kj5t
04-17-2006, 08:30 PM
Another week has gone by and time for another article. Last week I talked about contesting, and I feel that it was a good opening into the world of contesting. However, I really didn’t go in depth on the many different modes that can be used for contesting, so I hope with this article to tie digital modes back into contesting. But, before I begin I would like to take a moment to look at the history of digital modes.
As we look back to the digital modes, CW (continuous wave) is sometimes referred to as “The original digital mode” which would have been the most simple of all digital modes. As time progressed we became more advanced in what we could do, which led amateurs to eventually have RTTY (Radio Teletype) making use of mechanical teletype machines and an interface known as an MCU. After RTTY came SSTV, which at the time was too costly for many radio amateurs to get involved.
It wasn’t until 1982 that digital modes made a massive leap when TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio) introduced the TNC (Terminal Node Controller), which started a revolution; basically radio amateurs had packet mail long before electronic mail over the Internet. This packet set-up consisted of a dumb terminal, a radio, and the TNC. The next addition to the TNC was to make them multimode controllers, which allowed for an easy non-mechanical way to send and receive RTTY. Also added were HF Packet, AMTOR, CW and even SSTV and FAX. Still the multimode controller was not the biggest leap. With modern computers we are now into the sound card era, and amateurs can operate a plethora of modes just using a simple home built interface and their sound card enabled computer. We will discuss these interfaces later in the article.
So now you know a brief history of the digital modes, and you see that we have come a long way in what can be done, and many enjoy operating on these modes. I find this to be one of the big points of interest in the twenty-first century because of the way we are shifting to a much computerized world. The radio experimenters of 30, 40, and 50 years ago are today the computer experimenters. Many people fail to see the real value of the digital modes, and I hope to open the eyes to those who do not see the value.
First and foremost, as always in the amateur radio service, the digital modes provide yet another communication median to be used for emergency communications. Imagine sending images directly out of a disaster area; this can be done with both analog SSTV or using Redundant Digital File Transfer (RDTF). Also, while CW has generally gained the highest popularity of a mode to use when the bands are poor and you must get traffic through, PSK31 is also a good mode for emergency communications. While the Signal-to-Noise requirements of PSK31 are not better than those of CW, it is a good second. Though controversial, it is becoming clear that more and more amateurs do not know CW, and because of this we can look towards modes like PSK31 to be a good second best for emergency communications. Also hopefully the use of these digital modes will push amateurs to learn about “the original digital mode” and become active in CW.
However, though the emergency communications aspect of the digital modes is important, we can’t forget how much fun the digital modes are. As mentioned above, we are far more into computers now then we were 20 years ago. Digital modes provide a median to make contacts using what most people today are comfortable with; the keyboard. While some may compare PSK, RTTY, and Packet to the Internet, these modes still retain that special magic of amateur radio. While you may be interfacing with a computer, there is still an RF link, with few exceptions when it comes to IRLP and Echolink.
The digital modes have also provided a new means of contesting. Contesters from all around the world participate in various contests throughout the year. Some well known RTTY contests include BARTG, SARTG, WPX RTTY, CQWW RTTY, EAWW RTTY, RTTY Roundup, and the list goes on. There are numerous PSK31 and PSK63 contests as well; in fact some RTTY contests also include PSK.
Apart from contesting, many enjoy rag chewing on PSK and RTTY. People will spend a great deal of time in rag chew sessions. This ties back heavily into the great hobby. Amateur radio gives people a chance to meet others from all around the world and learn from these people. These digital modes are just another way for this to happen. Modes like Analog SSTV and RDTF also allow for photography nets and such to take place. Though the quality on HF SSTV is not always the finest, local groups here take part in both Analog SSTV and RDTF sharing photographs and improving their digital photography skills.
So whether you are involved in public safety, contesting, photography, or thousands of other topics, amateur radio digital modes allow you a means to experiment and share information. For the youth it opens up the doors to allow them to use their computer skills with radio, and the digital modes will continue breeding a new era of radio amateurs. I personally hope that these amateurs still take part in the older aspects of amateur radio, but I hope that they also look at the future of the hobby. However, before this can happen, everyone must know what to do to get on the digital modes.
First off you will need some kind of interface. We mentioned early on both multimode controllers, and simple analog sound card interfaces. We will begin with talking about multimode controllers, and believe me there are many to choose from. Rather then to go into them all, I will go over two Kantronics multimode controllers, and the Rigblaster.
The first multimode controller that we will look at is the KAM98 by Kantronics, which is one of the more expensive multimode controllers. This one runs at $369.99 from AES. However, it is one of the more sophisticated controllers and includes a lot of options that you won’t find in your everyday soundcard interface it is not the most sophisticated controller. The KAM98 allows amateurs to utilize various different modes, such as GTOR, PACTOR, AMTOR, Packet 300 or 1200 bps, RTTY, NAVTEX/AMTEX, ASCII, WEFAX, EMWIN, HF e-mail, CW, GPS NMEA, Telemetry, Remote Control, Remote Sysop Access, Host Mode, and Kiss.
The KAM-XL is the most sophisticated multimode controller offered by Kantronics. will run you about $410 from AES, but allows you do to a few more modes than the 98 model, such as Packet (300, 1200 or 9600 bps) GTOR, PACTOR 1, AMTORPSK31, RTTY, NAVTEX/AMTEX, ASCII, WEFAX, EMWIN, Dual Port Mailbox, CW, GPS NMEA-0182, Telemetry, Remote Control, Remote Control Sysop, ACCESS, Host Mode, and KISS. Not only do you get the HF AFSK modulation, but you also get VHF/UFH FSK and GMSK. The KAM-XL also includes a telemetry port.
The Rigblaster is known by many as the tool for the easiest connection into the digital radio world. With the Rigblaster Nomic, which can be found purchased for around $70 from AES, one receives a trouble free ticket to the digital modes. The various modes include PSK, MFSK16, MT63, SSTV, RTTY, Hellschriber, Contest Voice keying, among others.
There are also many websites which tell how to build your own sound card interface; however, because of the fact that there are so many different radio and so many of these different projects I won’t take the time to go over this. If one is interested in building their own interface a simple Google of “sound card interface projects” will bring up many pages to look through.
When the time comes to start operating there are many different programs to download. Some well known programs include MMSSTV, Digitrx, Digipan, MixW, W1SQL, all of these are for Windows, and there are many more out there, most of them are free. For Linux users there is G-PSK31. I could review every one of these pieces of software, but again it would take too much time, and it would be more effective for the user to pick a piece of software that they enjoy using.
So now you know the fun of the digital modes and how to get involved, the next step is getting involved. I encourage each of you to get involved and come back here to report on your success and failures. If you have already been involved in the digital mode world, I also encourage you to share your existing stories, and your new stories.
Have fun and 73 my friends!
Steve/KD5OWO
As we look back to the digital modes, CW (continuous wave) is sometimes referred to as “The original digital mode” which would have been the most simple of all digital modes. As time progressed we became more advanced in what we could do, which led amateurs to eventually have RTTY (Radio Teletype) making use of mechanical teletype machines and an interface known as an MCU. After RTTY came SSTV, which at the time was too costly for many radio amateurs to get involved.
It wasn’t until 1982 that digital modes made a massive leap when TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio) introduced the TNC (Terminal Node Controller), which started a revolution; basically radio amateurs had packet mail long before electronic mail over the Internet. This packet set-up consisted of a dumb terminal, a radio, and the TNC. The next addition to the TNC was to make them multimode controllers, which allowed for an easy non-mechanical way to send and receive RTTY. Also added were HF Packet, AMTOR, CW and even SSTV and FAX. Still the multimode controller was not the biggest leap. With modern computers we are now into the sound card era, and amateurs can operate a plethora of modes just using a simple home built interface and their sound card enabled computer. We will discuss these interfaces later in the article.
So now you know a brief history of the digital modes, and you see that we have come a long way in what can be done, and many enjoy operating on these modes. I find this to be one of the big points of interest in the twenty-first century because of the way we are shifting to a much computerized world. The radio experimenters of 30, 40, and 50 years ago are today the computer experimenters. Many people fail to see the real value of the digital modes, and I hope to open the eyes to those who do not see the value.
First and foremost, as always in the amateur radio service, the digital modes provide yet another communication median to be used for emergency communications. Imagine sending images directly out of a disaster area; this can be done with both analog SSTV or using Redundant Digital File Transfer (RDTF). Also, while CW has generally gained the highest popularity of a mode to use when the bands are poor and you must get traffic through, PSK31 is also a good mode for emergency communications. While the Signal-to-Noise requirements of PSK31 are not better than those of CW, it is a good second. Though controversial, it is becoming clear that more and more amateurs do not know CW, and because of this we can look towards modes like PSK31 to be a good second best for emergency communications. Also hopefully the use of these digital modes will push amateurs to learn about “the original digital mode” and become active in CW.
However, though the emergency communications aspect of the digital modes is important, we can’t forget how much fun the digital modes are. As mentioned above, we are far more into computers now then we were 20 years ago. Digital modes provide a median to make contacts using what most people today are comfortable with; the keyboard. While some may compare PSK, RTTY, and Packet to the Internet, these modes still retain that special magic of amateur radio. While you may be interfacing with a computer, there is still an RF link, with few exceptions when it comes to IRLP and Echolink.
The digital modes have also provided a new means of contesting. Contesters from all around the world participate in various contests throughout the year. Some well known RTTY contests include BARTG, SARTG, WPX RTTY, CQWW RTTY, EAWW RTTY, RTTY Roundup, and the list goes on. There are numerous PSK31 and PSK63 contests as well; in fact some RTTY contests also include PSK.
Apart from contesting, many enjoy rag chewing on PSK and RTTY. People will spend a great deal of time in rag chew sessions. This ties back heavily into the great hobby. Amateur radio gives people a chance to meet others from all around the world and learn from these people. These digital modes are just another way for this to happen. Modes like Analog SSTV and RDTF also allow for photography nets and such to take place. Though the quality on HF SSTV is not always the finest, local groups here take part in both Analog SSTV and RDTF sharing photographs and improving their digital photography skills.
So whether you are involved in public safety, contesting, photography, or thousands of other topics, amateur radio digital modes allow you a means to experiment and share information. For the youth it opens up the doors to allow them to use their computer skills with radio, and the digital modes will continue breeding a new era of radio amateurs. I personally hope that these amateurs still take part in the older aspects of amateur radio, but I hope that they also look at the future of the hobby. However, before this can happen, everyone must know what to do to get on the digital modes.
First off you will need some kind of interface. We mentioned early on both multimode controllers, and simple analog sound card interfaces. We will begin with talking about multimode controllers, and believe me there are many to choose from. Rather then to go into them all, I will go over two Kantronics multimode controllers, and the Rigblaster.
The first multimode controller that we will look at is the KAM98 by Kantronics, which is one of the more expensive multimode controllers. This one runs at $369.99 from AES. However, it is one of the more sophisticated controllers and includes a lot of options that you won’t find in your everyday soundcard interface it is not the most sophisticated controller. The KAM98 allows amateurs to utilize various different modes, such as GTOR, PACTOR, AMTOR, Packet 300 or 1200 bps, RTTY, NAVTEX/AMTEX, ASCII, WEFAX, EMWIN, HF e-mail, CW, GPS NMEA, Telemetry, Remote Control, Remote Sysop Access, Host Mode, and Kiss.
The KAM-XL is the most sophisticated multimode controller offered by Kantronics. will run you about $410 from AES, but allows you do to a few more modes than the 98 model, such as Packet (300, 1200 or 9600 bps) GTOR, PACTOR 1, AMTORPSK31, RTTY, NAVTEX/AMTEX, ASCII, WEFAX, EMWIN, Dual Port Mailbox, CW, GPS NMEA-0182, Telemetry, Remote Control, Remote Control Sysop, ACCESS, Host Mode, and KISS. Not only do you get the HF AFSK modulation, but you also get VHF/UFH FSK and GMSK. The KAM-XL also includes a telemetry port.
The Rigblaster is known by many as the tool for the easiest connection into the digital radio world. With the Rigblaster Nomic, which can be found purchased for around $70 from AES, one receives a trouble free ticket to the digital modes. The various modes include PSK, MFSK16, MT63, SSTV, RTTY, Hellschriber, Contest Voice keying, among others.
There are also many websites which tell how to build your own sound card interface; however, because of the fact that there are so many different radio and so many of these different projects I won’t take the time to go over this. If one is interested in building their own interface a simple Google of “sound card interface projects” will bring up many pages to look through.
When the time comes to start operating there are many different programs to download. Some well known programs include MMSSTV, Digitrx, Digipan, MixW, W1SQL, all of these are for Windows, and there are many more out there, most of them are free. For Linux users there is G-PSK31. I could review every one of these pieces of software, but again it would take too much time, and it would be more effective for the user to pick a piece of software that they enjoy using.
So now you know the fun of the digital modes and how to get involved, the next step is getting involved. I encourage each of you to get involved and come back here to report on your success and failures. If you have already been involved in the digital mode world, I also encourage you to share your existing stories, and your new stories.
Have fun and 73 my friends!
Steve/KD5OWO