PSK is about on 20M, sometimes gets rather packed. PSK is the new RTTY and a good means to have a digi conversation.
I've tried calling CQ several times using Olivia (500/16) at the frequencies (except 20m) suggested here: http://hflink.com/olivia/ Crickets..
In my short tenure as a PSK operator I found 20M and even 40M would get very hot with lots of activity for a weekend or two....and then totally go away for a couple of months. A couple of months later it would get hot again for a day or two with many of the same calls and again disappear. I decided it was not for me. I've had other hams tell me that's how it has been since it first appeared. I was able to work lots of DX on PSK.
It used to be constant with activity when I started on HF in 2006. Wall to wall signals was the norm. Then FT8 happened and everyone jumped on that bandwagon from all of the other modes. Then there was nobody left to work for those digital mode ops who didn't jump early. They too eventually went elsewhere due to inactivity. I'm happy the paint is drying and people are branching out again.
A couple tips. Be sure if not using PSK-31, that TxID is enabled so that people know what mode you are using. When fishing around, enable RxID so you can figure out what other people are calling with. When calling CQ, use a macro with TIMER enabled so it will just loop until someone answers. Try not to use wide modes in the central PSK window, a 500Hz Olivia signal can have four to six PSK31 chats in the same space. So with 20m as an example. 14.070 USB is the PSK window, centered in 3kHz at 1500 Hz, if you want to run the other modes please go to 2500 Hz on the waterfall and re-center or even up to 3000 or in the other direction 500 Hz or lower and re-center so that the PSK folks have room to operate. Generally the other modes were run in the next 3kHz up the band or below from the PSK window but traffic is a lot thinner now than it was a few years back and FT8 images from dirty signals or ops drifting out of the window tend to make using that area pretty rough going now.
That reminds me of a (pretty lousy) poem I came up with back in the early 70s: Buzzards, gizzards, bananas and cream. I know a CB'er who uses a beam. When he runs his linear, his signal sounds fine. On 23 channels, all at the same time. ---Chip, (then) WB9EBE (...As I duck for cover from all the tomatoes surely being thrown at me for such an atrocity!)
Whats the best 20 m frequency to get PSK? I have an IC7610 and use it successfully on RTTY, but I just cant get the hang of that tuner thingy.... what am I doing wrong? 73 stay well...Des
