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Re: [RTTY] K3 FSK TX Bandwidth

To: "'Kok Chen'" <chen@mac.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] K3 FSK TX Bandwidth
From: "Ed Muns" <ed@w0yk.com>
Reply-to: ed@w0yk.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:24:07 -0800
List-post: <rtty@contesting.com">mailto:rtty@contesting.com>
Thanks, Chen!  I love your mini-tutorials.  I always learn something and
sometimes I even understand most of it.

The K3 FSK wave shaping is applied to the Mark-Space slew.  The trade-off
for the resulting narrower FSK bandwidth is a shorter dwell time of the
transmit energy.  So there is less energy in the receive filter.  That's all
I was referring to.

Its a good trade-off for anyone trying to operate nearby, but worse for the
station with the cleaner signal because he gets more of the clicks from
broader signals that are now closer to him.  That is, until all radios clean
up their FSK.  ;>)

Ed W0YK

 

Chen W7AY wrote:
> On Jan 27, 2013, at 10:53 PM, Ed Muns wrote:
> 
> > I didn't feel empirically that other stations had more 
> trouble copying 
> > me due to the somewhat lower energy in the signal.
> 
> Unless Elecraft did something terribly wrong to the first 280 
> Hz of the filter (and unless there is a bug, that is no 
> reason to think they would do that), then any loss of power 
> is (1) tiny, and (2) is discarded by the demodulator anyway 
> (certainly true if you use 2Tone).  
> 
> What is filtered away is unused power by the receiver in the 
> first place, just as CW keyclicks are filtered away when you 
> tune in to the CW signal.  Many of you even use 250 Hz filter 
> to receive RTTY.  Your modems would not even know Elecraft 
> has filtered the keyclicks away (but the stations that 
> operate near your frequency sure will be able to tell.)
> 
> Unless the receiver uses a Matched Filter, those keying 
> sidebands are not used when RTTY is demodulated by a Nyquist 
> filter.  There are only two software modems I know which uses 
> Matched Filters to gain a few tenths of a dB of SNR when 
> propagation conditions are quiet and when there is no QRM.  
> None of the common software on Windows uses Matched Filters.
> 
> From what someone else has measured, the Elecraft FSK filter 
> profile is at least similar to the "400 Hz filter" they use 
> as their AFSK transmit filter.  So, as long as the tone pair 
> is properly centered, you would expect the filter to 
> introduce no intersymbol interference (ISI).  As I indicated 
> in my RTTY Transmit Filter write-up, a properly designed 
> bandpass filter can be as narrow as 280 Hz at the -6 dB 
> points and still incur no extra decoding errors at the receiving end.
> 
> I have been modeling RTTY filters through transmit IMD 
> (intermodulation distortion).  You will notice in Andy 
> K0SM/2's plots that there is only so much you can do to 
> narrow down an RTTY signal before IMD takes over.  
> 
> Stare closely at his plots and what you will see is that the 
> filtered AFSK signals start off being nice and narrow.  But 
> when it drops down to about 40 dB or 50 dB below the carrier 
> peaks, you see a sudden broadening of the spectrum.  
> 
> This sudden broadening comes from 3rd order transmit IMD 
> (second order IMD does not cause broadening).  The amount it 
> broadens is pretty much the FSK shift (170 Hz) plus perhaps 
> one set of RTTY keying sidebands.  I.e., that "pedestal" adds 
> about 216 Hz to the width of the transmitted signal.
> 
> With a transmitter that has better IMD that the one Andy 
> measured, that "pedestal" will start at a lower level.  For a 
> transmitter with worse 3rd order IMD, that pedestal will be 
> higher up and causes more harm.
> 
> So, even if you start off with good intentions and use a 280 
> Hz filter, the transmitter will broaden it to 500 Hz when you 
> are down to the -40 dB or -50 dB level relative to the carriers.
> 
> The FSK filter in the K3 will produce a similar "pedestal" 
> since it also goes through the transmitter's IMD.
> 
> I am currently looking into methods of producing filtered 
> RTTY that are less affected by transmitter IMD.   
> 
> 73
> Chen, W7AY
> 
> 
> 

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