AmateurRadio.com

Attempts to use the newly developed ROS weak signal mode are resulting in more chaos and frustration this morning as an increasing number of people pile on to the same frequencies. And attempts to decide frequencies to use with the mode seem to indicate total ignorance of other band users and modes. The latest list of recommended frequencies includes:

7.040 – which is going to interfere with the now long-established WSPR weak signal mode
10.140 – which will also interfere with WSPR’s established frequency on that band
14.100.9 – which does not avoid the long established 24/7 packet network which has already complained about interference by this mode, and is also within the range reserved for beacons.

There are a total of three frequencies suggested for 30m, in ignorance of the fact that 30m is supposed to be used only for narrow band modes.

Someone responded to my earlier comment that a body like the IARU should decide which modes can work where, by saying that the IARU does not recommend frequencies for specific modes as that would interfere with experimentation. However I still think they should. When left to individual amateurs you simply get a fight between one group of people who don’t have a clue and another group, users of existing modes, who have strong views about where they should NOT go. Without some overseeing arbitrator this will just end up as a mode war.

I think it is arguable that there just isn’t room for a 2.2KHz wide weak signal mode on the HF bands at all. But if true, who is going to make that decision?

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

On February 23rd 2007, amateur radio in the U.S. was liberated from the tyranny of a minority of radio amateurs. They said amateur radio would be destroyed. The foundations of amateur radio were being dismantled, eliminating all that was good and wholesome, ruining decades of innovation and service. Hiram would be turning over in his grave. Cats would be sleeping with dogs. Rupaul would be sleeping with women. The bands would be silent as a long cherished traditional would be outlawed. The CBers would be dancing in the streets and invading our bands, polluting and pillaging our precious frequencies. Old men would have to talk about something other than the early dinner specials at Dennys. It was a grim and apocalyptic picture they painted in those days leading up to the great event.
Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Single Operator All Band.

• J88DR (G3TBK) | 3423 Qs | 261 Mults | 34hrs13mins | 2,677,860 Points [Chiltern DX Club].
• LU5FF | 2115 Qs | 233 Mults | 29hrs | 1,477,686 Points [LU Contest Group].
• P40LE (K2LE) | 1267 Qs | 224 Mults | 15hrs | 851,428 Points [OBONY].

n = 21 scores submitted in this category.

Multi-Single.

• C6AWL | 4199 Qs | 309 Mults | 48hrs | 3,892,473 Points.
• 5W0OU | 2339 Qs | 250 Mults | 48hrs | 1,754,250 Points [WVDXC].

n = 2 scores submitted in this category.

A thank you to each international low power operator who populated North American logs this weekend. This was a stoked event especially when 100-watt stations were logged inside shackadelic. How about 10 meters? One can accomplish the RadioSport impossible within this spectrum space.

Congratulations Dave Cree, G3TBK who operated J88DR to a 3830 Top Score and for providing a new DXCC counter as well.

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.

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

US | VE Single Operator All Band.

• N4YDU | 1942 Qs | 330 Mults | 41hrs | 1,922,580 Points [PVRC].
• N9CK | 1768 Qs | 335 Mults | 34hrs | 1,772,820 [SMC].
• VE9DX | 1580 Qs | 317 Mults | 1,502,580 Points.

n = 97 scores submitted in this category.

US | VE Multi-Single.

• N7DS (@NE7D) | 466 Qs | 164 Mults | 25hrs38mins | 228,780 Points [WVDXC].

n = 1 scored submitted in this category.

Cycle 24 provided an activity stimulus package this weekend surprising some and pleasing many. It’s not the peak for sure however the long sunspot recession is finally over. Event numbers suggest phenomenal effort and stellar returns within all categories.

Nathan Moreschi, N4YDU leads the low power pack before log adjudication and he is one to watch as an emergent RadioSport athlete. His station configuration is definitely low power Box potential. Congratulations Nathan on a job well done while leading the Potomac Valley Radio Club, to yet, another banner week.

Low power multi-single remains as a category waiting for a few innovators. I would venture to say it is under capitalized with lots of great opportunity for the future of RadioSport.

Believe in your signal!

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

Late this afternoon I noticed that the ROS website had been updated with a new frequency suggestion for 20m 1 baud operation of 14.105, so I decided to have one more try.

For a while I seemed to have the frequency to myself. However I posted that I was calling there on the K3UK digital sked page. Shortly after, WB2YDS posted that he copied my CQ. I didn’t copy anything from him, but I called again and the second time I got his report, though not perfect copy as the meter in the ROS program showed he was 30db down in the noise.

I sent a report, which I know via the sked page he received, but unfortunately a few seconds after he started KB1PVH started calling CQ and the program started decoding his CQ call instead. With two stations on the frequency it was hopeless, and soon after that Olga called me for dinner and that was that.

Normally an almost-QSO wouldn’t rate a mention, except that I was using 5W from the FT-817 to a dipole, and WB2YDS was also running 5W to a long wire. I don’t think I have ever worked across the Atlantic QRP to QRP before, and indeed I still haven’t, but I nearly did, which shows what the ROS 1 baud mode is capable of if you are lucky enough to have a clear frequency for the duration of the contact.

Unfortunately the software has a number of issues that need to be addressed before it can be considered suitable for general use, one of which is the ability to lock on to the replies to you and ignore anyone else who comes up on the frequency.

Another problem is that ROS is still a mode without a home, and at 2.2KHz wide it needs quite a big home and no-one seems to want to make it welcome. There have already been complaints that by settling on 14.101MHz it is disrupting a long established packet network, and while I’m typing this someone seems to be jamming the 40m frequency 7.053MHz with some sort of digital idle signal.

As I said in an earlier post, the issues involved in releasing something like this to the ham populace at large haven’t been thought through. Perhaps there needs to be an overseeing body like the IARU that decrees what modes can be used and where, so there can be no arguments. It’s a pity that the use of a mode with such promise is being thwarted by so many difficulties, but practical reality often stops you doing what you want to do and ham radio is not immune to this.

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

I got fed up rather quickly with the new digital mode ROS. On 20m it is a zoo, with everyone calling on top of everyone else and very little being worked. I tried it on the advertised frequency on 10m and got nothing, despite the fact that DX is being heard via WSPR on that band.

What this proves, I think, is that it isn’t enough to be clever enough to come up with a new super duper digital mode. That might be fine if you keep it between you and your fellow experimenters. But if you release it to the masses you need to have a plan for how it will be used given the expected number of users and how you will educate people on how to use it.

If you develop a weak signal mode you have to take account of the fact that a lot of people don’t have a QRP mentality. They can’t see the point in trying to make a contact with low power when they can simply crank the power up. And if they do that, they miss the whole point of the mode and ruin it for everyone else. If a mode cannot be used on a particular band for its intended purpose because of overcrowding or interference perhaps it would be best if it was not used at all.

Instead I decided to use my FT-817 lash-up to try the APRS Messenger APRS-over-PSK63 software instead. Whilst doing that I noticed on the waterfall a strange signal almost spot on the 10.149.70 frequency used for APRS over PSK63. It looks like an upside down three pronged fork but comes in two sizes, one wide and one narrow. It starts sounding like a single tone, and then widens to a chord of three distinct tones. But what is it, why is it on that frequency, and are my PSK63 beacons interfering with it?

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

Many people have blogged about their activities over the weekend during the ARRL DX CW contest. I had planned to spend some time making some Stateside contacts, to see how many different states I could work and perhaps make enough contacts to be worth submitting an entry, even though I had no intention to win anything. Alas it was not to be. After just over an hour on Saturday afternoon, during which I had made 17 contacts on 15m, Olga learned that her sister in Ukraine was in intensive care in hospital. It would have been inappropriate to carry on making contacts on the radio, even if I had still felt like it after receiving that news. So that was the end of my participation in the ARRL contest.

Olga felt she would have to go urgently to Ukraine to see her sister, which made me depressed and anxious. Kharkov isn’t the easiest place to get to from here, even without snow both here and there making the journey more difficult. However on Sunday Olga received some better news about her sister, including the advice that there was little she could do if she went now and it would be better to wait until she was out of hospital before visiting. I’m still depressed at the thought of being without my wife and soulmate for a bit, but at least I will have more time to get used to the idea before it happens.

My interest in the contest didn’t recover after this, but I did read about a couple of new pieces of digital radio software which I tried out and wrote about yesterday. Both of these programs are very interesting, and I think I shall have more to say about them in the near future.

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