Dear LF group members,
browsing in the AMRAD e-mail list archive I found a message posted by
Andre, N4ICK, quoting an original message by Andrew J. O'Brien (see below).
Under
http://users.mesatop.com/~ghansen/
you can find a new PSK31/RTTY/ASCII, etc. program for Soundblaster use,
that was written by KD5HIO. This program contains some experimental type of
forward error correction (FEC) to the various modes. Also MFSK16 and a mode
called HFSK16 is implemented. These modes use a variety of tones, bandwidth
is in the range of 250 Hz.
Markus, DF6NM and I have tested PSK31 and since Markus' signal is just in
the region of my local noise level, plus the normal QRN that we have on LF
make normal PSK31 only 70% succesful, we have recently tested QPSK.
Obviously receprion was a little bit better using that mode.
We plan to check the other modes, too, in the next couple of days to find
the most reliable way of keyboard-to-keyboard for weak s/n ratio signals.
So if you hear some strange signals, tones, etc. on and around 137.500 kHz,
this is most probably us. I will enable CW-identification.
Besides that, I still run normal CW from time to time and had a nice first
QSO with HB9DCE this morning.
Best 73
Geri, DK8KW (W1KW)
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"Andrew J. O'Brien" wrote:
Hamscope 1.2 Reviewed
By Andy KB2EOQ
(this review may be distributed without restriction)
Well, with the CCCC Millennium Multi Digital Mode contest taking place
New
Years Day , what better way to test out KD5HIO's Hamscope. Hamscope,
available at http://users.mesatop.com/~ghansen/ , is the latest entry
into
the vibrant Windows based ,soundcard driven , digital radio world. As
the
most recent entry , the author has found time to incorporate many varying
digital modes all into one software package. Most digital software these
days includes PSK31 and RTTY (TrueTTY, Zakanaka, et al) but Hamscope is
only
rivaled by MixW in the choice of modes that one can select.
Available modes are
BPSK31
QPSK31
RTTY
ASCII7
ASCII8
MFSK16
HFSK16
CW
Missing are the increasingly popular Throb, the much advocated MTTY, ye
olde
PACKET, MT63, PACTOR, CLOVER, and the altered versions of PSK and MFSK
(PSK63/125 and MFSK8/4). However, Hamscope is a very full featured
program
and a welcome addition to the digital ham's repertoire.
Installing Hamscope
Hamscope installed on my AMD K2 500 PC with 64 megs of memory without any
problems. Within seconds of executing the install program, I had a
very
carefully thought out screen displaying RTTY, PSK31, and MFSK without any
problems. The macros are nicely laid out and easy to edit. They are
essentially the same in appearance to those in Digipan. You have 36
macros
to choose from but . unlike Zakanaka, not all can be displayed at the
same
time. Hamscope, like Digipan, requires that you click an arrow to see
the
next bank of macros.
As mentioned earlier, MixW is the only program that has as many modes as
Hamscope. However Hamscope is vastly superior to MixW in terms of
appearance and the general feel of the program. MixW generally performs
well (although RTTY is mediocre) but it's help files are very disjointed
and
have caused many a ham to feel frustrated. Hamscope on the other hand,
is
most pleasing to the eye, and the intuitive computer user will find
themselves operating the digital world with hardly any need to consult
the
help files.
Okay, so how well does it perform? I tried CW, MFSK, BPSK31, and RTTY
and
had generally positive results.
CW works well and I could see no appreciable difference between MixW and
Hamscope's ability to copy CW. My unscientific tests indicate the CWGet
out
performs Hamscope and MixW in weak CW conditions, but no software copies
weak signal CW very well. . Hamscope nicely displays both the
transmitted
CW speed as well as the receive speed. I have sometimes found that CW
copying software has difficulty with high speed CW but Hamscope copied
KM5HT's 40 WPM code without problems. Copying CW was as simple as
clicking
on the vertical trail in the waterfall or on the spectrum display. The
word length , dash length and noise threshold can all be easily changed
in
Hamscope's set-up area. I did note that there is a noticeable delay from
when your brain hears a CW character to when it actually is printed on
the
screen. At average speed CW, the printed text is usually a character
behind
what has actually been sent. While this may seem understandable in that
the
computer has to process the received signal, it appears more noticeable
on
Hamscope that other CW packages.
MFSK16: I really like Hamscope's MFSK. I have been a STREAM users since
MFSK's birth but have found the horizontal waterfall in Stream difficult
to
get comfortable with. It is no doubt psychological, but I found that
Hamscope's vertical waterfall for MFSK very easy to handle. The AFC does
a
good job of locking on to a MFSK16 signal , although it does so rather
slowly...you can see it edging up the band like someone doing the
breaststroke. Missing are the Clock Alignment , Bit Shape, and Phase
Scope
display that Stream provides . I was unable to determine any performance
difference with Hamscope of Stream, both had the same copying abilities
,
but Hamscope's waterfall had me tuning them in quicker.
PSK31: AE4JY's core is used for PSK31 just like it appears to be in
every
other PSk31 program these days. Hence the basic PSK31 performance should
be
the same. The AFC was again a little jerky but it did its job well by
locking on to PSK31 signals that were nearby. If between two signals,
one
strong and one weak, the AFC sought out the stronger one each time.
There
is no tuning or phase scope like the ones you can find in Zakanaka or
PSK31SBW, I still find such tuning aides useful. As far as I can
determine
there is no ability to copy more that one PSk31 signal simultaneously,
Digipan, WinWarbler, Zakanaka and other all have multi-receive
capability.
Hamscope also lacks some of the bells and whistles that Digipan has
(search
feature) and also lacks some of the fancy tricks that Zakanaka's macros
can
perform (rig QSY, passband centering. logging inserts and more). Overall
it
performed well.
RTTY: This the mode that I had the most difficulty with. The first
thing I
noticed was that it appears to default to a setting that requires RTTY to
be
tuned in USB if you want to be able to copy signals. . Hamscope
displayed
the RTTY signal very nicely on the spectral or waterfall displays and the
AFC appears to track nicely, but I had problems copying even quite
strong
signals. There is no tuning scope like that in MMTTY or Zakanaka. One S3
signal on 10 meters would not display any intelligible signals at all but
a
quick flip to Zakanaka with MMTTY's RTTY engine and I was copying the
same
signal,an HB9 station, CQing with 100% copy. Hamscope provides the RTTY
user with a couple of FEC possibilities but I did not attempt to use
these
features. It certainly does not have the advanced filtering capabilities
that MMTTY and Zakanaka provides the RTTY users. I don't anticipate any
RITTY users giving up that DOS based program for this either. Perhaps I
chose a bad day, the HF bands were down quite a bit but Hamscope's weak
signal RTTY was way below the competition.
Logging: Hamscope has an ability to interface with YPLOG. This feature
was
not tested.
Overall:
A VERY NICE program. If RTTY performs for you better than it did for me,
then I would say it is an EXCELLENT program. The $50.00 to register the
program (and unlock some of the PTT and Radio PTT features) may seem a
little steep to those used to the free versions of Digipan, WinPsk
WinWarbler, Zakanaka, Stream , Logger, and MMTTY. However if you want
them
all in one package, the $50.00 may be worth it. Hamscope performs as well
as
TrueTTY and MixW which also cost money but Hamscope certainly looks
better
than those two programs. MixW 2.0 is in beta testing and it may well be
that MixW will have enough improvements to cause the ham to have much
difficulty in deciding which program to get.
Please fee free to comment on this article.
73 de Andy KB2EOQ
www.kb2eoq.com
obriena@&netsync.net
Note: KB2EOQ is on the Zakanaka and MMTTY help writing teams, some
conflicts of interest are acknowledged.
_______________________________________________
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