2010 February Survey Results

February 2010 RTTY Contesting Survey Results

Conducted by Don Hill, AA5AU & Ed Muns W0YK – Updated on 03/04/2010

Here are the results of the 2010 RTTY Contesting Survey.  Many thanks to all 825 RTTY contesters who participated.  The survey consisted of 13 questions. The blue graphs represent the results from all participants.  The green graphs represent the results from operators in North America only.  The orange graphs represent the results from operators in Europe only.  North Americans and Europeans made up nearly 90% of all participants.

This graph represents the make-up of the 825 participants.  There were 470 from North America, 270 from Europe, 39 from Asia, 29 from South America, 12 from Oceania and 5 from Africa.

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Question 1:  What RTTY Contest program do you mainly use?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • N1MM Logger
    • WriteLog
    • MMTTY Stand-alone
    • Win-Test
    • Mix W
    • Other

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  • The following three graphs refer to ‘casual’, ‘serious’ and ‘extreme’ RTTY contesters as determined from Question 13 and which programs they use:

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Question 2:  What do you use as your main RTTY decoder?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • Sound card with MMTTY (stand-alone or with another program)
    • Sound card decoder other than MMTTY
    • HAL DXP-38
    • Other HAL (P-38, ST-5000, ST-6000, ST-8000)
    • PK-232
    • KAM/KAM XL/KAM Plus
    • SCS PTC-II
    • Other external decoder

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Question 3:  If you use MMTTY, what MMTTY profiles do you use?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • Only the default Standard Profile.
    • I sometimes try Flutter, Flutter FIR or Multi-Path.
    • I use a custom profile.
    • What is a profile?
    • I don’t use MMTTY.
  • The results are based on MMTTY users only.

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Question 4:  Do you use more than one decoder on the same signal? (i.e. Use multiple RTTY windows on the same radio/VFO)

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • No
    • Yes

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Question 5:  If you answered “Yes” to question #4, what other decoder or decoders do you use? (select all that apply)

  • Participants could select multiple options if applicable.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • Sound card with MMTTY (stand-alone or with another program)
    • Sound card decoder other than MMTTY
    • HAL DXP-38
    • Other HAL (P-38, ST-5000, ST-6000, ST-8000)
    • PK-232
    • KAM/KAM XL/KAM Plus
    • SCS PTC-II
    • Other external decoder

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Question 6:  When operating as single op in RTTY contests, do you operate SO1R or SO2R?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • SO1R (single operator, one radio)
    • SO2R (single operator, two radios on a single computer)
    • SO2R (single operator, two radios on two computers)
    • SO3R (single operator, three or more radios)
  • There were no valid SO3R entries.  Therefore, SO3R is not included in the graphs.

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Question 7:  Have you ever tried SO2V? (Single Op, 2 VFOs where the second VFO is using its own decoder on a Sub-receiver)

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • No, my radio doesn’t have a sub-receiver.
    • No, my radio does have a sub-receiver but I haven’t tried SO2V.
    • Yes, I use the sub-receiver in my radio to S&P mults.

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Question 8:  What radio or radios do you use for RTTY contesting? (select all that apply)

  • Participants could select multiple options if applicable.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • Elecraft K3
    • Icom IC-756 PRO III
    • Icom IC-756/PRO/PRO II or IC-746PRO
    • Icom IC-7600/7700/7800
    • Kenwood TS-870/TS-2000
    • Kenwood TS-850/950
    • Yaesu FT-1000D/MP/MK5
    • Yaesu FT-2000/2000D/9000/9000D
    • Other

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Question 9:  Do you use AFSK or FSK RTTY transmission?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • AFSK
    • FSK

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Question 10:  What receive IF bandwidth do you normally use for RTTY Contesting?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • 200-300 Hz
    • 300-500 Hz
    • 500-1000 Hz
    • > 1000 Hz

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Question 11:  Which RTTY contests do you try to operate each year? (select all that apply)

  • Participants could select multiple options if applicable.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • ARRL RTTY Roundup
    • CQ WPX RTTY
    • CQ WW RTTY
    • NAQP RTTY
    • NA Sprint RTTY
    • BARTG/BARTG Sprint
    • WAE RTTY
    • JARTS
    • SARTG
    • VOLTA
    • I try to work all RTTY contests during the year.

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Question 12:  Do you use spaces or dashes between numbers in RTTY contest exchanges?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • I use spaces like 599 001 001.
    • I use dashes like 599-001-001.
    • I use a combination of spaces and dashes like 599 001-001.

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Question 13:  Which best describes you when it comes to RTTY contesting?

  • Participants could only choose one option.
  • The available options to choose from were:
    • Mutant RTTY Contester � Does seemingly inhuman things to maximize score (SO2R, operate maximum time, etc.)
    • Serious RTTY Contester � Operates most or the entire contest and strives to maximize score.
    • Casual RTTY Contester � Uses RTTY contest activity for QSLs and awards or just the pleasure of operating.
  • The term “mutant” has been changed to “extreme” as a more suitable term.

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