Come join the DARC for the August 6, 2019 General Meeting – Ken Hansen, N2VIP, will present a program on the upcoming ARRL Rookie Roundup that kicks off on Sunday, August 18th.

Ken said : “ARRL Rookie Roundups are short, 6 hour mini-contests designed to encourage newly-licensed Amateurs to try out the specified mode in a contest setting along with other rookies. A few years ago the definition of “Rookie” was expanded to include anyone that has never used the mode previously, no matter when they were licensed.
While I was licensed back in 1997, since I have never used RTTY before, I qualify as a “Rookie”. As the original “keyboard to keyboard” modes, RTTY allows for extended free-form QSOs unlike, say, FT8. Also, There is a very active RTTY Contest community.
I have long been interested in trying RTTY, and since today’s modern HF radios nearly all include a USB interface, the effort involved in giving RTTY a try is minimal – nothing more than a USB cable to your laptop and the free software MMTTY.
My program will touch briefly on the history of RTTY, provide an overview of the configuration of the software and radio for RTTY, and a review of the Rookie Roundup rules/procedures. If possible, I also hope to attempt a RTTY QSO operating my remote HF station.
I am by no means an expert on RTTY, instead I’ll be sharing my research and preparations to get ready for the Rookie Roundup – RTTY.
Additional information on Rookie Roundups can be found here:
http://www.arrl.org/rookie-roundup “

Here is the slide deck from the meeting: