F2 - Short CQ message.  If you are having trouble getting replies, add another CQ or send your call 3 times.  It is important to place a "CQ" at the end of your CQ message so stations coming across your signal in the middle your CQ message sees the "CQ" at the end and know you are calling CQ and not calling another station.

F3 - Short exchange message.  Leading %R so that the receiving station sees their callsign fully with no noise characters in front.  SEND RST ONLY ONCE! I choose to send my serial number twice.  This exchange message is used whether I'm CQ'ing or answering a CQ and does not include my callsign.  You may elect to make another buffer the same as this but with "DE YOURCALL" at the end to be used when in S&P mode and sending your exchange to the CQ'ing station (see Shifted F3 message below).  NEVER SEND YOUR EXCHANGE TO THE CQ'ING STATION UNTIL HE HAS ACKNOWLEDGED YOUR CALL AND SENT HIS EXCHANGE FIRST!

I choose not to separate the numbers with hyphens. If you want to separate the numbers with hyphens (dashes) "-", that is perfectly acceptable.  Just don't use anything else, like commas or slashes.

F4 - Confirmation & QRZ message.  Used to confirm the exchange of a station worked and send QRZ when running.  Leading %R so that the other stations sees their call clearly on a new line.  This is important in case you got the the callsign wrong when you first sent the exchange then edited the call.  When you send the confirmation message, the receiving station will see the corrected call clearly.

Notice the %O (letter O) in this buffer.  The %O designator resets the radio's RIT to zero.  In some cases, you may have to use your receiver's RIT to tune in a station that is too far off frequency.  Using %O is a time saving feature and when used with your confirmation message, automatically resets the RIT to zero after you confirm the QSO and move on to the next.  This function only works in radios that supports a command to reset the VFO such as Kenwood radios.  Icom radios do not support this command and there it does not work.

F5 - My callsign 2 times when answering someone else's CQ.  No leading %R.  The message starts with "DE".  If "DE" takes a hit at the beginning of your transmission, it's OK because it's not important information.  Your CALL is important information.  And if you are using the MMTTY Plug-in for WriteLog, you can "chain" messages together meaning you can actually press F5 twice and it will send "DE AA5AU AA5AU DE AA5AU AA5AU ".  A PK232 also allows sending more than one message at a time, but not all TNC's do this. 

F6 - Simple QRZ message (may or may not need to be proceeded by a %R).

F7 - My callsign only once.

F8 - I use this message when two stations have answered my CQ and I receive both callsigns clearly.  I work one station, log the QSO, then put the callsign of the 2nd stations in the Entry Window and press F8.  %P1 send the callsign of the station I just logged.

F9 - I use %B to map stations who's callsign is in the Entry Window to my bandmap.  Pressing F9 is a fast & efficient way of mapping a station to the bandmap.  There are many ways to place a callsign on the bandmap including the "MapCallOnSpace=1" entry in the [ENTRY] section of the writelog.ini file (for more information on "MapCallOnSpace=1", see the WriteLog help file).  In order for "MapCallOnSpace=1" to work, the cursor must be in the CALL field of the Entry Window.  If you click on a callsign in the Rttyrite window with the mouse, the cursor goes to the next field.  So instead of tabbing 2, 3 or 4 times to get the cursor back to the call field so I can use "MapCallOnSpace=1", I press F9 instead.  This is a time saving technique that helps SO2R operators more than SO1R ops.  %B may also be used in an actual message but I've not found where it would be helpful in any other messages.

F10 - Used to ask for a repeat of the serial number if I did not receive it properly.

F11 - My serial number when asked to resend it.

It is important to have messages such as F10 & F11 (and Shift+F10 as you will see below) to ask for (or repeat) specific information instead of asking for an entire repeat or sending an entire repeat of an exchange.  Repeating the entire exchange when only one piece of information in needed is a waste of time.

Shifted Messages

I use up to five (5) Shifted messages in this contest.

Shift+F3 - Same as F3 except with my callsign at the end.

Shift+F4 - Since the EA RTTY contest has band multipliers, I set F4 to the frequency of my 2nd radio when running SO2R.  If I come across a multiplier I need on the same band as the 2nd radio, I can send this message instead of my standard F4 message.  This can be used by SO1R ops as well to move a multiplier to another band.  Moving multipliers is a good way to increase your score.  If you use this type of message, be sure to remember to enter the QSO in the log before proceeding!

Shift+F5 - Sends my call five (5) times.

Shift+F7 - Sends my call three (3) times.

Shift+F10 - Used to ask for a repeat of the Province from an EA station.

GL and CU in the EA RTTY Contest!