ARRL RTTY JAN 4-5 2026

[Jeff Rinehart]

Rather than just giving a lot of stats. I will make some observations:

David AD4TJ did it again.  Top Dog - but who's counting - Right?  

We have a little unspoken, unrewarded, quite friendly little competition (not rivalry) amongst ourselves -  David, Jeff and Butch N5SMQ.  If nothing else, we have our own goals to chase and our own ways to get there.  Of these 3, David usually wins but it is mostly a matter of who spends the most time during the event.  

Each of us has our own way of RTTY contesting.  There are different ways to send and receive RTTY.  

For transmitting - keying the transmitter, David uses AFSK, Jeff uses FSK and Butch, I believe, uses 2 radio's - one with AFSK and the other FSK - could be wrong about that though?  

For receiving RTTY, unlike the FT modes, does not give perfect copy so there is the challenge of figuring out what call is decoded properly.  That's a big part of what makes it fun.  Consequently we simultaneously run different RTTY decoders using different algorithms.  I don't know what algorithms that David and Butch use and I don't pretend to understand the differences but I use 4 different decoders with different receive algorithms.  I set up two 2-Tone decoders - one using Flutter and one using Selectiv (whatever that is).  I also use a program called Gritty using what they call "Smart decoding mode".  The default decoder for N1MM is MMTTY.  I set MMTTY to use FIR BPF (????).  

I have been "playing" with RTTY for a long time and I don't profess to understand much about all that decoder stuff.  My first RTTY station was done using a Commodore 64 with a special plug in module for RTTY - that was 40+ years ago.  The IBM type computers were not even available on the home market at that time.  Over many years, the home computers came up with a thing called "Windows" and everything skyrocketed in terms of amateur use, including RTTY.

We have fun and get to "play" radio too.  David seems to operate later into the night, Jeff can't stay awake so tries to get an early start and Butch seems to be so busy that he can't spend a lot of time on the radio during weekends.  But we have fun and that's the main thing - for me at least.

I hope you have enjoyed a bit of a history lesson - at least from my view.

Time on: 10hrs 55min.

Countries worked during those 11 hours:

                   

I worked all states EXCEPT: ME DE DC NM NV and UT plus many Canadian provinces. 

Have questions? These are local known RTTY contesters.  WS6X AD4TJ KF4FC W4PJW and N5SMQ.  I know there others but these are the local ones I recognize when I hear them on the bands. 

P.S. KF4FC is presenting an introductory program on RTTY this evening January 6 at the VARA meeting.

Jeff W4PJW

Jeff Rinehart   W4PJW

https://www.qrz.com/db/W4PJW

[David Gordon]

Now this sounds like fun…, and a challenge!

David Kb4lci 

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From: 'Jeff Rinehart' via Valley Hams <valle...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 12:09:20 PM
To: Valleyhams <valle...@googlegroups.com>; Jeff W4PJW Rinehart <w4...@arrl.net>; Butch Washer N5SMQ <n5s...@gmail.com>; David Tanks <ad...@yahoo.com>; ws...@arrl.net <ws...@arrl.net>
Subject: [Valley Hams] ARRL RTTY JAN 4-5 2026

 

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[Ray Albers]

Jeff provided some nice interesting history. But, as they used to say on the late nite TV commercials, "But wait - there's more!"

So, if you'll five an Old Timer's long winded rambling .......

   Some of us Old Timers once worked RTTY (Radio Teletype) with Teletype machines - made by the Teletype Corporation.  Ah, the clatter of the machine and the smell of warm oil!  I started with a Model 15 (printer and keyboard), which was a step up from a Model 15 RO (= receive only) which was just a printer without a keyboard - often found in newsrooms, police stations, etc back in the day.  Later I was able to upgrade the Model 15 to Model 19 by adding a perforator (that allowed me to make punched paper tape while typing on the keyboard) and a TD - Transmitter/Distributor (don't ask me how they came up with that name), which was a tape reader. Like many hams, I had a "brag tape" that I could feed into the TD and send all the QSO info like QTH, rig type, antenna, etc.  Sometimes in a rag chew QSO I would read what the other ham was sending on the printer, and meanwhile type responses on the keyboard to produce a paper tape, which I would feed into the TD when it was my turn to send.  All I lacked was a Reperf(orator), which would produce a paper tape from a received signal.

The tape was "five level," meaning five holes - Baudot code, still used by hams today. Of course, 2 to the fifth power is only 32 - not enough for 26 letters plus numbers and punctuation marks. So we had CR and LF Carriage Return and Line Feed, plus LTRS and FIGS. It was fun seeing a major chunk of the machine jump up so that numbers would be struck and then drop back down when it went back to typing letters (upper case only).  That Clunk Clunk was part of the charm..  Long ago both AT&T and Western Union offered Teletypewriter service - in the Bell System we called it TWX -TeletypeWriter Exchange (pronounced Twix) initially an operator would effect the connections, later the system was upgraded to "DTWX" in which users could dial the number to which they wanted to "Send a Twix." Part of the language in those days - instead of telling a secretary to "send a Fax" one might say, "Send a Twix."   Sometime in the 1960s things were converted to "8 Level,"  which allowed upper and lower case, punctuation marks, numbers, etc. It was pretty much the ASCII code we all use with our computers and Internet communication today.  This conversion resulted in a ton of old five-level machinery being made surplus - to the great joy of us hams!

Like most hams, I transmitted FSK by using diode switching to bridge a variable capacitor into the VFO circuit to shift the frequency, to send Mark and Space signals.  By the way, the test signal was RYRYRYRY....   that resulted in continuously alternating mark and space symbols, the most difficult for the machine to deal with. While receiving an RYRYRY string, one could move a little lever back and forth to find the spot in which the machine most faithfully printed RYRY.  If perchance the machine was in FIGS mode rather than LTRS,  it would print 46464646...  For receiving, many hams built home brew TUs - Terminal Units. QST and the Handbook had articles in aid of that.  At one point I bought a commercially made TU, which worked great.  It even had a relay and an AC outlet on it for Autostart - you could plug in the Model 15 and, if the TU detected a steady signal, it would turn the machine on.. For a while in the early '70s, several of us in our radio club would leave our radios set on 3600khz all day long, with Autostart-capable TUs, and often we'd come home from work and see that a couple of feet of paper had come out of the printer, with messages from other club members. (more than once some sort of random noise had triggered the relay and there would be MANY feet of paper on the floor!)

Ah, that was all fun!   And I'm afraid it kinda spoiled me.  Doing it with a computer just ain't the same, and I don't do it. Nor do do any of the other digital modes anymore.  But to each his own!

73

Ray K2HYD

[Butch Washer]

Boy, Jeff hit the nail on the head for sure when it comes to my operating!!!  I usually get to operate 1-2 contests a year in "Serious Mode", otherwise I'm hit or miss on BIC Butt In Chair time for most contests! BUT fun was definitely had. I even had a "hard-core" contesting friend in SOLA comment that "bout time you got on" LOL!

I either start a contest on Friday evening, if it allows, then try to get far enough ahead of Jeff and David until I can get back at it on Saturday! OR, I start a few hours after the start on Saturday and spend my time chasing after either 1 or both as I did this weekend. But alas, this year... No energy to stay at it!!

On a side note, Jeff mentioned about me and 2 radios, known as SO2R Single Operator 2 Radio, this is what my ham friend in SOLA has used for MANY years (a few time he used SO3R!!). He wrote a few articles about it that I've read and we swapped a few emails about it.

The reason I use 1 radio on FSK and the other on AFSK is... the 2 modes use different filters; AFSK (Audio Frequency Shift Keying) uses LSB and transmits audio tones via the Mic jack to make the MARK and SPACE,  while FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) actually shifts the transmit frequency by 170hz to make the MARK and SPACE. Your radio MUST have FSK mode built into it. This allows the use of different RX filters on each mode.

The 2 radios operate on different bands and can rotate TX and RX to make QSO's. I will usually RUN/ Call CQ on 1 band/ radio and S&P on the other radio/ band. Each radio has it's own computer to make it simpler and smoother and I use stereo headphones with the Left Radio in my left ear and Right radio in my right ear. The RUN/ CQ Radio/ Computer ALWAYS gets priority over the S&P Radio so that I don't slow the other operator down by causing him to wait for me to complete a QSO on the S&P computer. This is something I've noticed some SO2R operators NOT doing and I, as a S&Per have to wait on them to respond to my call or QSO confirmation. It can be a bit daunting, but it falls into a rhythm eventually.

Anyway... it's what I do... sometimes!!!

This year, it was our annual Epiphany Open House (the Saturday before Epiphany Sunday) here at the parsonage for church folks, friends, neighbors and anyone else we remember to invite managed to fall on RTTY RU weekend. I was so beat Saturday evening I couldn't even think about operating, but I hit it for a bit Sunday afternoon after church.

This year I only used 1 Kenwood TS-450 radio in AFSK mode, N1MM+, MMTTY as main TX/ RX software, 2 copies of 2Tone 1 in Selective and 1 I rotate through the different algorithms to match the band I'm on, 1 Hustler 4-BTV 10-40m ground mounted Vertical and an 80m Double Bazooka dipole that didn't get used. I have 3 computers networked all running N1MM+ just in case the main one crashes.

Below is my info and I'll also make some comments:

Contest: ARRLRTTY
 Band     QSOs     Pts  Sec  DXC  Pt/Q
    14        41         41    16      0     1.0
    21        49         49    15      2     1.0
    28        18        18       6      7     1.0
 Total      108      108     37      9     1.0
Score: 4,968

 I operated for 3 hours for 36 QSO's/ hr average rate.  All operating was S&P.  I only managed 37 states and 9 DX entities.

As you see, I didn't even stay in the chair late enough to get on my typically best band, 7mhz.

Alright y'all have fun and if you can do FT8 or any other digital mode, you can do RTTY!!!

73 DE N5SMQ Butch   DIDDLE DIDDLE

[Gordon Batey]

 

 

 

Ray,

 

I greatly enjoyed your history lesson.  I too had a model 15, TD and a reperforator.  I had to set the motor speed on the 15 with a tuning fork with a slit to view the flywheel and set the speed.  Lots of fun.  I got the equipment from the MARS station in Ft. Devens Mass.  I had a homebuilt demodulator (twin tee) and the first station I decoded and printed out was K1KBO which was the MARA station that the equipment came from.  Life got in the way and I never did get the HF transmitter part going.  I think I still have a box of rtty paper here somewhere.  73 Gordon WA4FJC

 

[David Gordon]

Guess it’s my turn… Back when we lived in Dunmore, Va., I had my C-64 and built my interface to do rtty with it and my TS-430S. Now that was fun! Could only run about 30 watts, but had a great time doing it. Moving forward, used the same C-64 and ran Packet with in on the DAREN network. Fun times. 

David Kb4lci 

(By the way…. Still using that same TS-430S today!)

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From: 'Gordon Batey' via Valley Hams <valle...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 8:25:39 AM
To: Valley Hams <valle...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: FW: [Valley Hams] ARRL RTTY JAN 4-5 2026

 

 

 

 

Ray,

 

I greatly enjoyed your history lesson.  I too had a model 15, TD and a reperforator.  I had to set the motor speed on the 15 with a tuning fork with a slit to view the flywheel and set the speed.  Lots of fun.  I got the equipment from the MARS station in Ft. Devens Mass.  I had a homebuilt demodulator (twin tee) and the first station I decoded and printed out was K1KBO which was the MARA station that the equipment came from.  Life got in the way and I never did get the HF transmitter part going.  I think I still have a box of rtty paper here somewhere.  73 Gordon WA4FJC

 

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[Jeff Rinehart]

From: Jeff W4PJW January 7, 2026

It's kind of neat to see all these replies regarding the early days of RTTY.  Thanks Ray and Gordon for your review of the "earliest" days.  David KB4LCI and I seem to have gotten into RTTY about the same time with our Commodore 64's.  

My very first introduction to RTTY came while visiting a good friend of mine in Zanesville Ohio.  He had some nice ARRL certificates on the wall for his accomplishments using RTTY.   I think he had one for WAS and one for DXCC - all using paper tapes for the canned messages using RTTY.  It was very impressive.

Those paper tapes hanging on the wall really got my attention.  He was using one of those early surplus machines like Gordon and Ray talked about.  He had strips of perforated paper for transmitting different messages.  One strip for calling CQ and some that gave his Name and Location etc. - each a different perforated strip. I was amazed and mesmerized. 

 

My friend sold me the big TriBander that I now have on top of my 100 foot tower.  Neil Buckingham W4KKL helped me haul that beam home from Ohio on top of my Dodge Caravan after attending Dayton Hamvention many years ago.  

I now have my own DXCC RTTY certificate - thanks in large part to that big TriBander and the influence of those slim strips of paper hanging on the wall in Ohio.  

Jeff W4PJW 

https://www.qrz.com/W4PJW

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

On Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at 08:44:44 AM EST, David Gordon <kb4...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Guess it’s my turn… Back when we lived in Dunmore, Va., I had my C-64 and built my interface to do rtty with it and my TS-430S. Now that was fun! Could only run about 30 watts, but had a great time doing it. Moving forward, used the same C-64 and ran Packet with in on the DAREN network. Fun times. 

David Kb4lci 

(By the way…. Still using that same TS-430S today!)

From: 'Gordon Batey' via Valley Hams <valle...@googlegroups.com>

 

Ray,

I greatly enjoyed your history lesson.  I too had a model 15, TD and a reperforator.  I had to set the motor speed on the 15 with a tuning fork with a slit to view the flywheel and set the speed.  Lots of fun.  I got the equipment from the MARS station in Ft. Devens Mass.  I had a homebuilt demodulator (twin tee) and the first station I decoded and printed out was K1KBO which was the MARA station that the equipment came from.  Life got in the way and I never did get the HF transmitter part going.  I think I still have a box of rtty paper here somewhere.  

73 Gordon WA4FJC

Virus-free.www.avast.com

[William Props]

It’s great to hear the stories about how RTTY used to be done.

For anyone interested in old teletype machines, there is the RATT net Saturday mornings at 9 AM eastern on 7087. Be aware that it is 850 Hz shift with the mark tone low compared to the conventional amateur 170 Hz shift with space low. (7088.575 kHz mark and 7089.425 kHz space) A variety of old machines check into this net and occasionally pictures are sent from paper tape. A few weeks ago, a tape was sent during the net that used the bell to play jingle bells.

There is also 14086 kHz that usually has a few machines on autostart scattered around the country. Conventional 170 hz shift space low is used here. (14083.875 kHz mark, 14083.705 kHz space) Over the past year, I’ve fixed up a couple of Model 15s. Calling CQ and ringing the bell on the autostart frequency usually gets a response. Lots of fun!

I tried copying contest traffic with the Model 15 and quickly discovered that many stations omit either the carriage return, line feed, or both. I guess that saves a little time in a contest, but it sure keeps you on your toes when using a real machine!

Chris

W4SVA

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