Then all of a sudden the floodgates opened and the calls were coming 2, 3 and 4 at a time on 15 meters. EA7FST called me on 15 meters for my first contact.
![arrl rtty arrl rtty](https://qrznow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/arrl_contest_ft8__.jpg)
I realized there was no problem and tried to relax. What was the problem? I decided to continue CQ’ing on 15 meters and go S&P (search & pounce) on 10 meters. 90 seconds and no QSO’s in the log! I checked to make sure I had power coming out each radio. 90 seconds into the contest I was in a state of panic. Running SO2R (single operator, 2 radios), I started by alternating CQ’s on 10 and 15 meters. With a few seconds to go, in the final minute before the start, I sat there confident I would pass a good time (a Louisiana expression for having fun). I tried to think of anything that might fail and what I would do if it did.
ARRL RTTY SOFTWARE
I even had a spare computer set up with WriteLog, my contesting software of choice, on-line and connected to my network and ready to go in case one of my other two computers failed. I tried to make sure I had a spare of just about everything in case I had equipment failure. In an effort to keep Murphy at bay, in the weeks before the contest, I made sure the station was sound. And having fun is the ultimate reason we contest in the first place, right? Whatever happens, I was going to have fun regardless of the propagation. Other than the A being a little high for my liking, I was content to just go out and have a good time. With the solar flux at 138, the A index at 12 and the K at 2, I was concerned that propagation would be flat, yet the numbers weren’t terribly bad. How would this year’s contest fare? The propagation numbers were not nearly as good as they were in past years. So as I watched the minutes, then seconds count down to the start of the contest, I was anxious with anticipation. It appeared that perhaps my efforts might pay off and stimulate participation in the Roundup. My WriteLog RTTY Website (now named ) took over 200 hits on Friday, January 3 rd, its most active day since September. It resulted in my AA5AU RTTY Page taking over 2000 hits in the first 3 days of January alone – just in time for the Roundup.
![arrl rtty arrl rtty](http://ok1ike.c-a-v.com/soubory/pulvln_dipol_soubory/image004.gif)
In December I made yet another big effort to get more operators on RTTY. That month the tutorial took 559 hits and many new stations appeared in the contest. When it came to September and the CQ/RJ World Wide RTTY contest, I again made a big push, via the reflectors, to get more people on RTTY in hopes of having higher activity in the contest. It appeared a lot of operators were taking advantage of the opportunity to get on RTTY. In the week I announced the completion of the tutorial it took nearly 500 hits.
![arrl rtty arrl rtty](http://www.nemarc.org/images/wrapup/arrlrtty-2020.jpg)
I began working on the pages in late June and finished 10 days into July. I realized I would not be able to fulfill all these requests individually, so I decided to write a tutorial and place it on my website. In the first week, I received over 50 requests for help to get started on RTTY. I sent an E-mail to the DX reflector offering my services. When Ed, P5/4L4FN, started working exclusively RTTY, I decided to offer my nearly 20 years of RTTY experience to anyone that wanted help getting started on RTTY in hopes of working North Korea. I built up the RTTY page on my website and put more work into my WriteLog RTTY website as well. Last year I did my best to try to get more people interested in RTTY. So as I sat watching the clock on the PC’s monitor, waiting for 1800Z, I was wondering what this year would hold in store for hundreds of RTTY operators around the world including me. After years of increasing activity, last year’s RTTY Roundup declined somewhat. You never really know how a contest is going to turn out.