Days 142, 143 and 144 – RTTY

Day #142 was quite a disappointment after the previous day.  I’d planned to be up early and spend six hours operating on VHF in the same contest we worked the day before from the Martello Tower.  I was up in plenty of time but once I started operating, it became very obvious very quickly that the band was practically deserted and conditions were just average.  In the end I gave up after less than an hour having worked every station I could hear calling CQ and having had just two replies (both from French stations) to my own CQ calls.  I finished up with just 14 QSOs and I doubt if I’ll even put an entry in.  I worked G8NEY/P, G4ZAP/P, M0MCG/P, G0XDI/P, M0BRA, G4SIV, G5LK/P, G0VHF/P, F6FLB, G5FZ/P, G1TST, F1CXW, G4DEZ and G3ZVW.  After that I had a quick tune around HF and worked YO3CZW and IT9WTY on 10m followed by RY6Y, SP9LJD and UN7MMM on 15m.   Much later in the afternoon I worked GB4C, Chris, MS0GUQ/P, Bill and G0AWV, Rick all on 40m.

On day #143 I had just the one contact, I worked GM0OQV/M on 40m and then I spent the rest of my time in the shack working on the 80m QRSS transmitter I blogged about yesterday.

I started off day #144 appropriately on 144MHz, having a QSO with George, ON4MPA and then I moved over to 20m where I worked CS2HD, a special event station for a Harley Davidson meet followed by IK6BGJ, Justin in Pescara and then 9A3XV, Sale in Croatia.  I finished off the day with an RTTY contact, my first in over twenty years with I6TND, Vito.  It was only a very quick couple of overs but it was good to be back using RTTY again after so long.  I previously used my old Acorn Atom for RTTY and before that I had a Creed 444 teleprinter.  It would be nostalgic and fun to have such a beast again but I really don’t think I have room in the shack and it would probably disturb the neighbours anyway.  Fldigi is much more appropriate these days.

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