After several years, the main digital mode still appears to be PSK31, especially on the higher bands. When a new mode comes out, some of us will test it and if it doesn't have some superior feature, may not use it that much. A good example is MT-63 which seemed fairly popular when it first came out, but has not been used that much as of late.
Although Olivia is robust under some conditions, this is usually in the wider modes. The AWGN sensitivity is comparable to PSK31 but on bands close to the MUF, it may not be needed for casual QSO's. The fastest common speed is just under 40 wpm at the 16 tone/1000 Hz bandwidth, which is close to PSK31 but most other tone/BW's are much slower, typically under 30 wpm and even under 20 wpm in some cases. The 4/500 speed gets the the baud rate up to 125 which may be a bit too fast for many HF conditions. The mode that currently seems quite good to me is DominoEX, particularly with FEC. Even with moderate static crashes on my last Tuesday's test schedule, it would print solidly when I know other modes would have had problems. It may not perform so well when we try it during the more severe conditions on the lower bands during the summer, but it will be interesting to see. DEX has considerable tuning tolerance unlike MFSK16 which formerly was my favorite mode. MT-63 was exceptionally bad the other night under that condition of NVIS+ground wave (35 miles) with moderate power and modest antennas on 160 meters. ALE is so very wide, that I am not able to use it this afternoon due to the RTTY contest. At times there are three stations on RTTY in the 2000 Hz bandwidth of the mode. This does rather limit its use at times. I think we would all be interested in hearing of the experiences of other digital hams and how they rate the old and new modes. 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: >I received a Skype call from a ham asking me the very same question I >was thinking last week...what has happened to Olivia? Last year I >would say it was behind only PSK31, Pactor and RTTY in terms of >frequent actvity for digital modes. Now I think it is not as commond >as MFK16, Hell, and ALE. What gives ? > > > > >
