AmateurRadio.com

Yesterday Kevin GW0KIG downloaded Fldigi with the aim of trying to make some Olivia contacts. He had some success but wasn’t always sure which settings (width, number of tones) to use. He also found the number of different digimodes a bit confusing and wondered what the benefits of them all are. Well, Kevin, you’re not the only one!

The Fldigi online help has some information about the different modes. The website of MultiPSK also has some good descriptions of different modes, including the speed, bandwidth and minimum signal to noise ratio of most of them. Someone should probably take this information and summarize it on a website – unfortunately the domain confused.com is already taken.

Olivia appears to be the best performing of the multi-frequency shift keying (MFSK) modes, which should not be surprising as it is the most recently developed of them. That being the case, it might not be a bad idea for older MFSK modes that have fallen out of use to be banished altogether. There is no reason for every mode ever invented to continue to be an option on every digital mode program – it just creates confusion. The latest Fldigi beta (3.20) actually goes some way towards this by providing an option where you can specify which modes appear in the menu. The next step would be for the obsolete or little-used modes to be hidden by default.

Life on the digital modes would be easier if the commonly used modes each had their own place on the band where you could expect them to be used. PSK31, WSPR and JT65A all have their own “homes”, and Olivia also uses certain frequencies – or did until they were overrun by a certain other mode that is not available in the popular digimode programs and can’t easily be inter-operated with.

Solutions exist to help identify a mode being received, but they are hardly ever used. Both of the methods are supported by Fldigi and quite possibly by DM780 as well. One is video ID, as illustrated by the screenshot above. The software will transmit sounds to create letters identifying the mode at the start of a transmission. The other is RSID (Reed Solomon ID) in which the software transmits a signal that identifies the mode to the receiving software, which can then automatically switch to the correct mode.

There is clearly no need to use these IDs for commonly used modes like PSK31 or RTTY which can be recognized by sight and sound. That would just waste time. But for the various similar sounding MFSK modes it would be a big help if IDs were used. Fldigi runs on all platforms and it’s free, so there is no excuse for not using it and enabling the ID if you want to try some of these lesser-used modes. (Note: You really want the 3.20 beta in which the options for configuring the use of IDs have been much improved.)

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I'm operating My Contest this weekend.  If you hear me calling CQ MY TEST, give me a shout.  The exchange is just RST.  Thanks for the points!
Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

RadioSport USA | Elecraft QSO Party.
Keyers sound Morse code while voices hail open frequencies and digital modes finalize the connection. The simplest form of human connectivity is the tribe. Elecraft nonetheless has built a community of loyal enthusiasts and its QSO party is an ultimate expression. It expresses one’s connection to the radio, and, in broad terms, to a group sharing a common interest.

The object is fun and why not? One goal is to collect rig serial numbers while logging old friends and making new friends. The event itself is open to everyone “no Elecraft radio required” while logged Elecraft serial numbers count five points and no rig serial number counts three points.

Rules (link).

RadioSport USA | Second Class Operator’s Marathon Sprint.
I’m laughing with the let’s not take ourselves too seriously marathon sprint. How can one have a marathon and sprint at the sametime? They can and they are!

The point is, like other events, it is social connection via the airwaves that brings people together. I wonder which is first, our technology connecting with others, or people connecting with technology, in either case, it’s a ham radio tribal weekend.

Rules (link).

SFI = 90 | A-index = 9 | K-index = 1 | Sunspot count is 31 @0101UTC.

Scot Morrison, KA3DRR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from California, USA.

My bud Ulis K3LU just turned me onto the WebSDR project. Spent a little time this morning listening to W4MQ’s station, which is set up for 160m, 40m, and 20m. Very impressive — I’ve steered clear of online remote receivers in the past because they were typically a single radio controlled by a single user at a time (or, worse, by multiple users continuously changing frequency and mode, making it little more than an exercise in hi-tech uselessness). But this is different — a true server that lets multiple people listen at the same time on whatever band/frequency/mode they want, completely independent of one another. Way cool.

I still haven’t made a contact with the little Nano-40 QRPP transceiver I made, but after listening on several occasions I finally heard its signal coming back from the Web SDR at the University of Twente in the Netherlands at 2100 this evening.

I sent a few V’s and clearly heard them come back with a second or so delay from the remote receiver. I then attempted to send CQ, but the distraction of the delayed signal made it difficult. The signal was lost in the noise some of the time, but at other times it was perfectly clear and readable. I calculated the distance between my QTH at locator IO84hp and the Web SDR at JO32kf to be about 750km or about 450 miles. Not bad for 150mW to an MFJ magnetic loop antenna in the attic! Isn’t QRP amazing?

I will treasure the first contact I make with this little radio, so for the time being I am not going to cheat and try to arrange a sked because it would be much more of an achievement to make a contact that happened naturally. But if you should hear me one evening calling CQ close to 7.030 please reply slowly because I can probably hear 4 or 5 different stations at the same time and my CW is not that hot so it will take a lot of concentration for me to read you. A bit more power might help too because the little guy’s receiver isn’t as sensitive as the one you’ll be using.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Recently the FCC granted a waiver for ReconRobotics, a company that is offering a remote controlled robot to be used by law enforcement to perform reconnaissance in dangerous areas during tactical response situations. The robot sends analog video back to equipment giving personnel a remote-controlled view of an area.

The robot seems like a very clever product that will undoubtedly be successful and save lives in coming years.  The only problem is the company requested to use three 6 Mhz channels with the amateur radio 440 Mhz band.  Amateur radio has secondary privileges in this band which is primarily allocated to the Federal radiolocation service, which the PAVE PAWS system operates under.

Though it may not be obvious, the FCC's granting of the waiver has some parallels with the Broadband over Powerline (BPL) situation from a few years ago.  From a technical standpoint ReconRobotics couldn't be more different than BPL.  BPL radio emissions were just a spectral pollution byproduct of a wired network that blanketed the HF spectrum.  The ReconRobotics product actually uses the airwaves for transmitting information and uses set frequencies in the UHF spectrum.  What is quite similar is that the FCC allowed an unlicensed service to use licensed spectrum in a way that is not beneficial to either licensed or unlicensed users.  Both BPL and ReconRobotics provide a valuable service to the public, Internet access and support for law enforcement.  Although this may ruffle some feathers in the radio artisan community, it's arguable that these services are more valuable than amateur radio.  (Ignore for a moment BPL isn't actually using the frequencies, but is polluting them.)  Operating under Part 15 rules, BPL operators had to shut down operations if it interfered with licensed services like amateur radio.  As we learned from FCC actions (or rather inactions) this wasn't going to be enforced to the letter of the law and BPL systems would be allowed to interfere with amateur radio for months or years.  It just wasn't realistic to expect a for-profit business to turn off tens or hundreds of customers to investigate or stop interference, and the FCC quietly let the BPL industry off the hook.

In the ReconRobotics request it was acknowledged that a robot video system would be required to shut down if it interfered with licensed operations such as amateur radio.  But we all know that this is just not practical or realistic.  No law enforcement officer is going to shut down a robot during an enforcement event because it is interfering with amateur radio, nor would it be advisable or justified for an radio amateur to complain about reconnaissance robot interference.  But even worse, if an amateur radio operator transmitting interfered with a robot on a mission, it's likely that the event would be reported on by local media and would it put amateur radio in a bad light.  Overall it's a bad situation for all involved.

It's obvious the FCC still hasn't learned from BPL and has some things backwards.  Important services like data networks or communications for law enforcement need to be in licensed and/or dedicated spectrum, not shoehorned in with quite dissimilar licensed services as an unlicensed squatter that will ultimately demand and garner licensed allocation type protection and privileges.  Unfortunately it looks like this unlicensed / de facto licensed arrangement is going to be more common in coming years if the FCC continues to sidestep real spectrum management.
Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I want to thank Team N1MM and all the volunteers who are working hard at producing no-cost RadioSport software. The new website appearance is streamlined and easy-to navigate. Drop down menus are superior, overall, a job well done!

N1MM Logger Free Contest Software for Phone, CW, and Digital Modes.

Contest on.

Scot Morrison, KA3DRR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from California, USA.