The livestream, an informal live video and chat session about the digital mode, Olivia, went quite well. Several live QSOs were conducted during the livestream, some with viewers who were also using Olivia at their amateur radio station. The MFSK digital mode is designed for high-frequency (shortwave) communications, especially over the polar regions. See https://OliviaDigitalMode.org for full details. In this livestream, we have a few live two-way keyboard-to-keyboard chat via the 20-Meter amateur radio band. If you would like to see Olivia in operation, this is the episode for you! Generally, we discuss current space weather -- the Sun/Earth connection -- including sunspot activity, solar x-ray flares, and geomagnetic activity, as well as current radio signal propagation conditions on the shortwave (high-frequency, or HF) radio spectrum. We may discuss amateur (ham) radio, shortwave radio, and other related topics such as HF antennas (dipoles, doublets, Yagi antennas, and so on). During these livestreams, you may ask questions, and we will discuss some of them now, and some of them in upcoming videos. 73 de NW7US
Sorry I can't watch the video as this computer is only setup for digi audio output, but glad to see some interest! As you know, but maybe others don't, Olivia is an extremely robust low signal QSO mode that puts up with QRM well. Yes it's slower than PSK31, but Olivia 8/250 is by far more robust than PSK31 - the offset is a slightly wider bandwidth and slower test speed. 8/500 is faster, but takes up 500hz bandwidth instead of 250hz. I encourage more hams to hang out in the .070-.071 segments of 40 and 20m. When using FLDIGI (available MS, MAC, and Linux), please make sure you use TXID to send out what format you are using so that when folks use RXID, FLDIGI can ID your mode. Hint! After you have started a QSO, shut off RXID to avoid having FLDIGI ID a new signal and attempt to highjack your QSO in favor of another.
Ah, having such a limitation is restrictive, I'm sure. If you have a USB port, you can get a soundcard USB dongle, and play sound of videos and other sound sources, without having to change your radio audio configuration. I talk about that, and demonstrate that fact, in the livestream. 8/500 is more than double the speed of 8/250, as demonstrated in the video. As expressed in the video, we have a dedicated website, https://OliviaDigitalMode.org and on that webpage, we list our current common calling frequencies (a starting point, from which we move up or down the waterfall to find a clear frequency slice. Check out our website. Lots of great information. Great advice! I stress this several times in the livestream. The Reed-Solomon Identifier (RSID) is very helpful! Good hint - another one mentioned in the livestream. These are all best-practice tips, and great that you are encouraging others to pursue such habits when working digital modes other than FT8/FT4/JT65* modes. Hope to see you on the waterfall, via Olivia, on HF! 73
The only thing I would change on the website is the table of frequencies. That I am aware of, Digital modes are not 500hz offset. By example, the frequency list that comes with FLDIGI shows 7.070 and 14.070 for PSK31. Use the cardinal Frequency (7.071/14.071 etc), and FLDIGI will land you in the middle of the 3KHZ bandwidth by default (1500hz). If you start at a dial of 14.0715, if you choose to have a QSO at a center of 2500, you are now on the FT8 Frequency of 14.074 with sidebands of your transmission into the FT8 bandpass. Yes, TXID and RSID are very important. There was a fellow this morning who was not sending a TXID. He sent CQ on PSK31 - no answer; he switched to Olivia 8/250; no answer; then Thor - no answer. When I tried to respond, by the time I did, he had changed format. I finally gave up.
Thank you for the feedback. We are, actually, going through a current round of editing these and unifying the website details, as even on the webpage and on the Groups dot io page, there are inconsistencies. There are also some discussion of Region 1, 2, and 3 nuances that we are trying to resolve. Your input is certainly parallel to many suggestions about dropping the odd frequency in favor of, say, 14.071. The good thing is that we are finding each other because we get close enough to current activity that we're having more QSOs!
