01/14/2005 | WA0WIK This is my seventh RTTY Roundup to date. I enjoy the hunt even though I know I'll never take top honors. Everyone who operates in this contest is the best of what Amateur Radio is about. I enjoy the short greetings from other operators you get when you know each other. Although the propagation left something to be desired this year the "TEST" was a good one. I operated RTTY back in the late 60's with an old Mod 28 teletype machine and homebrewed equipment from the ARRL handbook. I still miss the smell of TTY oil, the noise, and the glow of tubes however. My station consists of an FT-1000D, Kam+ TNC, a VL-1000 amplifier (run at 150 watts to allow the ol FT-1000 to stay cool), and a Carolina Windom 80 up 50 feet. I use PacTerm 98 for TNC control and Win-EQF logging software. It's a modest station but will log 'em if I can hear 'em. I use a homebrew computer which is built the way I need it to be. I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 for the operating system. Sure would like to see a ND station during the contest. I can never seem to find North Dakota. Maine would be nice too. One of my ham buddies (KC0JAB) came over during the contest and I showed him what contesting was all about. Hopefully, I can get him on the air (so I can get an easy MO mult.) on RTTY. Hey! mults are hard to find sometimes!! All in all, a great time. Thanks to all the ops for the contacts and multipliers. 73's
Mark R. Henry WAIK -- WA0WIK