What makes it tough to work MS, besides depending on random meteor shower
activity, Is that MSK144 uses only one Audio carrier freq of @1500 Hz(
USB). So its designed more for one station at a time to make a contact.
(FT8 allows multiple contacts at a time).
That's not entirely true. I have personally been involved in making
meteor scatter contacts on 50.260 MSK144 when there were a dozen
meter scatter QSOs proceeding quite well there at the same time. I
have done this successfully both as a low power and a high power
station. The developers explain this better than I do, but I don't
have a link to their explanation handy. Basically, we are making use
of TDMA (Time Domain Multiple Access). The many short pings and the
rapid fading of longer bursts on meteor scatter allow success even
though everyone is transmitting and listening on the same frequency.
This is because the pings (and fades) happen at different times on
different paths (even paths with only a slight difference). Since we
only need a few milliseconds of signal to get a message through, the
chances are good we can do so even with many other QSOs proceeding
at the same time.
If the problem is that you have more than one strong station who you
hear direct (and constantly), then you have a problem if they are
not all on the same sequence. The only solution there would be to
try to make an agreement with those stations so that you are all
transmitting on the same sequence.
High powered stations that set on the 50.260 Freq calling CQ for more than
20 times in a row on MSK144, Like I saw Sunday, Does not let other lower
powered uses have a chance to make any contacts.
Both stations are usually on the Odd sequence and would be transmitting the
same time, thus the higher power stations could be covering up the lower
power station to a distant station.
Collisions do happen, but many times I have been able to receive a
low power station and a high power station in the same (distant)
grid square in the same period. It is true that I hear more from the
high power station than the low power station, but the lower power
station sneaks through in one of the quiet slots (which may be an
instantaneous fade of the high power station). It's really quite
amazing how this works! It's even easier when they are not in the
same grid, as the paths become more diverse and the probability of
suitable time slots for a decode increases.
Of course, the lower power you run, the more difficult it becomes.
Isn't that the nature of contesting, and in fact, of ham radio itself?
73,
Paul
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