog box as described in the WriteLog Help file.
Receiving QTC's
The dialog box below is what you see when you type ALT+R to receive QTC's. Receiving QTC's can be tricky if the sending station does not put a carriage return after each QTC. If the sending station runs the QTC together, you have to be fast on your mouse and click the QTC before the next one starts. Most RTTY contest software will send QTC's with a carriage return after each QTC. The QTC will highlight in purple and you can click on any part of the highlighted QTC and it will be placed in QTC receive window.
The sending station should send the QTC Group number first (like QTC 1/10). Click on the QTC Group number first and it will be placed in the QTC Group field. You can click in any of the field in the QTC Receive window and edit the QTC Group or QTC's if needed. When the sending station asks if you are ready (QRV?) to receive QTC traffic, click the QRV button in the Receive QTCs window. This will send the contents of Shift+F9 (RRRR QRV) and tells the sending station you are ready to receive QTC's.
DO NOT CLICK THE "OK" BUTTON UNTIL ALL QTC'S HAVE BEEN CORRECTLY RECEIVED. If the sending station finishes sending his QTC's and asks if you have received them OK, you can click the QSL button in the Receive QTCs window. This will send the Shift+F8 message (QSL DE AA5AU). If you need a repeat of a certain QTC, you can use ALT-K to go live at the keyboard while the Receive QTCs window is still open, to ask for a repeat of a certain QTC, such as "PSE NR 2 AGN", etc. Sometimes, you get more than one QTC messed up and in many cases it may be prudent to send the Shift+F6 message (PSE SEND ALL AGN). Once all QTC's have been correctly received, click on OK and the QTC's will be logged. You can still edit QTC's after they have been logged by clicking on the QTC in the log window.
Sending QTC's
Sending QTC's is simple. ALT+S brings up the Send QTCs dialog box shown below. Click on the QRV? button to ask the receiving station if he is ready to receive your QTC's. This sends the contents of Shift+F11 (QRV?). The receiving station will tell you he is ready. To send all QTC's click the Xmit QTCs button. Or you can send them one at a time by clicking on the actual QTC with the mouse. After all QTC's have been sent, click the QSL? button. This sends the contents of Shift+F10 (QSL? DE AA5AU). If the receiving station QSL's receipt of your QTC's, then click OK. If the receiving station asks for a repeat of a QTC, just click on the QTC requested and only that QTC will be sent i.e. if the receiving stations ask for QTC number 2, click on QTC #2 and it will be sent. If the receiving stations asks for all QTC's again, click on the Xmit QTCs button again. DO NOT CLICK "OK" UNTIL THE RECEIVING STATION ACKNOWLEDGES THEY HAVE RECEIVED ALL OF YOUR QTC'S! When you click on "OK", the Send QTC dialog box will close and the QTC's will be logged.
GL and CU in the WAEDC RTTY Contest!