I have tried PSK31 at Field Day and found it to be very poor for a "contesting" mode. PSK63 is faster, but it is also even less sensitive than PSK31. A while back, I tried PSK63 recently as a comparison to PSK31 and it performed very poorly and we were forced to chose other modes, e.g., MFSK16. Now I would recommend FAE 400, but it only became available in the past few months. This would be for just casual contacts, not for contesting.
When RTTY is done by highly competitive stations, they may be using dedicated hardware along with higher end rigs that operate in FSK mode. Even though AFSK, if set up properly, will appear the same on the receiving end, the FSK operators tend to have optimized rigs, often with special built-in filters that allow RTTY to work under some really difficult conditions that may be impossible with PSK modes. Some rigs even have special RTTY filters that are optimized for 170 Hz shift with a dual bump shape factor. I have a few friends who are avid RTTY and digital experimenters and as recent as a week ago happened to discuss this very subject with a retired MD/EE who likes to play with this stuff and he admits that in most cases you will find a significant edge when operating FSK with these optimized modes compared to using AFSK with a sound card. Here is the bottom line. As stations try PSK63 or any other mode in a contest, they will quickly learn whether or not the mode is going to outperform "old fashioned" RTTY. If it can, they will move toward these newer modes. But truthfully, it does not look good for the new modes, other than the benefit to other hams to have narrower contesting modes which take up less space. What has been happening with the Contestia and RTTY-M modes that were specifically designed for contesting? There does not seem to be much momentum in their direction. 73, Rick, KV9U Barry Murrell wrote: > > I tried some PSK63 yesterday, and I am not impressed! I am an avid > RTTY contester, and in my opinion PSK63 will NEVER replace RTTY! > > Bear in mind that I am WAY south of the majority of the stations, so > all signals are relatively weak compared to EU/NA stations. I have > very little difficulty working weak stations on RTTY, with a fairly > simple station. I run a Kenwood TS-870S with TL-922 amplifier, running > 400W (max legal power here in ZS-land) into a Cushcraft A3S up at > about 9m (wire dipole on 40 at about same height). I run FSK RTTY, > using either a 500Hz or 250Hz filter, depending on situations. > > With PSK63, signals were WAY down. It does not handle QSB very well at > all, and the slightest QRM knocks it out altogether. Nowhere near as > robust as RTTY, and it seems as if people tend to run low power with > PSK63 – heard a few RTTY signals around as well yesterday, and they > were MUCH stronger than the PSK63 stations! Only heard 3 US stations > on 20m PSK63 (W9HLY, K7RE and N1DQ) – nothing heard at all on either > 40 or 20. The two Moroccan stations – CN8KD and CN8YZ – were by far > the strongest stations heard. In general the EU stations were quite weak. > > PSK63 might be OK when signals are strong and solid, but it doesn’t > cut it when you are a distance away from the mainstream path. Not even > a patch on RTTY!!! > > My opinion, based on experiences yesterday! > > 73 de Barry Murrell ZS2EZ > (EX ZR2DX / ZR6DXB) > KF26TA - Port Elizabeth,South Africa > Member : PEARS, SARL, ARRL, SA AMSAT > Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Page at http://www.obriensweb.com/drsked/drsked.php Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
