PSK31 Ramblings

I'm working towards the eQSL.cc eWAS award.  If you're reading this you are probably already familiar with the WAS type awards, but on the off chance that you are not, WAS means "Worked All States" and the award is a certificate or plaque that you get if you have confirmed communications with all 50 US states.  In the case of eQSL, the communication needs to be with someone that has AG status.  This means that someone from QSL.cc has verified that they are who they say they are in order to stop cheating.

All that leads up to this.  I was sitting at my rig calling CQ trying to contact some specific states when this appeared on my waterfall display:

Two stations, one at 725Hz and one at 1460Hz that collectively spread across two thirds of the available waterfall.  I've looked into why this happens, and it seems that this occurs when someone pushes their rig into a non-linear state.  This can be done several ways, but the usual culprit appears to be either using voice processing and ALC, having the volume output of your soundcard set too high, or trying to push too much power for the given mode.  Given that PSK is a 100% duty cycle mode, some radios splatter when they are push too hard, in most cases that I've read about anything above about 40% power output pushed the rig into a non-linear state.  I'm a little fuzzy on what that means exactly, but I'm doing my best to figure it out.

That was all said to lead up to this.  If you ever see me on the waterfall, please send me a screenshot of what my signal looks like!  Hopefully it will be a nice pretty signal since I run around 40W, don't use "PROC", and have the audio output ratcheted down so that the ALC doesn't kick in!

That oughta be about enough ramblings for this evening.

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

PSK - Papa Sierra Kilo

Or, according to some: Poland Sugar Kilowatt and to others: Platypus Simultaneous Kraken.  Or maybe as it actually means, Phase Shift Keying.  This appears to be a typical mid-day mid-winter propagation on 15 meters today.  I'm guessing that I need to get on the air at a different time to get a different part of the world, but I am having a blast trying to work all of the countries in Europe!

I used to stick just to 20m for PSK, but one day I decided to branch out a bit.  I have shied away from 10m since I upgraded to General class a few months back, but on a lark I decided to give it a shot on PSK.  WOW!  I worked 15 new DXCC entities in that one hour session.  I am now hooked.  So given the success of that endeavor I just jumped in with both feet on 15m.  Once again, WOW!  I had really been missing out on the action by staying on a single band.  60+ QSOs and 31 new DXCC entities later I use the following schedule (time and work permitting):

• 10m (28.120.15) mid morning
• 15m (21.070.15) late morning
• 20m (14.070.15) mid day
• 40m (  7.035.15) evening

There is some blurring of those time frames, but that is the gist of it.  I don't have an antenna that works well on 80m, but I do listen there occasionally both phone and PSK, otherwise I would be working that band in the late evenings as well.  Why don't you give PSK a try and come have a QSO with me on the bands!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

Ham Radio can just look cool sometimes...

I had to switch out my PC in the shack, the old laptop just wasn't cutting it anymore.  Not that I was able to get a new PC, but I re-purposed one of two servers that I used to run networking labs at home.  I also swapped the monitors around a bit.  Since I was rebuilding my PC I decided to completely revisit DM780 and actually get it all setup properly instead of just limping along without macros.  I wanted to share a screenshot of it that I took last night, just because it looks cool:

I've made a few minor changes since I took the screenshot, but this is mostly what I'm using for digital modes right now.  It is so handy finally having macros set up, as well as being able to easily log the contacts and upload them to LoTW and eQSL.cc.  If you work PSK, give me a shout on 14.070MHz sometime!

On that note, I saw something this morning on the SuperSweeper tab that has me confused.  I noticed a station calling CQ in two places on the waterfall at the same time! Here is a shot of it:

And a close up:

If anyone out there knows how this happens, please drop me a line or post a comment!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO