Somewhat off-topic, but with meteor scatter (even when using MSK144), you
usually CAN hear the other signals. The advantage of MSK144 over ear copy is
that it can send information in very short meteor bursts that are not long
enough for SSB.
An equal problem on VHF seems to be that many people are going to digital modes
by default, even when signals might be very strong. This makes qsos take much
much longer than necessary (one transmission on JT65 for example takes 1
minute). I made one MSK144 qso during the contest with a station 800 miles away
on 2m. He was 56-57 (via tropo) and the qso would have been much easier and
faster on SSB. He could have probably worked many more stations by calling cq
using SSB.
Similarly, 50.276 is now jammed with JT65 during 6m openings. Nearly all of the
qsos I have made there have been with signals strong enough for easy CW/SSB
copy, but using JT65 forces each qso to take several minutes just to exchange a
report and grid.
Tor
N4OGW
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 7:16 AM, James Cain <jamesdavidcain@gmail.com>
wrote:
The latest ARRL Contest Update newsletter summarized some 3830 ARRL June VHF
Contest comments as follows:
"In the soapbox comments from the most recent June ARRL VHF Contest many
stations were reporting the use of the MSK144 digital mode for making QSOs
where a SSB or CW path did not appear to exist. MSK144 can be sent and
received using the WSJT-X program by Joe Taylor, K1JT. MSK144 uses exchange
sequences as fast a five seconds to take advantage of propagation that might
occur due to meteor scatter."
Way back in the ancient days of radio there was a saying:
"You can't work them if you can't hear them."
Maybe we need an updated saying:
"You can work them even if you can't hear them."
K1TN
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