I keep seeing the occasional message lamenting how poor the digital mode used in amateur ALE is. Most express dissatisfaction about how poor the digital modes used for establishing a link is under weak conditions. Some suggest that the issues are related to sound card inaccuracies. I have two related questions:
Has anyone tested the default digital mode in ALE scientifically? Compared it to Olivia, PSK31, DominioEX, MFSK16, etc etc, with correctly calibrated sound cards ? If the digital mode common to PC-ALE and Multipsk is that "poor" , is anyone working on a better option ? I think that everyone will surely agree that the concept of automatic link establishment is the best way to proceed for reliable amateur radio communications. By this I mean, what can be better than the use of periodic beacons (read "soundings" ) collected by your receiver and PC and then analyzed for the best likely frequency for that desired contact ? Similarly, the concept behind ALE allows for net call-out procedures that really assist emergency communication groups , like ARES. So, if the current digital mode used in HF ALE is not robust enough for low to moderate propagation conditions, what would be better? My limited understanding is that the common digital modes like Olivia and Dominoex do not have the characteristics suitable for detecting signal presence and pausing a radio in fast scan mode. Is there anything with the SNR capabilities of Olivia that one could theoretically implemented in to a new age ALE ? Andy K3UK
