Just to clarify my original point... I'm looking to establish a suggested calling frequency for ALL digital modes except CW, PSK31, RTTY, SSTV , PACTOR , and ALE(data ALE).
My suggestion is that members of this list utilize a common frequency to call CQ and/or use attended beacon features within their digital software. This would be for Olivia, Dominio EX, Throb, PSK63/125 , , MT63 ,Hell CHIP, MFSK16/8, PAX/PAX2 , THROB, experimental AX25. The idea is simply to make it easier to find stations to work rather than trawling the bands in 300-500 Hz ranges looking for potential signals. My experience suggest that even on good propagation days, say on 20M, the amount of simultaneous QSOs in the aforementioned modes rarely exceeds 3-5 . When it is at the 5 level, it is often 2-3 Olivia stations, maybe 1 MFSK16 and one Hell. I will argue that MOST of the time it is less than three simultaneous QSOs . Sometimes NO signals at all. Thus, the amount of interest in the "exotic digital modes " is at such a level that we would benefit from clustering, and our use of a calling/beacon frequency would not likely clutter up the portion of the band. If we established 4 beacon frequencies (80,40,30, and 20M) you could easily monitor the bands via scan features in the radio . Again, the idea would be just to "meet" on the calling frequency and move further up/down the band for extended conversation. I am NOT suggesting a different calling frequency for each mode. 20 M seems like the easies band to establish a data frequency that allows worldwide participation. The others are more complex due to varying regional bandplans. I will read the feedback I have received so far and suggest some frequencies to try this weekend.
