Posted: 7/16/2010 11:52:40 AM EDT
| Well I got my signal link running, I have been successful with wspr, winmor, psk31 so far. Kinda a pain every time I go to a new mode I gotta fiddle with the dials but so far they do not seem to be to picky. What I have haven't had any luck with is MT-63....? Anyone up for some elmering? |
MT63 is a great mode. However it is a) one of the trickier modes and b) tends to be a little "wide" in it's most popular and arguably effective 1K mode. Of course, nothing was thought of as "wide" as much as it is now after the advent of PSK 
I'd suggest starting with the 1K mode. It is blazingly fast––you'd better be a touch typist! Leave the interleave settings at their default values. When you call CQ on MT63-1K mode make it a very long one. A 2x10 CQ is good. It sounds like a lot but MT63 is so fast that it goes by very quickly, no different than a 2x2 in Olivia. Also, you want a lengthy call because it can take people a little dial twiddling to tune you. Also MT63 has fallen into the realm of "obscure modes". Make sure RSID is turned on for TX if you are using fldigi, DM780 or MultiPSK. It can also be very helpful to add a "video ID" so people can see it's MT63-1K in their waterfall display. Because it's become a bit obscure people have forgotten how to work it. First, the FEC used in MT63 is quite strong and deep. This makes it an excellent candidate for high speed comm's in bad multipath conditions e.g. NVIS. It's very cool to watch funny swirls appear in the pattern on the waterfall under these conditions but the entire message gets through. What the FEC does, however, is (for 1K mode) it causes a 12 second delay on decode. So when you are trying to tune in an MT63 signal don't go nuts and twiddle the knob every 2 seconds. You have to wait 12 or so to get any results from any given setting. This is why it will often take 2 or 3 long CQs or calls to get a response. Tuning is also very critical in MT63. Things need to be within 100Hz or better, usually better despite what the book says. With modern rigs this is not too difficult because their frequency references are very good compared to days gone by. However strange things happen. The standard requires the signal to appear starting at 500Hz on the waterfall. This mean that unlike other modes you can't just slide a cursor around the waterfall and get things to line up. You've got to change your dial frequency. I recommend going to 2x zoom and moving the dial very carefully in 50Hz amounts to get things lined up and tuned in. Finally, it is critical to have your sound card calibration pretty much perfect for MT63. Follow the instructions that go with your software to check the calibration of your sound card. On receive it's a procedure involving WWV. On transmit you use an application called checksr.exe. If you find your calibration is off by more than a couple of hundred PPM you are going to have problems with MT63. Your station may be perfect and a lot of people might try to answer you with badly calibrated stations. The results are a failure. If I see somebody trying to respond I'll switch to another mode and hope they reply. Then we have a little discussion about MT63 and make a sked to try again another day. If your sound card calibration is off pretty much the only thing you can do at that point is run fldigi because AFAIK it's the only software that has a provision for entering calibration offsets. DM780 only supports them for SSTV. With respect to software I've only every had success with MT63 with fldigi. I've gotten DM780 to decode quite well but I've never been able to successfully transmit MT63 with it. One more word about RF power settings––MT63 uses a LOT of tones. Make sure you are not seeing any ALC and be very conservative with your peak and average power settings on TX. Peak don't go over 80%. Average don't go over 60%. I'd encourage you to use MT63. You will be impressed by its speed and robustness and it is far more satisfying a challenge than PSK. |