Kos,

I absolutely agree.  I would hope we can come to some kind of an agreement that for the entire contest cycle, if the q rate drops below - pick a number - we go over the MSK144 and start banging away.  Meteor scatter is not just a middle of the night activity. That is sure what I saw in the January contest on 6.  I don't know if you had contest mode on or off but it is pretty cool.  It does not send the signal report, just the call and the grid, just the standard contest exchange.

I see no reason not to try this on 222 and 432. All we need are other stations on the air. 

The digital modes in general are pretty darned impressive.  At least on the EME front Lancer Collister, W7GJ, has shown that JT65 is 10-15 dB more sensitive than CW.  Not sure what the MSK144 numbers show but I bet they are similar.   Running JT65 I worked Australia on 17 last night looking at a flat panadaptor except for his little blip.  I got a -21, he got a -20.  EME level signals!  Dropped down to 160 and had similar if less dramatic results.

One of the debates we will be HAving in the future it seems to me will center around when to go to CW and when to go to one of digital modes.  The time per Q is clearly faster with CW but the digital modes are probably more useful when it comes to making contacts on an otherwise dead band.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Johnny

-----Original Message-----
From: Kos
Sent: Feb 5, 2017 12:04 PM
To: 'Bryan W3CP'
Cc: 'Jim Worsham' , 'Sherman Banks' , 'John Kludt' , 'Bob Lear' , 'FourLanders Contest Team' , 'Ron Rogers'
Subject: RE: [Fourlanders] MSK144 for Contesting

Okay,

 

Here is a quick update on my efforts here since yesterday afternoon with MSK144 on 6M:

 

The setup is my K3 running 350 watts into the Cushcraft 5 element beam ay 30 feet with WSJT-X 1.7.0; using 15 sec sequences and auto sequence turned on:

 

·         9 stations worked in EM84 (2), EN91, EN34, EN50, FM07, EM00, EM13, and EN41. One EM84 station (W4IMD) was a sked to get things working last evening, the other stations were worked this morning.

·         VE1SKY in New Brunswick emailed me telling me he had solid decodes at a distance of 1254 miles and to setup a sked for later

·         The auto sequencing worked flawlessly and is slick as …

·         Of the QSOs, three were completed in 1:30 mins or less; some took several minutes

·         Decodes happen during the RX cycle; no need to wait until the sequence ends

·         Best of all, consistent with the -X UI, there was no ambiguity as to whether the station was worked. The guesswork in interpreting the decodes is gone, and the decode is good or it is not represented at all

 

Working on the 2M station right now – I have the beam up and am working on the setting up the Teletec brick amp, and will be integrating the FT-991.

 

This could be good for us in June.

 

Kos

 

From: Bryan W3CP [mailto:w3cp@w3cp.info]
Sent: Saturday, February 4, 2017 10:12 PM
To: Kos <kosmetatos@gmail.com>
Cc: Jim Worsham <w4kxy@bellsouth.net>; Sherman Banks <w4atl@shermanbanks.net>; John Kludt <johnnykludt@earthlink.net>; Bob Lear <w4zst@windstream.net>; FourLanders Contest Team <fourlanders@contesting.com>; Ron Rogers <ww8rr@charter.net>
Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] MSK144 for Contesting

 

Hi Kos,

 

I believe most ops here in the US are now using the official WSJT-x v1.7.0 release that came out in early December.  The auto-advance feature works great, and the PSK reporter integration is very handy.

 

 

73,

Bryan

 

 

 

On Sat, Feb 4, 2017 at 9:18 AM, Kos <kosmetatos@gmail.com> wrote:

I wanted to get a thread going on this to see if we can exchange some ideas and facilitate a discussion on MSK144 for the next contest.

 

I have been doing some reading and trying to better understand the MSK144 mode; I’m finding there’s a client out there by IZ2HV that is getting at least one favorable review –

 

http://lz2hv.org/mshv

 

The UI looks much like the WSJT-X UI but it appears the developer has pushed the MSK144 mode out sooner than the WSJT development team, and the setup is reported as simpler. I’m going to download it and have a look.

 

The 15 second intervals are attractive for contesting and getting QSOs done quickly.

 

Here’s the writeup I’m referencing: http://gm4fvm.blogspot.com/2016/12/msk144-and-lean-november.html

 

 

Kos


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