Re: [digitalradio] finding someone to have a qso with
I always assumed that it had a lot to do with the amount of activity vs. finding someone. CW or other operators wanting to make a specific contact on a band or location, such as for an award, need some way to find a similar operator. There is a smaller subset of digital hams and those digital hams mostly use PSK31. They only have need for extra help if they want to go beyond PSK31 and work less commonly used modes or for awards perhaps? No matter how much we have tried to promote the newer modes, some of which have special attributes such as being far more robust than PSK31, have ARQ capability that is not available to keyboard chat modes, etc., the reaction I have personally gotten from other hams is that PSK31 is good enough and when it doesn't work, they do other things. As a recent example, a ham from a nearby community is was introduced as the digital expert so I was very interested in seeing if he would be interested in working some of the new modes, especially because a large focus of his group was with public service communication. I was quite surprised when he seemed almost annoyed with me for even suggesting that any other digital modes exist than PSK31 or should even be used on the ham bands. Since most digital hams use only PSK31, and there are well known watering hole frequencies on the popular bands, they never need any help with internet coordination. If a given band is open, they can almost always find someone. By the way, what is the LOTW group intended to be used for? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: -My sentiments exactly Bob. I have tried and tried over the years and cannot figure out why the digital part of the K3UK Sked page is not used more. As you know, the SKCC and LOTW K3UK Sked pages are used constantly. The irony is that the SKCC and LOTW pages were established as after thoughts, the digitalradio sked page was my first goal and the initial design code was provided gratis by a member of this group N8FQ. Another irony is that the LOTW page that you suggested is quite often the group that spurs people to try digital modes like Feld Held for the first time. There are more digital mode skeds made via the LOTW page than the digitalradio sked page. Andy K3UK
Re: [digitalradio] finding someone to have a qso with
Why don't you put a tag line on this reflector so that every message gets the sked page url added to the end of it? They do this on the 30m digi group and it looks like this: Please join in on Thursday and Sunday Night 30mtr PSK activity nights, also when in the shack use the 30 mtr digital Spots page made possible by Laurie VK3AMA http://www.hamspots.net/spotit.php?b=30 http://www.hamspots.net/auto_history.php Andrew O'Brien wrote: -My sentiments exactly Bob. I have tried and tried over the years and cannot figure out why the digital part of the K3UK Sked page is not used more. As you know, the SKCC and LOTW K3UK Sked pages are used constantly. The irony is that the SKCC and LOTW pages were established as after thoughts, the digitalradio sked page was my first goal and the initial design code was provided gratis by a member of this group N8FQ. Another irony is that the LOTW page that you suggested is quite often the group that spurs people to try digital modes like Feld Held for the first time. There are more digital mode skeds made via the LOTW page than the digitalradio sked page. Andy K3UK -- In digitalradio@ yahoogroups. com mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com, Bob k...@... wrote: Being new to digi modes, the biggest problem I've encountered is finding someone to have a qso with. It's rather difficult to try a new mode (they are all new to me!) without someone to chat with. Being new, I have a real difficult time IDing the signals, and determing the mode and setting. I've joined multiple Yahoo groups and a few clubs. The Feld Hell Club seems quite active, and I worked their Sprint last weekend - great fun! I think having a mode of the day is a great idea ... ESPECIALLY if ops would post their activity on the sked and spot pages. I was really disappointed at the lack of activity on the K3UK DigitalRadio sked page, which is a VERY powerful resource. It's use really fosters extra activity. The same goes for the W6RK spot page and HamSpots.net. Digital spots on the regular web cluster are few and far between (with the exception of PSK and RTTY). IMHO, having a number of ops all working the same digi mode on the same day, AND spotting one another on the cluster AND announcing their activity on the spot/sked pages would have to generate added activity and enthusiasm. If someone is watching DxSpider and they see a bunch of spots all day long for DominoEX, perhaps they'll fire up DM780 and give it a try. Even we we don't get MOTD going, I really hope more digi ops will use the sked spot pages. Not only do they help locatet activity, but they really help in IDing the mode. 73 Bob - K3MQ
Re: [digitalradio] finding someone to have a qso with
whoops I see you already have it. But it is buried a little, maybe make it more prominent? 73 Sholto Andrew O'Brien wrote: -My sentiments exactly Bob. I have tried and tried over the years and cannot figure out why the digital part of the K3UK Sked page is not used more. As you know, the SKCC and LOTW K3UK Sked pages are used constantly. The irony is that the SKCC and LOTW pages were established as after thoughts, the digitalradio sked page was my first goal and the initial design code was provided gratis by a member of this group N8FQ. Another irony is that the LOTW page that you suggested is quite often the group that spurs people to try digital modes like Feld Held for the first time. There are more digital mode skeds made via the LOTW page than the digitalradio sked page. Andy K3UK -- In digitalradio@ yahoogroups. com mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com, Bob k...@... wrote: Being new to digi modes, the biggest problem I've encountered is finding someone to have a qso with. It's rather difficult to try a new mode (they are all new to me!) without someone to chat with. Being new, I have a real difficult time IDing the signals, and determing the mode and setting. I've joined multiple Yahoo groups and a few clubs. The Feld Hell Club seems quite active, and I worked their Sprint last weekend - great fun! I think having a mode of the day is a great idea ... ESPECIALLY if ops would post their activity on the sked and spot pages. I was really disappointed at the lack of activity on the K3UK DigitalRadio sked page, which is a VERY powerful resource. It's use really fosters extra activity. The same goes for the W6RK spot page and HamSpots.net. Digital spots on the regular web cluster are few and far between (with the exception of PSK and RTTY). IMHO, having a number of ops all working the same digi mode on the same day, AND spotting one another on the cluster AND announcing their activity on the spot/sked pages would have to generate added activity and enthusiasm. If someone is watching DxSpider and they see a bunch of spots all day long for DominoEX, perhaps they'll fire up DM780 and give it a try. Even we we don't get MOTD going, I really hope more digi ops will use the sked spot pages. Not only do they help locatet activity, but they really help in IDing the mode. 73 Bob - K3MQ
Re: [digitalradio] finding someone to have a qso with
I do, it says... Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Pages at http://www.obriensweb.com/sked On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Sholto Fisher sho...@probikekit.com wrote: Why don't you put a tag line on this reflector so that every message gets the sked page url added to the end of it? They do this on the 30m digi group and it looks like this: Please join in on Thursday and Sunday Night 30mtr PSK activity nights, also when in the shack use the 30 mtr digital Spots page made possible by Laurie VK3AMA http://www.hamspots.net/spotit.php?b=30 http://www.hamspots.net/auto_history.php Andrew O'Brien wrote: -My sentiments exactly Bob. I have tried and tried over the years and cannot figure out why the digital part of the K3UK Sked page is not used more. As you know, the SKCC and LOTW K3UK Sked pages are used constantly. The irony is that the SKCC and LOTW pages were established as after thoughts, the digitalradio sked page was my first goal and the initial design code was provided gratis by a member of this group N8FQ. Another irony is that the LOTW page that you suggested is quite often the group that spurs people to try digital modes like Feld Held for the first time. There are more digital mode skeds made via the LOTW page than the digitalradio sked page. Andy K3UK -- In digitalradio@ yahoogroups. com mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com, Bob k...@... wrote: Being new to digi modes, the biggest problem I've encountered is finding someone to have a qso with. It's rather difficult to try a new mode (they are all new to me!) without someone to chat with. Being new, I have a real difficult time IDing the signals, and determing the mode and setting. I've joined multiple Yahoo groups and a few clubs. The Feld Hell Club seems quite active, and I worked their Sprint last weekend - great fun! I think having a mode of the day is a great idea ... ESPECIALLY if ops would post their activity on the sked and spot pages. I was really disappointed at the lack of activity on the K3UK DigitalRadio sked page, which is a VERY powerful resource. It's use really fosters extra activity. The same goes for the W6RK spot page and HamSpots.net. Digital spots on the regular web cluster are few and far between (with the exception of PSK and RTTY). IMHO, having a number of ops all working the same digi mode on the same day, AND spotting one another on the cluster AND announcing their activity on the spot/sked pages would have to generate added activity and enthusiasm. If someone is watching DxSpider and they see a bunch of spots all day long for DominoEX, perhaps they'll fire up DM780 and give it a try. Even we we don't get MOTD going, I really hope more digi ops will use the sked spot pages. Not only do they help locatet activity, but they really help in IDing the mode. 73 Bob - K3MQ
