Ah heck! And here I thought CW was the granddaddy of digital.

Lynn


I have some old friends, even friends who operated CW on subs in WW2,
who've just become enthralled with PSK31 digital mode. If your
transceiver
has VOX, you don't even need any interface box expense. A 10K pot to
control drive from the soundcard to the mic jack is plenty. Hookup is
almost too easy.

I use Winwarbler, which can copy three simultaneous stations on slightly
different frequencies. PSK is SUPERIOR to the finest CW station. It will
copy a DX PSK station so far into the noise you can't even tell there are
tones in the noise, much less copy Morse from it if he were sending in
Morse. PSK stations, to reduce interference in the 3Khz bandwidth the
gentlemen's agreement puts them on at 14.070, usually use only 10 or 20
watts of power, even on the other side of the planet. It's uncanny that a
cheap little soundcard can pull those tones out of the noise with such
accuracy.

Ham radio hasn't done much "inventing" in the past 30 years, but PSK is a
ham radio invention that should be enjoyed by all. Tune your HF to 14.070
SSB and listen for tiny warbling tones. Plug the headphone jack into the
LINE IN on your computer and run the Winwarbler software you get from:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/
Point your mouse at any little trace in the waterfall display and click on
it. Winwarbler starts decoding instantly in the current window. Click
the
next window and pick another signal trace. It's that easy...(c;
Instructions for use and installation are on the webpage. Simply amazing
mode of RTTY comms between stations, with the simplest of equipment. Pick
a trace you can hardly make out in the display and click on it...watch it
type...(c;

--
Larry

Larry, thanks, I've always wanted a simple way to look at PSK31, and
have read a little. Your explanation of how to get started sounds like
something even I can do. I do have a couple of pretty hot computer's that I
assembled and run right here next to a fairly good HF receiver. I'm going to
give it a listen. Unfortunately, transceiver is not something in the
inventory, but have been lurking for a good deal on a used.
Low power works, no doubt with advanced forms of digital, better than
we ever did with CW, but you know 10 or 15 watts into a 6V6 or 6L6 worked
the world every winter on 40. Friends (not me) copied down in the dirt and
heterodyne jungle. The human ear and brain are darned near as sharp as the
digital processing developments used in the later "automatic" Loran C
receivers.
Stop Lynn, while you're still ahead.

Old Chief Lynn