PSK31, RTTY and a New Generation of Operators
Rick Borken KØXB
Lake Vermilion
Saint Louis County, Minnesota
køxb@arrl.net
A few months ago, I wrote a short article about how much fun I
had working QRP CW this past winter from our temporary home in
New Mexico. In the middle of the Minnesota QSO Party, I contacted
stations in Africa and Asia using only 5 Watts, and I was amazed
it was possible using a very simple setup. Making contacts with
ham operators many thousands of miles away using only a few
watts, battery power and a simple antenna brought a whole new
dimension to our wonderful hobby. By the time we left for home I
had worked 40 countries in all continents.
The ARRL began a new award program recently to encourage QRP DX
operation. You can earn a special DXCC certificate for working
100 countries on QRP (5 Watts or less). I thought that would look
good on my wall, so I continued running no more than 5 Watts once
we returned home. I had 100 countries in the log in less than a
month, and my QRPDXCC certificate is now on a prominent place on
my wall. The QRPDXCC award is separate from and does not count as
part of the traditional DXCC program, but I think it's a great
addition.
The portable rig I took with me last year operated only on CW and
was pretty basic, and I needed both excellent propagation
conditions, luck and (in my humble opinion) some degree of skill
as a CW operator to be successful. I limited myself to CW,
because I felt that would be the most efficient mode at low power
levels. But with more advanced equipment the opportunity for
low-power ham radio operation expands enormously.
I'm sure that many of you know by now about PSK31, MFSK or one of
the other new digital modes. If you haven't had a chance to make
a contact using one of these modes, you may have seen them
demonstrated or at least heard about them. Using a computer, a
conventional SSB HF transceiver, special software and a sound
card, the system encodes and decodes information typed on a
keyboard. Sophisticated error-correcting techniques are used in
the software to achieve a very high level of accurate
communication. Often, you can achieve perfect accuracy with
signals you can barely hear. Five Watts works well in good
conditions, and even in poor conditions required power levels for
near-100% accuracy seldom exceed 25 Watts.
The hardware configuration is straightforward. You connect the
soundcard output to the radio's microphone input, and you connect
the radio's speaker output to the soundcard input. You have to be
concerned about maintaining safe voltage levels, a stable
push-to-talk control, avoiding hum and feedback, etc, so it's a
bit tricky to get it all to work correctly, but there are several
devices available commercially which can help with these details.
Or you can build an interface unit yourself. Many software
packages for each of the new modes are available for download on
the Internet, and some of the best (in my opinion) are free!
Software is available for CW and RTTY as well. I have yet to see
CW software that works well, but the RTTY programs do an
excellent job.
Once you have everything set up and operating on one mode such as
PSK31, the magic is you only need to change software in order to
operate a different mode. The hardware configuration is exactly
the same. It's literally a push of the button to change modes.
I operate RTTY a lot, and it's interesting that there is now a
new generation of ham operators worldwide who have begun using,
say, PSK31 but have moved over to RTTY. They've gotten used to
running their stations at or below the 25-Watt level however. In
the past, most RTTY stations ran several-100's of Watts to work
DX, but apparently no one ever told the new guys that higher
power was needed. I can find stations like this from western and
eastern Europe on the RTTY portion of the bands almost every day.
As soon as they tell me their power level is around 25 Watts, I
know I'm talking to a member of this new generation, and I make a
special effort to welcome them. I hope you'll do the same.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.