A couple of things surprised me.  The biggest surprise was the high number that felt there were not too many RTTY contests.  Personally, I feel there are too many.  I am glad to see there is concern about RTTY being operated below 7025 KHz.  I was not surprised to see contests like the NA Sprints, CIS, UK DX Digital, Open Ukraine, and XE RTTY receive the most votes as ones that should be eliminated because I don't care to operate these contests either.  It is suprising that only 34% of RTTY contesters do not feel SO2R should be a separate class than SO1R.  In the February 2007 survey, only 11% said they were SO2R operators.  So it's apparent that many SO1R operators don't feel SO2R should be separate.

73, Don AA5AU

Question #7 is one that I always wanted to ask.  As an avid RTTY contester I feel a little left out when the ARRL 10-meter contest comes around.  I understand both sides of the argument.  On one side, it seems only natural to include RTTY in the 10-meter contest.  On the other side, I can understand the long tradition of CW and SSB in the contest.  Perhaps if RTTY was scored separately, it might work.  Then there is the question of bandwidth between CW and RTTY.  My solution would be to limit CW in the contest to 28000-28150 KHz and limit RTTY to 28150-28300 KHz.

What do you think?

73, Don AA5AU

A recent discussion on the CQ-Contest reflector shows there is concern about RTTY stations operating low in the 40 meter band during contests. The fact that there are at least 29 RTTY contests a year means that the lower end of 40 is full of RTTY on over half of the weekends during the year. RTTY contesters are going lower and lower in the 40 meter band as RTTY contesting popularity increases. The problem with this is that CW stations also occupy the lower end of 40. Whenever two modes try to share the same bandwidth, there are going to be problems with QRM.

During the 2007 CQWW RTTY contest, participants of the Texas QSO Party found it impossible to work CW on the lower end of 40 meters as there was operation from RTTY contesters as low as 7015 KHz.  It's unfortunately that anyone would try to run a QSO Party during the same weekend as one of the biggest RTTY contests of the year.

I picked 7025 KHz in question #4 of the survey because for as long as I can remember, that has pretty much been the stopping point for RTTY. I believe RTTY stations should stay above 7025 KHz during contests. We need to preserve the lower 25 KHz of 40 meters for CW. Some say 7025 KHz is too low for RTTY because of US General class CW operators. However, 7025-7030 KHz is where you will find a majority of Asian RTTY contesters including JA's. Brett VR2BG, tends to operate around 7027 KHz. When I'm putting in a serious RTTY contest effort, I will want to work these Asian stations down below 7030 KHz for the valuable multipliers.  And occasionally I will CQ just above 7030 KHz looking JA's in my morning time. So RTTY operation down to 7025 KHz is valid in my opinion. As for General class operators, now that they are no longer held back by the code requirement, there is no reason for them not to get their Extra license so they can operate below 7025 KHz.

During major CW contests, the 40, 20 and 15 meter RTTY bands are full of CW, but you don't hear many complaints from RTTY operators. The CQ WPX RTTY and NA CW Sprint contests share 4 hours together successfully on 40. So it appears there can be some coexistence.

What's your opinion?

73, Don AA5AU