RTTY, radioteletype, predates every other digital mode covered on this site by decades. It was running over HF long before packet radio, PSK31, or FT8 existed, and it’s still alive today mostly because of one thing: contesting.
Mechanical roots, digital survival
RTTY traces back to actual mechanical teletype machines, using a 5-bit Baudot code to represent letters, numbers, and a handful of control characters. On the air, it uses frequency-shift keying, alternating between two tones (a mark and a space) to encode those bits, typically at 45.45 baud. It’s a much older and less efficient encoding than anything WSJT-X produces, but the mechanical teleprinters have long since been replaced by sound cards and software like Fldigi or MMTTY doing the same job digitally.
How It Actually Compares to FT8
FT8 is built to pull a readable signal out of noise well below what a human ear or eye could ever copy, at the cost of a rigid, slow, computer-paced exchange. RTTY needs a real signal, meaningfully stronger than FT8’s weak signal floor, but the exchange is fast and genuinely conversational once you get moving, closer to how a phone contest actually feels than FT8’s structured back and forth. If FT8 has started to feel like waiting in line, RTTY is a genuinely different, faster experience on the same basic hardware you already own.
Why contesters still love it
RTTY contesting has a large, dedicated following that has never fully migrated to FT8 or FT4. Part of that is tradition, and part of it is genuinely practical: RTTY handles fast, high-volume exchanges well, and major contests like the ARRL RTTY Roundup and the CQ WW RTTY DX Contest draw serious participation every year, with entries noted in my Contest Calendar rundown. If you’re building toward a well-rounded contest station, RTTY capability is worth having even if it’s not where you spend most of your operating time.
Getting on RTTY today
You don’t need anything exotic. The same sound card interface and CAT control you already use for FT8 handles RTTY too, just with different software. MMTTY is the long standing dedicated RTTY decoder, and the Fldigi family handles RTTY along with a pile of other digital modes in one package. For contesting specifically, N1MM+, which I set up in my N1MM+ contest setup post, has RTTY decoding built directly into the logger, so you’re not juggling a separate decode window and a separate log at the same time.
Is it worth learning
If contesting is any part of why you get on the air, yes, without question. RTTY contests draw serious participation and RTTY specific DXCC and award endorsements exist for a reason. If you’re purely chasing casual DX or ragchewing, FT8 will get you more contacts for less effort, and there’s no shame in staying there. Adding RTTY capability once you’re already set up for FT8 is mostly a software question, not a hardware one, which makes it a low-cost way to expand what your station can do.
Related reading: What Is PSK31? · JTDX vs WSJT-X · Log4OM and DXKeeper · Contest Calendar 101