Hi John, Amtor was never that good. If you recall, it would start allowing erroneous data through when signals become weak enough. And when that happened, the signals were of what we would today call reasonably good signal strength for PSK31, MFSK16, etc.
Pactor was much better. I did not have similar problems with bad data. Clover II would not allow bad data to go through but it did not work that well into the noise either and was a huge disappointment to me as I liquidated all my equipment to buy the HAL P-38 card that was supposed to also do Pactor, which it never could work properly. Pactor II and Pactor III are claimed to be much better than Pactor, however, like most digital hams, I won't ever be using them so it is a moot point. If Winmor can work reasonably close to the expectations of the developer, it should perform as well as or even better than Pactor II, but it may need a wider footprint for similar speed. Unlike Pactor modes, Winmor will have three different bandwidth modes. It will be very interesting to see how they perform. It is not expected to reach the top speeds of Pactor III, but then again, how often does P3 reach the higher speeds via its wide bandwidth and more complex constellation? Not very often from what observers have seen. It is often operating at Speed Levels several steps down from the top level due to band conditions. We don't know if there will be a peer to peer mode. If there is none, then it will primarily find limited use for e-mail. I know some think this is the most important thing to have. In my area, it would get rather infrequent use, but a connected mode, or better yet, a BBS system that could tie a group together would be the most useful. Unlike packet, it should be much more sensitive with weak signals and allow stations to connect, that currently can not when they use simplex phone. With a BBS it could also time shift so that more radio amateurs could participate since you would not be beholden to a specific net time. In my Section, they actually have hams promoting the sending of e-mail to a central server as somehow participating in a net operation. And you don't even have to use RF, just use the internet! We need to completely turn around this kind of approach and move to a robust method of connecting hams through HF and VHF. Imagine using a multimode/multiband transceiver, as many now have, to one simple interface and laptop and work with one basic system across HF and VHF. 73, Rick, KV9U John Becker, WØJAB wrote: > Rick > Correct me if I'm wrong. But reading between the lines of you post > on this subject I feel you are saying - > > don't hold you breath for a sound card mode that will replace the > ARQ modes such as Pactor or Amtor. > > > John, W0JAB > > >
