Since it sounds like most of the DX is flying over my head into 5 and 8 land,  I decided to work a little PSK on 14070. Stop by and say hello if you see me in the waterfall. KB3GJL.

That's what I was planning on doing today, but I'm at work instead...trying to save the Free World and pad my Ham Radio toy account at the same time!  Maybe later this afternoon...  

I am hearing (reading) a lot of stations out there, but can't find you.

Checked PSKReporter––last report of your call sign was 52 minutes ago. Guess you aren't on anymore?

40m DX is working pretty well PSK31, just got Hungary...Canada 2x

Sorry about that... No sooner did I post this did my friend call me and ask to help him with a misbehaving server.

Anyone working PSK31 tonight?

I'm working some on 40m PSK31... Thought I saw K9-Bob on, too.  

did you see me?

Hey guys. I'll be on or around 7035 +2500 calling CQ arfcom...

No, and I called CQ ARFCOM 5 or 6 times immediately after I saw your post...

ETA:  They just canceled school tomorrow for both of our kids, so I'll be up late tonight and all day tomorrow playing radio.  

didn't see that,  I was working a eskimo canadian.



 

I see aa777888-2 working a KC9 station...

I was working Cuba.   didn't see you yet

Band shutting down for me. Where were you guys....

Did any of you guys work UU9JX/MM ? I worked him last night but saw him on there just a while ago.

Tried a couple of times, but no joy...

Worked EA3 Spain and VE3 Canada.

Moving to JT65 on 3576

BD,  Thought it might be you when I copied a guy who was using an antenna on top of a back yard fence.    but it was KU8Q

going back to 80 meters

I saw that on the waterfall...

On there now. Just worked a 4 land station.

See your call on JT65, CZ75_9MM, as well as aa777888-2 earlier.  Still watching and learning the exchange.  Weird...but I like weird.  

CZ look for the KB1xxx on JT65

Calling on even minutes

Saw (2) 73 "RED" messages to my call aa777888-2.  

Sweet! Answer my CQ by double clicking the entry in the list next time.

Just figured I'd send in the blind since I also figured you'd be monitoring.

Yeah, I think I just worked you.

Working on 160 meters now.

You were NOxx?

Bigdaddy––tried replying to your CQ (received at -21 dB!) but no joy. Band went away.

Would go to 160M but time to hit the hay...

Good stuff tonight. Amazing how sensitive JT65 is.

Yep that was me.

Received your "Greg TNX73GE" .  Replied with 73 to your call, but did not see it decode.
I was using the IC-703+ with 5w into my little inverted V, the entire time.  Getting closer all the time.  Still learning.  

703, eh? Better learn to love JT65!

How are things working out now that you've turned off that horrible break-in setting in DM780?

Yeah, the 703 was a lot easier setting up for JT65-HF (once I got past the mental block!) since it was already running WSPR.  I have it installed on the 7200 also, but can not get it to key the radio yet.  Still working on that.

Break-in is disabled in DM780 and it's smooth sailing, now.  What a difference that made.  Thanks for the tip.

New question on PSK31...what's the difference between IMD and S/N when giving a signal report in DM780?

Understand your problems.   The 703+ works good on digipan, HRD and WSJT.  I only have the 7000 working on digipan.  whenever I load HRD it keys up the radio and refuses to go back to receive.  Still have some settings that are wrong. in HRD and WSJT.    I haven't worked JT65 but have started using FSK444 and JT6M for meteor scatter.  for that I have been using the 703+ and a brick on 6 meters.  I might take the 7000 along to the club station with me some evening.  maybe someone else will see what is wrong.  might just be a simple setting that I am missing.





 

just had a eskimo Canadian tell me that I am doing what most PSK31 ops do.  Run too little power.  He claims that unlike Olivia and some other modes PSK 31 is not a low power mode.  When I answered his CQ I was running 10 watts.  He was running 50.  Very wide signal on the waterfall. He said I was hard to copy using his 80 meter delta loop on 40,   I turned the power up to 20 watts and he went to his 40 meter dipole and then had good copy. He claims 20 watts is still too little for PSK31.  OH well,  His signal was 3x as wide as most of the other perfect copy signals––- and no better copy.  Am I wrong?  I have never used over 30 watts on PSK31.

25 watts to Spain and Canada yesterday.  I think you have it right and he might have a little frostbite.  

ETA:  I've been meaning to use the 703 more for PSK31 and just haven't got around to it!

Clearly you can have too little power, i.e. no comm's.

You can have too much power, but only in terms of either a) causing everyone's AGC to kick in and therefore suppressing reception of lower power signals or b) radiating outside of some geographic limit. The latter is not really an issue for hams, but the former can have an effect as the way most people process digital signals is in a common 3KHz IF bandwidth. One could argue that anyone that doesn't restrict their power to some reasonable maximum is not being a good "bandwidth citizen". Of course we have very few of those, so instead we have things like DSP, notch filters, pass band tuning and the like, all preferably implemented prior to AGC (like they are in the Icom DSP capable radios )

However, usually the real argument is about having a clean signal without a lot of modulation products and other spurious emissions. I rarely run less than as much power as I can (but I only have a 100W and a low dipole so I'm not that "bad"), so let's discuss how to do that properly

First, make sure that all radio processing circuits associated with audio are turned OFF. That primarily means compression. Compression for SSB voice is good, for digital modes it is VERY BAD. Also, don't forget to disable noise blanking and any other type of global audio processing on receive. Also make certain that your SSB transmit bandwidth, if adjustable, is set to max.

Next, how you adjust power? A lot of people will tell you to "turn your power down". The way you should do this is to leave your rig set to max. RF power, thereby obtaining the greatest transmit dynamic range possible (it's exceeding transmit dynamic range that causes distortion and therefore bad emissions) and ADJUST YOUR DRIVE, i.e. the audio level from your PC/interface into the radio. Don't do the opposite!

Of course one has to consider how to determine if they are likely to be producing distorted output. The gold standard is to look at your output spectrum with a spectrum analyzer, but of course very few people have that capability. So instead the three most common ways to keep things in check are to 1) monitor average power, 2) monitor peak power and 3) monitor ALC activity. All of these indications are somewhat indirect. Remember that most digital modes involve a multi-tone signal and you are only seeing measurements of the summation of these tones, not each one individually. One exception is JT65, which is a single tone mode and therefore very easy to set power for.

ALC is an indication of an overdriven RF transmitter and therefore most say that you should have zero indication on the ALC meter when running digital. However, as it turns out, most ALC metering circuits are typically oversensitive and this may not be the best approach. For example, a guy on the IC7000 list who does have a really nice spectrum analyzer measured the IC7000 and discovered that you could drive the ALC meter a third of the way up and still see no significant distortion on the output. So for many rigs this is not a reliable indicator.

If you can measure peak power than that is probably the best way. Adjust drive so that peak power is only just barely reached during a normal transmission. If you really want to play it safe, set drive so that peak power is reading at about 80-90% of maximum power, just in case your peak power meter isn't quite fast enough to truly capture the peaks.

Finally, if you are measuring average power, the rough rule of thumb is to drive only up to about 60% of max. This allows substantial headroom for the peaks that occur when all of those simultaneously generated tones on your favorite mode are phased to cause an amplitude maxima.

Don't forget that the correct drive for each mode will be different as each mode has different multi-tone characteristics. It will also change with VSWR. There is a huge variation across the gamut of digital modes. MT63-1K has a great many tones, JT65 has only a single tone (like CW!), everything else is in between somewhere.

Hope that was useful and not redundant.

Now my brain hurts...again.  It's the same feeling I got when my folks took the training wheels off my car.

Has anyone heard J79AVO or any of the others on the Dominica DXpedition yet?   Paul is my neighbor and a good friend.  Today was supposed to be the first day for them so I've been watching.  Some of them run about all CW.  Paul will be mostly PSK31 and phone with his Elcraft K2 and K3.  Let me know if you hear him.  They will be running low power and buddipole antennas.

I've gone 9,000 miles with PSK and I run 20 watts.  If his signal was wider than it needed to be then he's doing it wrong.