Got my 706 working in digital land, and worked CA and TX on 40 meters tonight.

Who needs voice when you can work 1100 miles (or more) on 20 watts


Update: past weekend I got Guatemala, Central Mexico, and Hawaii

Sounds good. I bought a used radio a week ago and it came with a Buxcomm Rascal interface and I have been having a blast with PSK31 also. I have tried several different software packages, but I seem to like Digipan the best. Its a no nonsense software that works very well. I've use Fdigi, Winpsk, and DM780 also, but I keep going back to Digipan.



How to see you on the waterfall.

Look like this??

I'm with ya.
I just got my laptop & IC-718 running 2 days ago after weeks of trying to get a netbook to work. I only made one contact, but that was southern Mexico.  

The more I play with digital the more I like it.

Since my first digital QSO with PSK31 on 24 April 2010 I've racked up 21 confirmed states with another 8 or 10 awaiting QSL confirmation. 17 DX entities have been contacted. Waiting on QSL confirmation on most of those. Longest DX has been Poland just a couple weeks ago. All on PSK31 at 50w max from an attic dipole. Got a few other states and DX running some of the other digital modes.

Take a look at some of the other modes. RTTY is still a standby in many parts of the world. Not as robust as PSK but still can make the contact. My farthest DX has been to New Zealand on RTTY. Olivia / Contestia has some of my attention lately. It will cut through the QRN that will drown out a PSK signal. Not as fast a bit rate as PSK but certainly acceptable. Just for fun working Hell is a hoot. The decoding is with your eyes and brain and that is a big part of the fun of it. The raw print is what you get and the computer doesn't "guess" at what it's supposed to be. Search YouTube for K7AGE. He has a great Hell primer video.

My setup is a Dell laptop running HRD + DM780 through a Signalink USB interface. DM780 can switch from mode to mode with a click of the mouse which is real handy when you happen across a stray signal all alone on a rather unused band and it turns out to be a DX calling CQ.

I've done these PSK31 at 25 watts:

Italy  -  5500 miles

Switzerland  -  5100 miles

Spain  -  4700 miles

Canary Islands  -  4400 miles

Brazil  -  4700 miles

Spain  -  5000 miles

Paraguay  -  4500 miles

Azores  -  3600 miles

Venezuela  -  2000 miles

Some of the above several times each.

––––-

Phone, 100 w SSB

Scotland  -  4400 miles  (40 meters, midnight my time, daybreak there)

Ireland  -  4300 miles  (40 meters, midnight my time, daybreak there)

Italy  -  5800 miles  (20 meters - 22:00 UTC)

Argentina  -  4500 - 4900 miles  (a number of times - 15 meters)

Brazil  -  4900 miles (15 m)

Ecuador  -  2200 miles  (15 m)

I've had a lot of great DX on 15 meters.

Very cool.

What kind of antenna are ya running?

Dipole, 65 foot legs, about 15-20 feet off the ground.  Wish I could get it higher to lower my take off angle, but oh well.  I'm debating the possibilities of putting up a vertical and disguising it to get a nice low take off angle.

VICTORY!

Got ZL4AD tonight on 14.07 psk!

Gotta love it.  Colorado to New Zealand!

Double Plus Victory.

working 40 meters (7.038) tonight, I got Caracas and Canary Islands.

That is THE primary reason I want to upgrade my license and build or buy an HF radio.

I just got a QSL card from HE8P.  This was a special event station for the International Police Association Radio Club of Switzerland.  They were celebrating the Swiss national amateur radio organization, their version of the ARRL, which I cannot begin to spell or pronounce, which was having its 80th anniversary.







PSK31 is fun!

if you have a yaesu 857/897/817 and you get the CT-39A, Packet Cable for 9$ from texastowers.com and a 2 pack of mono 1/8th plugs from radio shack for 3$ you have yourself a psk31 interface :)

solder 2 small peices of scrap wire to the brown wire (audio ground)

take the end of those 2 small peices from the brown wire to the shield/ground on each 1/8th plug

solder the black wire to one of the centers on a plug and the yellow wire to the center of the other plug

the plug with black goes to the mic jack on your pc and the one with yellow goes to speaker.

TADA! you have a psk31 interface for yaesu. use the digital vox for PTT control or connect a CAT cable and control PTT from the computer automatically with programs like ham radio deluxe / Digital master 780

DXing is fun. No doubt about it. Finding that new entity in the sea of signals, making your call, and seeing your call come back from some far away land is exciting. My latest new one is Scotland on PSK. Added Brazil just a couple days before.

From an backup comm point I see PSK being very useful. It doesn't take much power and if you can get some sort of 20m antenna up you'll be nearly guaranteed making contact with somebody. The negative is that some sort of computer is required for the digital modes. Thinking a netbook running WinXP as the OS might do the trick. There is an app for the IPhone for PSK now.

Upgrading to General really opens up what you can do. In the meantime build a 10m antenna and get your digital rig up and running. Yes, you can do that as a Tech. Tech privileges include data and RTTY from 28.0 to 28.3, the same as everybody else. And don't forget the Tech has SSB phone privileges from 28.3 to 28.5 which just happens where a lot of the activity is anyway.

I got a card from Brazil a couple of weeks ago. Very nice. I need to get off my ass and reciprocate.


You don't need a computer. You can use the Nue-PSK. At least if you want to stick with PSK and none of the other modes. You can read my thread along these lines.