Re: [digitalradio] Re: Good USB sound card ?

2010-08-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 08/14/2010 02:15 PM, g4ilo wrote:
 Well, that isn't my experience. Regardless of the chip set used, it's the 
 entire product including the drivers that will determine the performance.

 My suspicion is that these devices run at a fixed sampling rate, and that 
 resampling to the rate requested by the software is carried out by the 
 drivers.

Not an issue for me since I run Linux and fldigi.  The digital
mode program fldigi simply gets the audio off the device at one
of the native sampling rates of the device and does good quality
sample rate conversion internally.

I believe you if you have seen the Windows drivers for the device
do a terrible job of sample rate conversion. However, I'm not going
to experience that issue myself and am quite happy with the device
in my setup :)

 Personally I don't think it is worth economizing in this area.

That I can agree with.

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All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Good USB sound card ?

2010-08-14 Thread Rik van Riel
On 08/11/2010 04:04 PM, graham787 wrote:
 Looks like theRDX-150-EF  has been  dropped

 any ideas on a 'good'  usb card for  data  use ??

I'm having great luck with the Cmedia cm108 usb soundcard.

The Asterisk (VOIP) people have even written up instructions
on how to create a PTT circuit with this device.  However,
I am just using the radio's VOX mode for now :)

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Re: [digitalradio] Ros Use in US ( Urgent )

2010-08-14 Thread Rik van Riel
On 08/13/2010 07:08 PM, Andy obrien wrote:
 WE9XLQ us not a valid USA callsign

It may not be a ham callsign, but it is a valid callsign...


EXPERIMENTAL SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION

CLASS of Station XD FX

EMISSION Designator SK25J2D

Experition 3:00 AM EST Jan 31 2011.

Call Sign WE9XLQ

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Re: [digitalradio] World's nastiest PSK31 signal

2010-08-05 Thread Rik van Riel
On 08/03/2010 09:18 PM, Andy obrien wrote:
 On 10M tonight, from Mexico

 See attached, the image around 500 Hz is his MAIN signal with LOTS of
 side bars, and the image around 1700 Hz is also him !

He had the trifecta:

1) sidebars around his main signal

2) second and third harmonic of his audio frequency
visible on the waterfall (600, 1200  1800 Hz)

3) drifting just enough during and between transmissions
for fldigi to lose track trying to copy his signal

The only thing missing were background noises from his
shack.

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Re: [digitalradio] Re : testing confirms ROS,,,,,,,,,,,

2010-07-10 Thread Rik van Riel
On 07/10/2010 04:56 PM, raf3151019 wrote:
 Well, would you believe it ! So what happens now ?

The first person who warns the ROS users gets banned
for life from the ROS email list? :)

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Re: [digitalradio] source coding, Randomizing, outer FEC, Inner FEC, coding to symbol, modulation of symbol(s)

2010-06-06 Thread Rik van Riel
On 06/06/2010 10:48 AM, John Becker, WØJAB wrote:
 At 03:22 AM 6/6/2010, you wrote: (in part)
 In the end, systems like ROS, Clover, PACKTOR-XXX, etc, where there is not
 full published trasparency in the encoding process, are not suitable for
 legal amateur use, in my humble opinion.

 In other words, no one has the right to make money from their
 hard work and what could have been $$$ millions spent on research
 and development as would have been the case with Pactor 3. Or the
 right to protect it.

They can keep it secret all they want.

I just do not believe amateur operators should use
such protocols on the amateur bands.

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Re: [digitalradio] Bad sound card?

2010-06-06 Thread Rik van Riel
On 06/05/2010 03:24 PM, Jeremy Cowgar wrote:

 Do you have any ideas? It's just $10, but I'd really like to have a
 dedicated sound card for the ham stuff, and please do not suggest a
 Signalink as I already have a nice setup,

I know your problem - the sound card's too expensive :)

I got a Cmedia Cm108 USB soundcard for $7 and it seems
to do the trick here.  The sockets for the connectors
are not very good physically (I ended up soldering wires
directly to the circuit board) but the audio quality is
perfect for HF.

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Re: [digitalradio] ROS MODEM OFFICIAL GROUP

2010-06-03 Thread Rik van Riel
On 06/02/2010 12:15 PM, Steinar Aanesland wrote:

 let's forget about this Mr. Ros without manners and his new a Yahoo list.

 There is a lot of decent programmers out there, making excellent HAM
 software.  Mr. Ros is not worth the attention he and he's
 frequency-hopping spread spectrum software is getting.

Mr Ros has the right to:
- limit who uses his software
- keep the ROS protocol info secret
- limit who is allowed in his community

Of course, either of these three modes alone is a serious
deterrent to adoption of his modes by the ham radio community.

All three together are a death knell.

However, that is his choice.

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Re: [digitalradio] Re: ROS operating frequencies on 20m

2010-03-06 Thread Rik van Riel
On 03/04/2010 09:10 PM, pd4u_dares wrote:

 All wouldn't have happened if it was not claimed by some that ROS is illegaal 
 in the US. Since there is no official publication on this by the FCC, ROS is 
 neither legal nor illegal. So the first claim by some users of ROS was in 
 error. Jose's subsequent claiom too.

The FCC statement was quite clear: the responsibility of determining
whether or not ROS is allowed under the rules lies with each amateur
radio operator.

Claims made by Jose or others do not absolve amateur radio operators
of the responsibility of making that determination themselves.

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Re: [digitalradio] Re: ROS operating frequencies on 20m

2010-03-05 Thread Rik van Riel
On 03/04/2010 07:44 AM, g4ilo wrote:
 I thought you were in Region 2. I have the Region 2 band plan in front of me 
 right off the IARU site and it definitely says All Modes in all of the 
 sections right up to 14.350. I don't see any division at 14.150 at all. In 
 any case, I don't think you'd need to go as far even as 14.150 to find a 
 frequency that hasn't been designated for use by some other modes.

The US band plans are a little more restrictive than the
Region 2 plan.

I do not know why that was done, but it does give the
smaller countries some empty frequencies so it seems
to be beneficial overall.  The US probably has more
hams than the other Region 2 countries together.

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Re: [digitalradio] FCC on ROS post on ARRL website!

2010-03-04 Thread Rik van Riel
On 03/04/2010 02:02 PM, Alan wrote:
 http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/03/04/11377/?nc=1
 So we can forget about here in the US...too bad it looked really nice...73, 
 Alan

I don't read it like that.

The FCC just says that:
1) spread spectrum is not allowed on HF, and
2) The Commission does not determine if a particular mode
'truly' represents spread spectrum, and
3) The licensee of the station transmitting the emission is
responsible for determining that the operation of the
station complies with the rules.

Once Jose publishes a full specification for ROS (one that
is complete enough to create an interoperable alternative
implementation), US hams will be able to make the technical
determination that the FCC requires us to make.

Until then, there is no way to be sure whether or not ROS
is legal to use in the US.  We simply do not have enough
info to make the determination.

I expect that cautious US hams will avoid ROS until there
is certainty that ROS is in fact legal.

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Re: [digitalradio] Something to consider about external automatic antenna tuners

2010-02-24 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/22/2010 09:09 PM, Dave 'Doc' Corio wrote:

 However, there is one thing the tuner will NOT do. It will not remember
 any band or frequency, until the transmitter is keyed.
 For example: I operate CW on 14.035 for a period of time. I then have a
 CW sked on 18.075. After the sked I move back to 14.035. The tuner is
 still set for the last transmission, which was on 18.075. Until I
 transmit on 14.035 again, the signals are a bit attenuated, since the
 tuner is set for a different frequency.

I have noticed the same with my LDG AT-200 Pro.

The effect is especially pronounced when moving from a low
frequency to a high frequency, eg. having an 80m QSO and
then moving to 12m.

The attenuation can be quite significant and it may be
useful to transmit a short tone (a fraction of a second
is enough) to get your antenna tuned on that band.

Of course, after you do that, reception on the band will
be enhanced.

One reason that this effect is not seen with internal
tuners is that the tuner is only present in the transmit
path inside the radio - the tuner is never used for
receive.

With an external tuner, you may need to tickle it to get
better reception - but IMHO that is outweighed by the
potential of getting better reception.

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All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Re: Consensus? Is ROS Legal in US?`

2010-02-24 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/23/2010 06:14 PM, jose alberto nieto ros wrote:

 John, the only person in the world who know what is ROS is the person
 who have created it. And the creator say that ROS is a FSK of 144 tones
 with a Viterbi FEC Coder and a header of synchronization.

Last week, you said that ROS was spread spectrum :)

The FCC says that amateurs are responsible for judging
whether or not the mode they use is spread spectrum.

Until a technical specification of ROS is released, I
will not be able to make that judgement for myself.

I understand that you do not want to release the
technical specifications before the protocol is
finished and will wait patiently :)

-- 
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Re: [digitalradio] Consensus? Is ROS Legal in US?`

2010-02-23 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/23/2010 03:26 PM, ocypret wrote:
 So what's the consensus, is ROS legal in the US or not?

There's a few things we all agree on:

1) The legality of a mode depends on the technical details
of that mode, not on what the author calls the mode.

2) The FCC's lawyers are the definite authority.  K3UK has
sent a letter to the FCC to ask for clarification.
Once the FCC responds, we'll know for sure :)

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Consensus? Is ROS Legal in US?`

2010-02-23 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/23/2010 09:00 PM, KH6TY wrote:

 The distinguishing characteristic of spread spectrum is spreading by a
 code INDEPENDENT of the data. FM for example, creates carriers depending
 upon the audio frequency and amplitude. SSB creates carriers at a
 frequency dependent upon the tone frequency, and RTTY at a pair of set
 frequencirs depending upon the shift or the tones used to generate
 shift. In spread spectrum, as Jose has written, an independent code is
 used for the spreading, one of the requirements to classify it as spread
 spectrum.

One of the requirements - not the single determining
characteristic by any means.

 From a quick look through the fldigi source code,
MFSK and Olivia appear to use a pseudo-random code
as well, to provide robustness against narrow band
interference.

 From several places in src/include/jalocha/pj_mfsk.h

static const uint64_t ScramblingCode = 0xE257E6D0291574ECLL;

-- 
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Re: [digitalradio] Consensus? Is ROS Legal in US?`

2010-02-23 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/23/2010 10:22 PM, John B. Stephensen wrote:

 These modes use interleaving and randomize data values by
 exclusive-ORing with a pseudorandom binary sequence. The methods are
 used in most commerial products and the FCC and NSA know how to monitor
 the signals.

However, this does result in carrier placement also being
somewhat randomized.  Maybe not in exactly the same way
as true spread spectrum, since the carrier position is
still somewhat dependent on the data content.

On the other hand, from the ROS documentation it appears
that the carrier location in ROS is also still dependent
on data content (as well as a pseudo-random sequence).

Carrier location it ROS is, as far as I can tell (Jose will
know for sure), dependent on both the data being transmitted
and the pseudo-random sequence being used.

 The FCCs problem is that the military uses FHSS and DSSS to hide the
 existance and content of their transmissions thus preventing the
 monitoring that the FCC is required to do of amateur signals.

That could be a problem with ROS, as long as the protocol
specification is unknown.  However, once the protocol has
been finalized and the specification made public, monitoring
ROS communications will be easy.

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Consensus? Is ROS Legal in US?`

2010-02-23 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/23/2010 10:50 PM, John B. Stephensen wrote:
  
 The problem is that he said that ROS uses FHSS in the documentation. If
 the final version doesn't use FHSS, DSSS or any other form of SS and a
 technical specification is published the FCC will have no objection.

Oh, agreed. For the moment I will not be using ROS because
(1) I am not sure whether or not it is SS, (2) I cannot run
ROS on my computer (don't have Windows) and (3) the protocol
specification is not available.

I expect that once the protocol specification is available,
and it is clear that ROS is not spread spectrum, I will start
using it once there is a free implementation in eg. fldigi.

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] A closer look at ROS]

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 02:17 PM, w2xj wrote:

 Part 97 technical standards mostly harmonize US rules with ITU
 international treaties  They are written to be quite broad in order to
 permit experimentation. So long as the coding technique is public and
 can be received by anyone, the real restriction is based on allowable
 bandwidth and power allocated for a given frequency.

Speaking of coding technique, is there a detailed spec of
ROS available?   Say, one that would allow other developers
to implement ROS in their programs.

I saw the architecture paper on ROS, but have not found any
details on what coding is used under the hood, what the
pseudo-random sequence is, etc...

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] A closer look at ROS]

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 02:17 PM, w2xj wrote:
 I have spent the last hour looking through part 97. I find nothing that
 would prohibit ROS in the HF bands subject to adhering to those segments
 where the bandwidth is allowed.  In fact the rules would appear to
 support such operation:

Lets look at it in another way.  Part 97.3 is quite specific
about what modes are considered spread spectrum:

   (8) SS. Spread-spectrum emissions using bandwidth-expansion
   modulation emissions having designators with A, C, D, F,
   G, H, J or R as the first symbol; X as the second symbol;
   X as the third symbol.

ROS has no ITU designator marking it as spread spectrum.

Furthermore, from part 97.307 places this limitation on any
data mode transmitted in the HF bands:

   (2) No non-phone emission shall exceed the bandwidth of a
   communications quality phone emission of the same
   modulation type. The total bandwidth of an independent
   sideband emission (having B as the first symbol), or a
   multiplexed image and phone emission, shall not exceed
   that of a communications quality A3E emission.

ROS follows this rule.

In short, ROS has not been ruled to be a spread spectrum mode
by the FCC or the ITU, and fits within the bandwidth of a phone
communications signal on HF.

It also follows the common sense rule of not causing any harm
on the HF bands.  It really is not much different from the
other data modulations out there.  JT65, Throb and RTTY also
have empty space between carrier positions.

I would certainly try out ROS, if it weren't for the fact that
I don't have a Windows PC and ROS does not seem to run anywhere
else...

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] A closer look at ROS]

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 04:16 PM, KH6TY wrote:

 Did you see the recent post by K3DCW?

 The closest you get to a true definition in Part 97 is in section 97.3
 Definitions, Para C, line 8:

   /(8) SS/. Spread-spectrum emissions using bandwidth-expansion
   modulation emissions having designators with A, C, D, F, G, H, J
   or R as the first symbol; X as the second symbol; X as the third
   symbol.

 ROS uses SSB so the first designator is J (this meets the definition)
 and it uses bandwidth-expansion. (this meets that definition as well)
   Thus, taking this definition literally, it is indeed Spread Spectrum
 and is thus illegal below 222MHzat least that the conservative
 interpretation that I'll stick with until we get a ruling otherwise.

http://life.itu.ch/radioclub/rr/ap01.htm

If you look at the list there, it would appear that
ROS is J2D (under the SSB interpretation) or V2D.

Not AXX CXX DXX FXX GXX HXX JXX or RXX.

You can read the rules as strictly as you want and limit
your activities that way, but I believe some common sense
questions like does this mode take more bandwidth than
other modes? and does this mode cause more interference
than already allowed modes? will carry more weight than
the choice of a single word in the description of the
modulation.

Modes that jump around inside an SSB passband according
to a pseudo-random number sequence are already legal, and
in fairly widespread use, on the HF amateur bands.

Modes that send a data stream across multiple sub carriers
inside an SSB passband are already legal, and in widespread
use, on the HF amateur bands.

ROS is not doing anything different.

The only thing different is one single word in the creator's
description of the modulation.

If you want to limit your own activities on the HF bands,
feel free to give more importance to that single word
than to the technical details of the ROS modulation.

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Re: [digitalradio] No HF data/text bandwidth limit in USA Re: A closer look at ROS

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 04:48 PM, expeditionradio wrote:

 §97.305(c) is a chart of amateur radio bands
 and sub-bands. Each sub-band has a note,
 and the notes are listed in part §97.307.

 The Note # (2) only applies a soft bandwidth
 limit to non-phone emissions within the
 Phone,image sub-bands.

 Note # (2) does not apply to the CW/data/RTTY
 sub-bands.

Indeed, you are right.

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Re: [digitalradio] ROS Part 97

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 02:36 PM, athosj wrote:

 This is the way that an argument is conducted with real facts.

 If ROS is a SS can not be used in HF bands.

Furthermore, if you believe that ROS is spread spectrum,
you should probably also stop using any other modes with
the same technical characteristics.

This could include Olivia, Domino, JT65, MT63 and ALE,
depending on which characteristics you ascribe to ROS :)

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Re: [digitalradio] ROS, legal in USA? Letter to FCC

2010-02-21 Thread Rik van Riel
On 02/21/2010 11:31 AM, J. Moen wrote:

 But right now, I think that since Part 97 does not appear to define what
 SS is, it is not possible to definitively say whether ROS is legal or
 not legal in FCC jurisdictions. Asking FCC for an opinion is a great idea.

Of course, there is always the danger that the FCC might
accidentally make currently used modes like Olivia illegal,
depending on how the question was phrased :)

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Techs on HF digital

2009-12-25 Thread Rik van Riel
On 12/15/2009 12:55 PM, Gary wrote:
 I thought I'd run something up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes:

 I would imagine, the license limitations would have to state something like a 
 maximum of 300 baud and 500 Hz bandwidth with a 200 watt power limit.  There 
 may be other limitations that might be nice to toss into the mix but this is 
 a starting point for discussion.

IIRC the Tech license pool does not include all the questions about
RF safety, nor about use of the ALC, etc...

I believe the power limit and frequencies HF use by Tech licensed
amateurs should be low.  Maybe 10-20W power limit, in a few limited
frequency ranges (staying away from the most crowded bands).

I could see adding 30m digital privileges to Tech, maybe 80m too,
but 20, 40 and 15m already have too many people who don't know
their what their ALC readout means :)

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Re: [digitalradio] Re: An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-27 Thread Rik van Riel
aswoodhull wrote:

 It's not like the frequency is never available for other uses. The W1AW code 
 transmissions are on a regular schedule, at most 7 hours a day during 
 weekdays (6 hours on Monday, none at all on weekends and holidays). So if you 
 happen to be rock bound on this frequency you still have a lot of predictable 
 hours when you will not find W1AW there.

Unfortunately, those are also the hours where you won't find
propagation on 3580.  Or the middle of the night, when a working
ham will probably be asleep for good reasons...

I'm not going to dispute your other points, because I agree
with them :)

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Re: [digitalradio] Re: An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-24 Thread Rik van Riel
theophilusofgenoa wrote:
 I would like to put in a few words in defense of the ARRL.

They deserve it, IMHO.  It turns out that W1AW has been looking for
alternative 80m cw frequencies for a while now.  We just did not
know about it.

 I do question why this frequency was used as the primary PSK31 frequncy. 

In my opinion, the why isn't nearly as important as the fact that
we have a problem on the band nowadays.  The fixed frequency psk
kits have been built and cannot easily be changed to another
frequency.

Why is an interesting question to prevent future problems like
this, but we still need to find a solution for the current one.

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference (A dissent)

2009-09-22 Thread Rik van Riel
Cortland Richmond wrote:
 Sound card users' preference for bandwidth wide enough to receive fifty or
 more signals is what makes us vulnerable.   W1AW does NOT wipe out the 80m
 psk31 sub-band;  its CW signal occupies perhaps 50-100 Hz.  Use a narrow
 filter, and a front-end able to handle nearby strong signals, and the
 problem goes away.   Use PBT,even and put W1AW off the filter skirts. 

Here in southern New Hampshire, W1AW is S9+40.

Typical psk31 signals are anywhere between S2 and S8 here.

To get W1AW suppressed by 50dB means moving the filter far
enough away that only a small part of the psk sub band
remains.

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-22 Thread Rik van Riel
Charles Brabham wrote:

 There are no Considerate Operators associated with the ARRL, at least 
 not at ARRL HQ. - They apparently do not read and understand their own 
 publications.

W1AW has QSY'd before.  For example, their 160m frequency
was changed from 1817.5 to 1802.5 kHz earlier this year.

http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/2009-arlb012.html

That suggests the W1AW operators are a lot more considerate
than many people seem to assume.

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-22 Thread Rik van Riel
Rik van Riel wrote:
 Due to an unfortunate coincidence, W1AW's CW broadcasts pretty
 much wipe out the 80m psk31 sub-band for a significant fraction
 of the time. 

I have received a reply from W1AW, which I have posted
on my web page:

http://surriel.com/radio/w1aw-psk-interference#comment-240

It appears that some of the hostility against the ARRL may
be misplaced...

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[digitalradio] Re: [linuxham] An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-22 Thread Rik van Riel
Brian Lloyd wrote:

 1. Turn off your AGC and go with manual RF gain control. Most rigs
 have enough dynamic range to be able to deal with W1AW's signal at
 full gain without AGC so it would just be a really strong signal in
 the passband. With AGC off W1AW would not reduce the gain for the
 other stations you are trying to receive.

This is good advice in general, however W1AW is about S9+40
here, which makes it 50-60dB stronger than the psk31 signals
surrounding it.

Sound card dynamic range is a theoretical 96dB, but much
less in practice.  Probably closer to 70dB (optimistic).

To properly decode psk31 you want a S/N ratio of over 10dB,
so even switching off the AGC may not be enough due to sound
card limitations.

 3. If you don't have a narrower filter, offset tune the radio so that
 W1AW is off the edge of the filter. Fldigi provides rig control so if
 you have set that up, you can offset tune the rig but fldigi will
 still properly display the frequency in the waterfall and it will
 properly log the center frequency for your PSK31 QSO.

This is certainly doable, but due to the slope of the filters
in most radios, you will end up cutting off most psk signals
above 3581 kHz (or below 3582), so you can inspect slices of
1/3 of the psk subband.

 I have three different rigs I use for PSK (and other digital modes)
 and every one of them lets me work PSK in the presence of a strong
 signal.

It all depends on how strong :)

30-40dB difference is usually surmountable.  50-60dB
gets a lot harder due to sound card limitations.

-- 
All rights reversed.


[digitalradio] An open letter: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference

2009-09-21 Thread Rik van Riel
Due to an unfortunate coincidence, W1AW's CW broadcasts pretty
much wipe out the 80m psk31 sub-band for a significant fraction
of the time.  To try and address this, I have sent the following
open letter to W1AW at the ARRL, and also published it on my web
site:  http://surriel.com/radio/w1aw-psk-interference

 Original Message 
Subject: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:04:58 -0400
From: Rik van Riel
To: w1aw

To whom it may concern,

The W1AW broadcasts are a great tradition and a help to some
amateur radio operators, and do not seem to be in the way on
most of the amateur radio bands.

However, the W1AW CW broadcast on the 80 meter band, on 3581.5
kHz, is right in the middle of the psk31 sub band.  Needless to
say, a high power CW station pretty much wipes out the nearby
psk31 signals, which are typically transmitted at low power.

While strictly speaking it is legal to transmit CW anywhere
on the band (I will not go into the legality of broadcasting
on the ham bands), I believe we can agree that putting a strong
signal right in the middle of a band segment dedicated to lower
power operation is not what the ARRL's Considerate Operator's
Frequency Guide[1] would call considerate.

Because putting a high power CW broadcast in the middle of the psk31
sub band (which sees activity whenever there is propagation) is
guaranteed to cause interference to active operators, I hope you
would consider moving the W1AW CW broadcast to a frequency where
interference is merely a possibility and not a guaranteed issue.

The interference issue is especially severe due to the fact that
the W1AW transmissions are scheduled on an almost daily basis,
several times a day[2], wiping out the 80m psk31 subband for a
significant fraction of the time.

Since the W1AW CW broadcast is an automatically controlled
transmission, maybe it would be better in the band segment assigned
to automatically controlled data stations (3585-3590). Another good
choice could be 3579.5 kHz, which would put the W1AW broadcast
500 Hz below the psk31 segment, just like it is on the 17 and
15 meter bands.

kind regards,

Rik van Riel, AB1KW

[1] http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/conop.html
[2] http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#w1awsked


Re: [digitalradio] Olivia - Contestia Tone / Bandwidth Configuration

2009-08-08 Thread Rik van Riel
Patrick Lindecker wrote:

 As a thumb rule:
 For a same sub mode: Contestia has a double speed (+3 dB) but only 1.5 
 dB of loss in term of minimum S/N compared to Olivia. So it seems to be 
 a better compromise.

Assuming that the S/N is constant.  In practice the
S/N seems to vary wildly from second to second, with
all kinds of interference popping up and disappearing
again.

Does Contestia deal with those as well as Olivia does?

-- 
All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] NBEMS

2009-07-31 Thread Rik van Riel
Rodney wrote:
 
 
   NBEMS - Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System
 
 
 Is anyone familiar with this mode?  What type of equipment is needed?

I have another question along these lines.

How is it used?

How does the ham community coordinate what frequencies
are used for emergency messages?

Is anyone monitoring those frequencies?

Or is this just a new set of protocols on top of a few
digital modulations, without much of a use case yet?

Considering the availability of cheap single-band SDRs,
like softrock, I could see having some frequencies
reserved for NBEMS, and having a few stations in each
region monitoring those frequencies, etc...

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All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Question for the Linux gurus

2009-05-15 Thread Rik van Riel
Dave wrote:

 There is no NIC, however it does have two USB ports. I have a USB interface 
 that connects to my cable modem, but it doesn't have a Linux driver available 
 for it. Can anyone guess if it will work? It's a Linksys model USB10T
 
 I'm trying to locate additional memory for the laptop, but unsure if I can 
 find any. 

You may be able to fix both of these at the same time by running Linux
from a USB stick.  USB sticks may be slower than hard disks for huge
transfers, but they are faster for small transfers (no seek time).

That also allows you to try out whether the USB ethernet interface
works, without having blown away the OS that is currently on the
laptop.

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All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Re:Solar Cycle 23 Sunspot Group Re-emerges

2009-05-01 Thread Rik van Riel
Marc PD4U wrote:

 But is the solar minimum the (only necessary and sufficient) explaining 
 factor for a global cooling?
 As we say in Holland One swallow doesn't make it summer meaning: one 
 cannot 'jump to conclusions' based on unsufficient data, and beside that 
 the swallow is not the explaining factor for summer to arise, but a 
 result of it.

There simply is not enough data yet for either global
cooling or global warming. A 100 year period could be
simple blip in the geological climate record.

The temperature data over the last few thousand years
shows several temperature blips, both to the warm and
the cold side, as well as a longer term warming trend
coming out of the last ice age.

Whether or not the data from the last 100 years means
anything within this trend probably won't be clear
for another century or two.

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All rights reversed.


Re: [digitalradio] Re: New amazing JT65-HF

2009-03-17 Thread Rik van Riel
Peter Frenning [OZ1PIF] wrote:

 And of cause the classical question from those of us who live in a 
 Micro$oft-free zone: Will there be a Linux version?

Or, better yet, documentation of the JT65 modulation
schemes, so JT65* can be added to existing radio
programs like fldigi.

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All rights reversed.