I suspect the answers to advantages/disadvantages of Olivia vs MFSK16 would explain why there are so many modes available.
What's "best" depends on what it's needed to do. How crowded is the band? Are you looking for keyboard-to-keyboard? Do you operate when band conditions are unstable? During thunderstorms? What power level? Is ability to capture transmissions while unattended important? Do you need upper-case-only, mixed-case, or 8-bit clean transmission? How stable are the transmitter/receiver being used? How important is speed? Olivia is (quite literally) what you get when you cross MFSK and MT-63. Pawel put the Walsh FEC into an MFSK environment, added data scrambling to make it possible to "hunt" for the signal, and (what seems to have created more problems than benefits) the ability to choose the parameters. The default mode for the original Olivia program (1000/32) is quite slow. It's also quite immune to about anything you can throw at it as far as fading, interference, etc. For most ham applications, it may be too much of a good thing. But moving from 1000/32 down to 1000/16 helps quite a bit on speed without losing too much in the way of robustness. Several folks are having good QSO's on 40 meters with narrower bandwidths. For me, I do a lot more listening than talking. For actually sitting down at the rig and looking around for signals, MFSK is fine - it isn't that bad to tune, but it *does* require operator intervention to make it work. Olivia is better for just sitting in the shack with the rig running while doing other things. Final note - I'm still working on an ARQ wrapper to put around MT-63, but the biggest difficulty is finding time. I'm sure a lot of you on the list know all about that one... 73, Paul / K9PS Andrew J. O'Brien wrote: > First, I have not used MFSK lately. However the FEC add-on to this via > Olivia seems to make it better in very weak conditions, seems to handle > QSB better than plain MFSK. I also found early MFSK16 application a > tad harder to lock on to that I would like , Olivia is very easy. > Perhaps MFSk16 is easier to tune these days. > > Andy K3UK > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Rick Williams <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <snip> > Andy (and anyone else of course), > > What do you see as the advantages of Olivia compared to MFSK16, > which thus far, I have found to be the best medium wide > bandwidth keyboard mode? > > On another note, I have tried the MultiPSK program recently and > although it is not a finessed program, due to the extreme clutter > design, the program does seem to work well. > > I was visiting a friend who is a digital guy like me for decades, > and he felt that no other program can decode CW as well. Being the > skeptic that I am, I tried it and he appears to be correct. It > really does work amazingly well in being able to read even fairly > difficult fists. Similar to the way a human interpolates the poor > timing of some opearators. > > On still another note, I keep hoping for development of sound card > ARQ modes for serious messaging use that can operate cross platform > if possible to reach the necessary critical mass of hams. > > 73, > > Rick, KV9U ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> The K3UK DIGITAL MODES SPOTTING CLUSTER AT telnet://208.15.25.196/ More info at http:///www.obriensweb.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> 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/
