At 01:07 AM 1/18/2008, Danny wrote: See interspaced comments.....
>Jack, I think I answered most of that just now, to another station. >As long as you are setting there, and have checked that the freq is clear, >fire away. If then you get someone coming in and connecting, you have >already checked the frequency, so go ahead with your contact. But, if he >hears you, transmits and then finds HE is causing interference, he should >immediatly advise you, and quit tranmitting at his end. By the time he has connected and this text exchange takes place, with a TX/RX changeover, it could be 30 seconds....which is a long time. >Just like SSB, I >ask if its clear, and no one comes back, I transmit a CQ. Sonmeone answers, >but he immediately is told the freq is busy. He quickly comes back and tell >you and the two of you then slip to another freq, where both ask if its >clear, and if so, have your contact. How do you ask IF the freq is clear in Pactor and expect any other modes, even Pactor to say "yes, freq is in use"? And get a readable response? >Bye the way, if both of you had "busy signal" capability, his would have >immediately told him he couldnt transmit-- but I would hope he would have >heard it on the earphones before that, or seen it on a waterfall, or >something. Surely all stations do check the freq before transmitting, >keyboard to keyboard? He could then simply bypass the busy signal detect, >and quickly advise you to QSY to xxxxxxxx for a QSO. A busy signal from what mode? Again, decoding who or what is there is not easy, Pactor hardware has no waterfall, you do not know what signal is there, unless your well calibrated ears interfaced to your brain, can understand what mode is transmitting, it may even only be an ALE sounding? Who knows? >No not asking for perfection, just an attempt to get as close as possible. > >I know - easier said than done - but that takes place hundreds of times a >day on CW or SSB, and is doable. 2 modes, the ears can decode very easily, Tx with Mic or Key........digital modes are a little different, particularly those that are hardware/firmware based. When someone comes up with a piece of software that is a simple decode only program for ALL digital modes, it would give listen and identify signal, before using freq, things may get better, but still not perfect as you would need a full blown laptop to run it. When some Pactor and Packet (some PSK31) operators can even use a dumb terminal to drive their Pactor/Packet/PSK31 hardware. 73s Jack VK4JRC
