><Craig n7or wrote>< > SCS gives away the modems at cost or for free? News to me. > Can I use a soundcard program to detect it and monitor it, > as I should be able to do as a licensed amateur? No, it is > not open to the public. Will West Mountain Radio, MFJ, or > some other company start selling a more reasonably priced > modem? No. Will elecraft come out with a pactor III modem > kit, at an even more reasonable price? No. Can I build my > own, using publicly available knowledge provided by SCS? No. > My point was that if the pactor 3 modems were built such > that they would not ever transmit on a busy frequency, no > matter the detected mode already in use on the frequency (18 > 2+ Khz channels on 20 meters alone, according to bandplans.com)
Hi Craig, Firstly, those 18 PactorIII "channels" on 20m are overlapping, and they are in the internationally-recognized automatic subband, which is only about 11kHz total spectrum on 20m. Why in the world would you want to operate there if you are not using some sort of fast time-sharing or automatic digi system yourself? Doesn't it seem counterproductive? Secondly, you certainly do have the right to decode PactorIII if you wish, but there is no godgiven right for you to get a free modem. What makes you think you have the "right" to get something for nothing (albeit many hams have been acustomed to it with many soundcard digis)? Thirdly, the definition of a "busy frequency" is so blurred that it may be nearly impossible to build the perfect one that satisfies even a cursory definition of "frequency busy", yet enable a positive "frequency clear" status on the channel. Certainly no human is capable of it, and I've never seen a computer or DSP engine capable of it (and I work in the RF communications/DSP industry). To give you an example of how complex the status of "busy channel" is, right at this very moment, I can sit here and decode and participate in an Olivia 500/16 QSO on 20meters that I cannot hear by ear and I cannot see any signal on the waterfall. Is that frequency "busy"? Bonnie KQ6XA ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/6pRQfA/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
