It was refreshing to see Ekki's comments on Winlink. Many of the comments
have been based on misinformation at the very least.
For one thing, I do not understand comments made about PSK31 being
interfered with by "wide PacTor-III signals. I operate PSK31 nearly every
day and I have NEVER seen a PacTor-III signal in any of the usual PSK31
areas of operation. I have seen PacTor-I and -II signals in these areas, and
have suffered from their interference, but who is to say that 1) the station
initiating the link could hear anything on the frequency at the time of
initiation, or, 2) that the PacTor "box" could detect interference?
As far as I know, no Winlink station ever comes on the air without being
brought up by a request for link by some ham. Steve, K4CJX in Nashville,
says they are working on the problem and I believe him.
Winlink is a valuable service provided to hams by hams. It allows the
passage of emails and other data between people who may have no other access
to the internet. I myself have used it when traveling in my motorhome, so it
is not just for a "bunch of sailors". And it is, in my opinion, no different
in that respect than the multitude of traffic nets that exist (and take up
spectrum) throughout the world. Is a letter from a ham to his wife or
grandchildren less important than a "congratulations on your new ham
license" or a report to the ARRL of traffic handled last month?
As I understand it, the ARRL is promoting ARQ modes for emergency
communications. There is no other mode type as efficient as PacTor (be
it -I, -II or -III) for this purpose at this time. And, contrary to
someone's stated opinion previously, amateur radio does not exist solely to
allow hams to communicate with each other for fun. We as a group are the
first to hail the value of amateur radio in times of emergency.
All of that said, I do think the ARRL should be careful about further
allocations or re-allocations of the spectrum for wide-band modes, such as
PacTor-III. PSK31, CW and other truly narrow-band modes may need small
segments (they can exist as many QSO's in a very small amount of the band,
can't they?), but our bands are shared with many emission types and trying
to segregate modes may well be an exercise in futility.
73
Duane Budd
w5ben@arrl.net
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