I would like to write a letter to QST to hopefully get published by Field
Day. My concern is that the North Americanhams have taken a wrong turn about
15 years ago for digital modes for ARRL Field Day. Somehow, PSK31 becamethe
de facto mode for digital in Field Day. Before that, we had RTTY, and that
worked fairly well for FD.
What we have now for Field Day is 2 or 3 KHz of spectrum that is packed with
PSK31 signals. Many stations on topof one another. In addition, all it
takes is one over-driven signal to splatter and wipe out the whole PSK
bandwidth.
Don't get me wrong. PSK31 is a great mode 364 days of the year for ragchewing
and DXing. It is elegantly designed, has Vitterbi decoding, and is efficient
in is use of spectrum. But for Field Day, it is the wrong mode. In a
real-life emergency would everyone crowd PSK signals into 2 -3 KHz? No,
wewould spread out.
Even though RTTY is from the late 1920's, it is still the primary mode for
digital contesting. And yes, Field Day is a contest. So why not use RTTY?
And there is a huge chunk of spectrum that we can use. On 20 meters, we could
go from 14.080 to 14.130 MHz. Spread the RTTY signals out, so there is no
QRM. The space is there. Use it!
If Field Day stations make the transition from PSK31 to RTTY, would the RTTY
contesting community make a special effort to get on the air, andmake some RTTY
contacts? There is a Field Day category for home with commercial power, which
is 1D.
I would appreciate any inputs on this opinion piece.
Tnx & 73,
Tim N6GP
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