Good to see this post Andy. For those concerned about having a full blown ALE station that scan, though it is preferred, it is not fully required.
You can go to an established ALE channel and stay fixed. Make a long ALE call, and the scanning station(s) that can hear you will respond to you on their scan on the frequency you are fixed on (depending on the kind of ALE call you make, you could get multiple connections). In other words, the will find you if propagation / signal quality permit. This way you dont have to have an antenna for all bands, and a fast tuner for scanning on those bands. When you dont get an answer by the specific station or group call you made, change to another established ALE frequency and try again .... etc etc until you get the connection. Then communicate your schedule or other needs, and use other modes for a more dynamic exchange of information. Keep in mind that another key feature in addition to those pointed out by Andy, is that the scanning ALE stations also collect information about what stations are heard on what frequencies, when and what signal quality. That information can be used to establish communications quicker, or to determine a schedule that would be best based on on those history of the stations info collected. There are also ALE / Voice channels that are established where short ALE calls are made to determine if a station is on frequency, and to then quickly switch to a voice mode to communicate on that same frequency .... these are stations that are manned for those activities. Using HFN Stations, short text messages can be sent to email address and cell phones to arrange for communications schedules, or provide information, such as telling your wife that you are ok and will be in touch soon .... etc etc You can email to non hams, they just cant communicate back along the same path you did, so provide the info they need to reach you by some other means. 73 from Bill - WD8ARZ http://hflink.net/qso/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy obrien" <k3uka...@gmail.com> To: "digitalradio" <digitalradio@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:04 PM Subject: [digitalradio] Getting serious about ALE for non-encomm digital hamming > As I read and view all kinds of web sites (including my own) that > assist digital mode enthusiasts in "spotting" other stations that my > be active on a particular band and looking for a QSO, I can't help but > return to the subject of ALE, Automatic Link Establishment. snip snip > Andy K3UK
