wrote in
:

Correct me if I am wrong but I hear (2006) on the Science TV channel
that the Canadian Icebreakers operating in the Arctic are keeping the
Morse code communication system as a back up.



If you guys want to see something really amazing, go download WinWarbler
for free from:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
Simply install it as any other Windows program.

Too bad these Icebreakers aren't allowed to use this mode....which is
BETTER, a LOT BETTER, than Morse in the noise!

Run a plug from the headphone jack on your SSB receiver to the Line In on
your computer soundcard so the computer can hear the tones. Winwarbler
uses the computer to filter and decode. There's no "boxes" to buy that
ham radio simply adores for most modes.

Boot WinWarbler and you'll see the "waterfall" display, a moving audio
spectrum display from 300 to 3000 Hz, the audio frequencies coming out of
your receiver.

Tune your receiver to 14.070 Mhz, USB, and you'll hear some very faint
tones that "warble" in a very narrow (31 Hz or 63 Hz) frequency shift
keying. They'll create little dual "tracks" down the waterfall display.

Click on one of the 3 WinWarbler "channels" 0, 1 or 2 to select it. A
matching color cursor for each of them will show on the waterfall
display. The one selected is the one you'll move to a station. Point
your mouse pointer to the middle of the little track of a transmitting
station. Click the mouse and Winwarbler will move that channel's decoder
to that audio frequency of that station. Notice how that channel starts
decoding immediately what the guy is sending in PSK31 or PSK63. PSK
stands for phase shift keying. Click on another channel and point it at
another different station whos frequency is different across the display.
Do the same to a third. Your computer is now decoding 3 ham radio PSK
conversations at once. PSK stations stay within 3Khz of 14.070 Mhz just
for that reason...the bandwidth of the SSB radios used for PSK
transmitters.

Now, click a channel onto a station you can only faintly make out has
some kind of nearly in-the-noise signal, even if you can't hear it in the
speaker. It will make a faint trace on the waterfall display. Watch
PSK's greatest triumph in action...the ability to copy this mode on a
station you simply cannot hear! PSK stations, by agreement to keep one
station from saturating everyone's SSB receiver AGC, only run about 10-20
watts....on the other side of the Planet!

It is uncanny how well this ham-radio-invented comm mode works for
keyboard to keyboard comms. There are several of our beloved "boxes"
made to "interface" your computer to the transmitter and key it when you
press the TX button to go into transmit mode. Save yourself money. You
don't need a "box" at all. Make a simple attenuator cable to connect
AUDIO OUT of the soundcard to MIC IN or sometimes called DATA IN on the
transceiver. The cable has the computer and radio plugs ground shields
connected together and to one end of a 10K potentiometer (any value from
1K to 50K is fine). Audio from the computer hooks to the other end of
the pot from the shield. Audio to the mic or data jack on the radio
hooks to the center wiper arm of the pot so we can have a "volume
control" to keep the computer audio from distorting the first audio amp
in the radio. Once transmitting the tone from the computer, just turn
the pot up barely enough to make 10-20 watts of RF output from the keyed
radio. If it's a marine radio, put a switch in PTT to ground and key it
manually. If it's a ham radio, it has a VOX for automatic voice
transmit. Set VOX delay to zero and VOX sensitivity high enough so the
attenuated tone your feeding it automatically keys the transmitter when
you click TX on WinWarbler and stops transmitting when you click it back
into receive. No $100 "box" is necessary at all.

PSK is an amazing digital mode on ham radio. It occupies LESS bandwidth
than 10 wpm of Morse Code....always thrown up in our faces as the reason
to keep digital modes off the HF Morse Code bands by ARRL CW lovers.
PSK31 uses only 31 Hz of bandwidth...the reason the computer can sort out
one very faint station out of all those other warbles you hear....(c;

Er, ah, once the novelty wears off, or the wife starts bitching about the
tones, you'll want to turn off the speakers so you can't hear PSK31,
which will drive most humans insane in a couple of hours....(c;

Larry W4CSC and other fine old calls from way back.