01/12/2005 | CT1EAT Hi All

Although I'm radioamateur since 1989, I start operating
RTTY on a regular basis only on April 2002.
Since then I've worked 221 DXCC, some of them during contests.
But never before I had operate a RTTY contest, with contesting
aim, I mean. So I thought it was about time to do it :o)
Having said that, the ARRL RTTY Round-Up 2004 was,
for all purposes, my first RTTY contest.
The main goal was to boost my DXCC total, work as many states
as possible (before the contest I only had work AK and HI),
and log over 500 stations.
As the first goal is concerned, I must say the contest was
quite desapointing (I logged only 3 new ones). But, on another
hand, it was very good for WAS (I worked 38 new states).
About the contest itself, although the start wasn't brilliant
(I logged only 200 QSO's saturday), at the end I must admit
I was very surprised. To be honest, it was the score that kept
me going after I reached the 500 QSO mark.
The final numbers were 583 QSO's (including 8 dupes),
61 DXCC, 38 States, 8 Provinces = 61.525 claimed total.
Comparing to past year results that's above the best european
result (SO, LP), so, obviously, I'm very happy.
Many thanks for all who worked me, and excuse me for my
mistakes. Don't forget I'm still a rookie, hi!
See you all on CQ/RJ WPX RTTY contest!

73 F.Costa, CT1EAT
www.qsl.net/ct1eat

P.S. FYI, my working conditions were:
Kenwood TS950SDX + Force 12 C4XL + Half Slopper for 80m +
Pentium + Win98SE+ MixW 2.10 -- CT1EAT