FreeDV Digital HF Voice QSO Party Apr 27/28th

The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group is proud to announce a new event on the Amateur Radio Calendar. The FreeDV HF Digital Voice QSO Party!

The aim is to encourage as many Radio Amateurs as possible to learn about the FreeDV digital voice mode designed to be used on HF. The will hopefully encourage as many FreeDV signals to be on the air as possible to help spread the word about this new mode.



What is FreeDV?
FreeDV is an open source digital voice transmission mode developed for HF Amateur Radio by David VK5DGR. It is founded on open source principles with the Codec2 specification and code fully available to the Amateur Radio community at no charge.

The latest development, FreeDV 700D mode has performance equivalent or better than SSB on HF – a remarkable achievement in only 700 bps!



FreeDV QSO Party - The Rules

When: April 27th 0300z to April 28th 0300z 2019

Where: All HF Bands from 80m – 10m (excluding the WARC bands)

How: Work as many stations as possible using the FreeDV 700D or FreeDV 1600 modes in 24 hours.

Centre Frequencies: 1870kHz, 3630kHz, 7180kHz, 14130kHz, 21180kHz, 28330kHz (chosen (mostly) in accordance with IARU Bandplans)

Points: Stations participating can earn points per QSO

• 1 point per contact within a continent
• 5 points per contact between continents
• 50 points per contact with VK5ARG

(AREG’s club station is planned to be manned for the 24hrs looking particularly for inter-continental DX on 40/20 and 15m)

Multipliers:

• 1 per call area in VK/VE/JA/ZL per band +
• 1 per DXCC entity per band +
• 1 per inter-continental contact

Final Score:

• Sum all points x sum all multipliers

You can work a station once per band.

Stations earning 50 points or more will be entitled to an emailed PDF certificate indicating their successful participation in this inaugural event!

Categories:

There is one entry per station callsign only.

Why FreeDV?

FreeDV 700D outperforms SSB at low SNRs – you can get an easy copy of 700D when SSB is unusable.

Amateur Radio is transitioning from analog to digital, much as it transitioned from AM to SSB in the 1950’s and 1960’s. How would you feel if one or two companies owned the patents for SSB, then forced you to use their technology, made it illegal to experiment with or even understand the technology, and insisted you stay locked to it for the next 100 years? That’s exactly what was happening with digital voice. But now, hams are in control of their technology again!

FreeDV is unique as it uses 100% Open Source Software, including the speech codec. No secrets, nothing proprietary! FreeDV represents a path for 21st century Amateur Radio where Hams are free to experiment and innovate, rather than a future locked into a single manufacturers closed technology.

FreeDV can be used on multiple platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

Where can I get FreeDV?
FreeDV software and more information is available from the FreeDV Website!

FreeDV.org

Want to know more?
Who can I Talk To?
Login to the K7VE FreeDV QSO Finder to find other Hams using FreeDV.

Support
Please post your questions to the Digital Voice Google group

Developers please subscribe to the Codec 2 Mailing List.

IRC Chat
For casual chat there is a #freedv IRC channel on freenode.net

QSO Party News

Visit the AREG Website www.areg.org.au for more information about the FreeDV QSO Party

We hope to see you on FreeDV!

 

If it's anything like the OTA digital TV we have here in the U.S. you can count on bad reception when it rains, when there is fog, when there are temperature/humidity inversions, when the wind blow too hard, or when a Helicopter flies between your QTH and the transmitting antenna. IMO the guy who invented Digital OTA TV needs his (expletive deleted) kicked...

Dan KI4AX

 

It is nothing like OTA DTV. The US DTV system was based on VSB modulation and was for VHF/UHF.

FreeDV is designed specifically for HF and has a signal performance (in 700D mode) that can better SSB in some cases for readability. It is based on a set of close spaced low bit rate sub carriers with the digital audio coded stream multiplexed across them to give it robustness (without being a fully error checked digital system). I cant think of any other amateur modulation system that really comes close to it in structure or capability.

 

WOW....just...WOW.

This is such a scathing indictment of the American education system.

Read. Learn. Read again. THEN comment.

 

Ditto.

Early adopter 4-5 years ago of FreeDV back a few years before my sight tanked (since recovered).

At around (just under?) 1 kHz of BW this mode has potential use on the 7 kHz wide 630 m band, too. This help out too on account of restricted/narrow (usually HiQ) antenna BW seen down there.

 

My comment is based on experience. When you really need the TV, like during a storm for weather info etc., it simply does not work. It might be OK for someone who resides within a few miles of the antenna. But, at the distance I am from the antenna I was better off with analog signals. It might have been a little snowy once in a while, but it never went out with "no signal detected."

Not everyone lives under the transmitter antenna..... I guess I could get a 100 ft tower for TV reception. That MIGHT help. But, I didn't need it before DTV came along.

All this new technology stuff is GREAT when it works. But, when it doesn't work it really SUCKS.

Dan KI4AX

 

I do understand what you mean here, the problem with "digital" TV/DAB /DRM etc. is that they are an "all or nothing" system. In the old days you could put up with some static/snow etc. but digital fails the checksum so you hear nothing, and it completly sucks. I hate it and want to go back to analogue TV ( and radio here in Europe!)

HOWEVER . FreeDV isn't designed as an all or nothing system, so you can lose bits and you should still get _something_ even if it is a bit broken up. So grab the software and have a listen

 

I may give it a try just to see what happens if and when a pile up occurs. I am wondering how it will work with a bunch of stations all calling at the same time.

Dan KI4AX

 

Hey - this QSO party might be fun ... I've had FreeDV installed at my station since (almost) the beginning .... tough to talk to the fellows on 20 meters with my crappy (80 meter dipole) antenna, but I have made a couple of contacts. None yet with 700D but I think I'll try again in April .... looking forward to it!

PS - be careful flaming folks who are uninformed. With all the knowledge bases out there and yet still this stuff ... you might be disparaging someone with an actual learning disability. You wouldn't want to flame someone who had only one eye, would you? It's the same thing.

 

re: "You wouldn't want to flame someone who had only one eye, would you? It's the same thing."

Hey - I picked up two programming languages (VB and LabView) with just one eye (since remedied) as well as designed and built the low-band antennas I'm successfully using presently; that should _not_ IMNSHO be a limiting factor ...