WriteLog RTTY Messages

Here are WriteLog RTTY Message Examples for the following contests in alphabetical order:

In your messages, do not use ending characters in your messages such as “K” or “BK”. Also, do not use “DE” in your message unless you live in Delaware. These extra characters lengthen the message unnecessarily and are not needed.  Instead, all messages are ended with a space only.  This separates the end of the message from any noise characters that may be printed on the receiving station’s screen after your transmission ends.  All RTTY messages end with %E to end the transmission.

Begin most messages with %R.  This way, the text will start on a new line on the receiving station’s screen.  It is not necessary to start all messages with %R as you will see in the message examples.

By default, 20 functions keys can be used for messages (buffers) in WriteLog. They are F2-F11 plus SHIFT F2-SHIFT F11.

The F1 key is not used. This goes back to the early days of Windows when F1 was used to bring up the Help file therefore WriteLog did not use F1 as a message key in early versions.

Presently, F1 and F11 send the same message. This is tied to the WriteLog feature called CT Compatibility. Contesters who moved from the DOS-based CT Logging Software by K1EA to WriteLog could use the CT Compatibility mode. For more information on the CT Compatibility mode, refer to the WriteLog Help file.

The F1 key can be used as the CQ key and all the other keys shown in these examples can be moved up one. Or by using the WriteLog feature “Keyboard Shortcuts”, you can program the F1 key to do any other function such as sending the contents of a shifted message or any other function allowed. If you use F1 as your CQ key, you can re-program F11 to be any other key allowed with “Keyboard Shortcuts”.

The reason why I use F2 as the CQ key goes back to the days when F1 invoked the Help file in early versions of WriteLog. If you decide to change your CQ key from F2 to F1, be sure you take your Accelerator keys. For information on special Accelerator keys click here.

F12 is not used as a message key because in WriteLog, F12 is used to jump back to your CQ frequency after you leave your run frequency momentarily to work a station on another frequency. This usually happens when you are click on a Packet Spot or a call on the Band Map to quickly QSY to work that station. Hitting F12 brings you back to your run frequency.

For a complete in depth look at RTTY contest messages in general, it’s recommended you check out this page here.