I've long been a fan of the RTTY mode for HF communication and I've been wanting to start using this mode again for some time now. In fact, prior to 2026, my most recent RTTY contact was way back in March 2015 (NO2T on the 15m band).
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| RTTY signal |
As I already had my radio (Yaesu FTdx3000) setup for audio based digital modes such as FT8 and FT4, I initially considered a move away from my favoured FSK mode to AFSK RTTY using the Airlink Express software. This was ultimately unsuccessful as I really didn't like the RTTY implementation so I reverted to FSK RTTY using an old favourite, MMTTY, which while old, is a tried and tested bit of RTTY software.
Having got the software and radio all setup for FSK RTTY I spotted myself on the DX cluster network and called CQ 30m band with the RTTY mode for the first time in 15 years and was very grateful to Spanish station EA2A for a nice short RTTY contact, soon followed up with a short contact with German station DL4DRG.
RTTY had been successfully resurrected at amateur radio station G0RIF. I am now looking forward to some RTTY contests to see what levels of activity remains with this old, and some might say original, digital mode.
