Andy, In my opinion, that feature is in a "gray area", between useful and practical.
I do believe this feature in the Icom has helped motivate many hams to give RTTY a try. Once they see the messages being exchanged, it becomes an incentive to investigate what is needed to participate. I suppose the same can be said about the standard soundcard feature found in new computers too. In the practical sense though, the basic Icom feature is flawed for two-way communications. Yes, you can store TX messages and send them, but there is no practical way to send the other station callsign and engage in a regular QSO using the radio by itself. A keyboard interface for the radio could address this. Maybe a future "bell"??? BTW, the Icom decoder is top-notch for RTTY. I am not aware that it will decode PSK modes. 73 de Bob - KØRC in MN ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew O'Brien To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:57 AM Subject: [digitalradio] PSK and RTTY decode bult in to rigs I wonder about the performance of PSK31 and RTTY decoding that is built in to the firmware of rigs like the Icom 746 Pro. Does anyone use their rig in this way? How does the decoding perform, is it useful having in in a rig or is it just a bell and whistle that no-one really uses? -- Andy K3UK Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 www.obriensweb.com
