Message-ID: <006801c09859$bb9cca60$0301a8c0@steve>
From: "Steve Olney" <ollaneg@zeta.org.au>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
References: <7dpkiAAh5Oj6MwfJ@telemetry.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LF: Re: First Transatlantic QSO
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 07:47:40 +1100
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G'day All,

While I agree with the sentiments expressed about big KEVs reaction to the
excellent news about the exchange of information across the Atlantic, I feel
that a bit of understanding and sympathy are in order.   I think I can draw
some understanding from my own behaviour and reactions.  Those who have
spent the time reading my posts will have noticed the odd "dummy-spit" from
me from time to time.    Because of the nature I was born with there have
been some things which have set me off - some things brought about by
circumstances, some by other peoples actions.

For example,  those who have accessed my web site over the years have seen
that I have flitted from Pulsars to LF, to Laser Comms, to Infrasonics, to
VLF and now back to LF.   All being centred around one theme - narrowband
DSP.     During the LF phase I came up with a method of speeding up CW
(VFSKCW).    It was soundcard based and I observed in those days of OOK that
it was not going to be attractive, so I put it in the bottom drawer.
Sometime later Rick came along and came up with a much more practical
solution DFCW which we all know has had great success.   Imagine my chagrin
at that that!!!!    Not at Rick, but at me !!!   I was kicking myself, but
because I had the code already written it only took a couple of hours to
build a GUI interface around it and VFSKCW was the result.   I get some
small satisfaction from a small numbers of users though - it is even used
for aircraft scatter on 2m !!!

Based on my time in the Pulsar phase (my XYL tells me I am a constant
phase-shifter :-), I was struck by the fact that each Pulsar had its own
signature - they rotate and pulse at a extremely highly stable rate (except
for glitches they are more accurate than atomic clocks).   At that stage I
started thinking about AFK (absolute frequency keying) where each character
is assigned a frequency which distinguishes from another (just like a
pulsar).    This was quite successful in the experiments I had done, but I
could see it was impractical for communication with others because of the
accuracy/stability required.    This led to FDK (frequency difference
keying) where each character was encoded as the difference between two
tones.    Although this ameliorated some of the accuracy problems it still
was not going to work with the quality of the receivers commonly used at
that time.    At that point I did a dummy spit and went into the Laser Comms
phase.    By its very nature the frequency accuracy problem was much easier
as the Laser modulation is done at baseband.    Unfortunately, in that area
the gurus gave all the reasons why any "one-bit per character" system was
not going to work and so while I was pushing AFK and FDK (explanations were
up on my web site) at that time, that went nowhere.    Unfortunately, if the
resident gurus give it the thumbs down it can result in a particular
approach being ignored.    Imagine my chagrin when it was recently brought
to my attention that the same guru had presented a "new" way of weak signal
modulation called PGP-1 (PGP are his initials !!!) which, you guessed it,
used assigned frequencies for each character.   When challenged about this,
he denied ever having seen anything from me.   When confronted with emails
that he sent in reply to my putting forward AFK and FDK, he said that he
didn't understand it at the time.   However, he did understand it enough to
pronounce that it wouldn't work back then (end of 1999)!!!     Another
dummy-spit from me saw me engage in a "discussion" with that individual via
the Laser reflector.

I am now back in the LF area with FDK after a brief detour into VLF with
AFK, because I can see that the quality of the receivers commonly used are
at a level which would allow FDK to be used.    This is evidenced by the
spreading (finally) of the use of narrowband software (like Alberto's
excellent Argo) for QRSSSS reception.    Who knows, we might reach the
accuracy/stability one day to use the AFK method on LF.    I expect if
anyone comes up a "new" way of encoding characters in a long burst of a
single tone frequency or the difference between two tones I will do another
dummy-spit (and a big one !!!).   I wouldn't be able to stop myself :-)

But I digress - the point of all this is that we all have a tendency to
dummy-spit at something (politicians, road-users, using QRSS in CW
allocations, expecting credit for ideas, being excluded from ham bands by a
fine motor skill test) and sometimes some of us don't have the energy to be
calm and reasonable.

Take big Kev for instance.    Here is a bloke who has constantly told us all
how we should conduct ourselves on the LF bands - that QRSS is the devils
tool for desecration of the LF bands (only sinners - sorry - lazy,
incompetent people use it) etc.    He has not only *painted* himself into a
corner - he has constructed a double-brick re-inforced wall which confines
him to that corner.    After a period of sweetness and light where there was
an attempt to woo transatlantic participants by the sight of his big
antennas and his fast moving hands,  there is a return to darker days after
being spurned by the objects of his attention.     What's a bloke to do ?
A big DUMMY-SPIT of course.

So a bit of understanding is needed.    After all - even with my
dummy-spitting nature, my XYL regularly tells me she loves me and is glad
she married me (silly woman!!).      So I am sure that big KEV is regarded
with great affection by at least someone like we all are.

Let he who has never dummy-spitted cast the first stone.

73s Steve Olney (VK2ZTO/AXSO - QF56IK : Lat -33 34 07, Long +150 44 40)
=============================================
HomePage URLs:
http://www.qsl.net/vk2zto
http://www.zeta.org.au/~ollaneg

Containing:-
ULF, ELF, VLF & LF Experimentation
InfraSonic Experimentation
Laser Comms DX
Amateur Radio Astronomy
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