First of all , I am not a "propeller head" and am the first to admit so. My technical ability is limited to firing up my computer, installing whatever
Software developed by people much more talented than I am, and using it on the air. I am heavily involved in emergency communications, hence my interest in digital modes. I teach emergency management and communications, Search and rescue team leader, and search management courses . I am a participant in all emergency training activities in our province, and have been called out numerous times to assist Fire Police and EMS over the past 15 years . I work under contract to the City of Regina, as the Director of Emergency Social services, co-ordinating the efforts of the City, Red Cross, Salvation Army, and private sector contractors to provide shelter for those unfortunate folks displaced by disasters. I have written and number of articles on Search and Rescue, as well as a SAR needs analysis for Saskatchewan Justice and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. My interest in these modes are to adapt them to emergency communications in our Province, in conjunction with ARES, so that we can rapidly pass traffic from remote locations to EOC's and reception centers. Our geography and population base makes the need for radio amateur communications an essential service using VHF, HF , and the internet. We have adopted several of these modes already and are looking forward to the development of an ARQ mode which will allow us an internet gateway without the need for an SCS modem. I and several other VE5's happily test these modes under a variety of conditions and provide feedback to the authors. I am also a "hard-core" rag chewer, and really enjoy getting on the air with one of these new modes and shooting the breeze, and am able to do so at the bottom of the solar cycle, and a very modest station, using the new digital modes. By your own admission, your operating experience with digital modes has not progressed beyond PSK31. There have been many improvements since then with people like Simon, Patrick, Pavel, Dmitry and many others pioneering new and very effective operating modes, some of which are proving to be almost as effective as CW in poor operating conditions ( as an example, Olivia) . I challenge you to try some of these new modes, and I and others would welcome your opinion of these new technologies. At the same time would encourage you to put some of your considerable technical ability into developing busy frequency software In cooperation with one of the authors, rather than simply complaining about it at every opportunity. John VE5MU From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dave AA6YQ Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 10:30 PM To: [email protected] Cc: Dave Bernstein AA6YQ Subject: RE: [digitalradio] ALE , J65, Pactor 1 thru ?, etc. First, John, I will point out that you have never provided a serious technical response to any of the points made regarding the importance of listening before transmitting, and the opportunity to enable polite, unattended operation via busy frequency detectors. You mostly snipe and make lame personal attacks, like this one. My primary log contains 22 keyboard-to-keyboard Pactor QSOs, ~500 PSK31 QSOs, ~150 PSK63 QSOs, and more than 2100 RTTY QSOs; I have 319 countries confirmed on RTTY. During operations from KH6, KP2, FJ, and V4, I've made another couple of hundred PSK31 QSOs and more than 600 RTTY QSOs. If you're so active, why aren't you in any of my logs? Besides DXing, I spend a fair amount of time developing and supporting WinWarbler, a member of the freeware DXLab Suite whose logging and transceiver control components are also used with MixW, MultiPSK, and DM780. I've also been supporting the ADIF specification for the past couple of years -- the standard used for interchange among logging applications and services like LotW and eQSL.cc. What's been your contribution, John? 73, Dave, AA6YQ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John Bradley Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 10:09 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [digitalradio] ALE , J65, Pactor 1 thru ?, etc. Allrighty, then! (climbing up on soapbox) I guess I am getting a little tired of these arguments about operating correctly. We all know the rules and most of us try to follow them. Sure, we screw up once in a while but so what? We learn for the next time. What bothers me more is that the folks who make the most noise and offer the most criticism of the modes Are not those who are using them. As an example, Dave, AA6YQ, has written numerous emails on digital radio Subjects, and yet I, for one have yet to work him in any digital mode, and I have been very active for the past number of years. I have meticulously checked all my logs, and surprise! No Dave. Everyone else is there, in fact many times over: Roger, Bonnie, Andy, Rick ,Jose, Txema and the list goes on, With many that I have missed mentioning who are active in this group. Just guessing, I would think that most folks have not come across Dave in their logs. Now that is not saying that Dave doesn't have valid arguments- some of them are. I respectfully suggest, though That you get on these modes, get active and "walk a mile in our moccasins" to fully understand the nature of these modes. Ok Dave I'll lend you the soapbox John VE5MU
