Re: [digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-17 Thread Tony

Hello Skip,

On 4/16/2010 4:24 AM, KH6TY wrote:


Hi Tony,

The aircraft reflections are usually recognizable.


They certainly are - especially at UHF.

You can hear the pulsations in the background noise change in rate as 
the airplane flies around and sometimes even see the frequency shift 
on the waterfall,


SBSpectrum (Peter Martinez) can reveal the inaudible Doppler shifts as 
well. I suspect the weaker, underlying Doppler you can't hear can cause 
interference with certain modes.


 Since Contestia and Olivia keep printing after the transmission has 
ceased, I suspect that the interleaving and redundancy is carrying 
enough data over the peaks and valleys that we hear to produce perfect 
print, but I am no theorist on this, for sure!



Seems like a reasonable analogy Skip.

It would be interesting to see these effects Skip. Feel free to send a 
few screen-shots.


Thanks,

Tony -K2MO




   



Tony wrote:


FWIW, PSK125R does not survive the Doppler disturbances on UHF. 
Olivia or Contestia does. Therefore, the mode we have found works 
best under the severe conditions of multipath, Doppler shift, 
Doppler spread, and very weak signals is Contestia 16-500 at 30 wpm. 
the minimum S/N is -12 dB, which is essential for weak signal UHF 
and VHF digital operation as every dB of S/N we can get is important 
for weak signal work.


73 - Skip KH6TY
   


Skip,

Thanks for the info. The path simulator results seem to agree with 
your observations on the high bands. I bet you have a fair share of 
problems with aircraft Doppler? I've noticed multiple 
reflections from multiple aircraft while monitoring VHF beacons. 
Spectrum analysis reveals how great those Doppler shifts can be; the 
mixing of 2 or 3 multipath signals can play havoc with throughput. .


While it's not quite the same, we didn't get a chance to test on HF 
today. Andy tried his best to accomodate (always there for us Andy), 
but conditions weren't good between us on 80 meters. Tomorrows 
another day.


Thanks again.

Tony -K2MO






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Re: [digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-16 Thread Tony



FWIW, PSK125R does not survive the Doppler disturbances on UHF. Olivia 
or Contestia does. Therefore, the mode we have found works best under 
the severe conditions of multipath, Doppler shift, Doppler spread, and 
very weak signals is Contestia 16-500 at 30 wpm. the minimum S/N is 
-12 dB, which is essential for weak signal UHF and VHF digital 
operation as every dB of S/N we can get is important for weak signal work.


73 - Skip KH6TY
   


Skip,

Thanks for the info. The path simulator results seem to agree with your 
observations on the high bands. I bet you have a fair share of 
problems with aircraft Doppler? I've noticed multiple reflections from 
multiple aircraft while monitoring VHF beacons. Spectrum analysis 
reveals how great those Doppler shifts can be; the mixing of 2 or 3 
multipath signals can play havoc with throughput. .


While it's not quite the same, we didn't get a chance to test on HF 
today. Andy tried his best to accomodate (always there for us Andy), but 
conditions weren't good between us on 80 meters. Tomorrows another day.


Thanks again.

Tony -K2MO


   



Tony wrote:


All,

I'll be QRV for digital mode testing this evening after 2200z (April 15)
till 0500z (April 16).

QRG 14108 / 3588 (+ / - QRM).

Modes of interest:

1. MFSK32 (Fldigi)
2. PSK250R (Fldigi)
3. MT63 1K (Fldigi)

I've created a test transmission that will send each mode in sequence
starting with MFSK32 and ending with MT63 1K (long iterleave). RS-ID
will be used to facilitate automated band switching. Fldigi needs to be
configured to do this:

Click CONFIGURE  IDs and UNCHECK RECEPTION DISABLES DETECTOR. This will
enable automatic band switching upon the reception of RS-ID. The RX-ID
located in the upper right corner of Fldigi's main window must be
checked (green light).

See you on Andy's sked page http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/ 
http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/


Thanks,

Tony -K2MO





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Re: [digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-16 Thread KH6TY

Hi Tony,

The aircraft reflections are usually recognizable. You can hear the 
pulsations in the background noise change in rate as the airplane flies 
around and sometimes even see the frequency shift on the waterfall, but 
the big problem is that there is an almost constant, often fast, shift 
in frequency on UHF that causes the phone signal voice pitch to change 
in frequency so much and so fast that it is chopped up. That seems to 
be most prevalent when trying to cross several levels of propagation 
enhancement and signal are stronger due to the enhancement, but also 
when no enhancement is evident at all on the Hepburn maps 
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html, and signals are weaker. If both 
stations are within the same level of enhancement, there is usually no 
problem, even if both signals are weak. Since Contestia and Olivia keep 
printing after the transmission has ceased, I suspect that the 
interleaving and redundancy is carrying enough data over the peaks and 
valleys that we hear to produce perfect print, but I am no theorist on 
this, for sure!


In the case of PSK125R, you can see the carriers severely shifted in 
frequency on the waterfall and becoming jagged lines instead of straight 
ones. Decoding is perhaps 10% compared to Olivia and Contestia which 
will generally be 95% to 100% under the same conditions, depending upon 
the S/N. A CW note at the same time sounds like a buzz saw instead of 
a note. Even the very  narrow Contestia or Olivia modes often fail, so 
we have found that 16-500 is the best compromise between sensitivity, 
speed, and bandwidth on UHF. Olivia or Contestia 8-250 theoretically 
should be 1 dB more sensitive, but usually have more errors than 16-500 
when signals are near the noise threshold. The wider PSK250R and PSK500R 
modes, even though wider, are not usable because they require a greater S/N.


We have been looking for a mode that will provide 24/7 coverage of our 
state (over a 120 mile radius) with reasonable antenna gains (14 dBi) 
and power (100 watts). HF does not do it because propagation changes 
over the course of 24 hours, 6M propagation is always very spotty, and 
often propagation, when there is no enhancement on 2M, is worse than on 
70cm, so we are fortunate to find that Olivia and Contestia work well 
enough on 70cm to do the job.


73 - Skip KH6TY




Tony wrote:
 

 

FWIW, PSK125R does not survive the Doppler disturbances on UHF. 
Olivia or Contestia does. Therefore, the mode we have found works 
best under the severe conditions of multipath, Doppler shift, Doppler 
spread, and very weak signals is Contestia 16-500 at 30 wpm. the 
minimum S/N is -12 dB, which is essential for weak signal UHF and VHF 
digital operation as every dB of S/N we can get is important for weak 
signal work.


73 - Skip KH6TY
  


Skip,

Thanks for the info. The path simulator results seem to agree with 
your observations on the high bands. I bet you have a fair share of 
problems with aircraft Doppler? I've noticed multiple reflections from 
multiple aircraft while monitoring VHF beacons. Spectrum analysis 
reveals how great those Doppler shifts can be; the mixing of 2 or 3 
multipath signals can play havoc with throughput. .


While it's not quite the same, we didn't get a chance to test on HF 
today. Andy tried his best to accomodate (always there for us Andy), 
but conditions weren't good between us on 80 meters. Tomorrows another 
day.


Thanks again.

Tony -K2MO





[digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-15 Thread Tony
All,

I'll be QRV for digital mode testing this evening after 2200z (April 15) 
till 0500z (April 16).

QRG 14108 / 3588 (+ / - QRM).

Modes of interest:

1. MFSK32 (Fldigi)
2. PSK250R (Fldigi)
3. MT63 1K (Fldigi)

I've created a test transmission that will send each mode in sequence 
starting with MFSK32 and ending with MT63 1K (long iterleave). RS-ID 
will be used to facilitate automated band switching. Fldigi needs to be 
configured to do this:

Click CONFIGURE  IDs and UNCHECK RECEPTION DISABLES DETECTOR. This will 
enable automatic band switching upon the reception of RS-ID. The RX-ID 
located in the upper right corner of Fldigi's main window must be 
checked (green light).

See you on Andy's sked page http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/

Thanks,

Tony -K2MO


Re: [digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-15 Thread Andy obrien
I will be there too.

Andy K3UK



On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 3:46 PM, Tony d...@optonline.net wrote:



 All,

 I'll be QRV for digital mode testing this evening after 2200z (April 15)
 till 0500z (April 16).

 QRG 14108 / 3588 (+ / - QRM).

 Modes of interest:

 1. MFSK32 (Fldigi)
 2. PSK250R (Fldigi)
 3. MT63 1K (Fldigi)



Re: [digitalradio] Digital Mode tests this evening - FLDIGI

2010-04-15 Thread KH6TY
FWIW, PSK125R does not survive the Doppler disturbances on UHF. Olivia 
or Contestia does. Therefore, the mode we have found works best under 
the severe conditions of multipath, Doppler shift, Doppler spread, and 
very weak signals is Contestia 16-500 at 30 wpm. the minimum S/N is -12 
dB, which is essential for weak signal UHF and VHF digital operation as 
every dB of S/N we can get is important for weak signal work.


73 - Skip KH6TY




Tony wrote:
 


All,

I'll be QRV for digital mode testing this evening after 2200z (April 15)
till 0500z (April 16).

QRG 14108 / 3588 (+ / - QRM).

Modes of interest:

1. MFSK32 (Fldigi)
2. PSK250R (Fldigi)
3. MT63 1K (Fldigi)

I've created a test transmission that will send each mode in sequence
starting with MFSK32 and ending with MT63 1K (long iterleave). RS-ID
will be used to facilitate automated band switching. Fldigi needs to be
configured to do this:

Click CONFIGURE  IDs and UNCHECK RECEPTION DISABLES DETECTOR. This will
enable automatic band switching upon the reception of RS-ID. The RX-ID
located in the upper right corner of Fldigi's main window must be
checked (green light).

See you on Andy's sked page http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/ 
http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/


Thanks,

Tony -K2MO