[RTTY] N6EU thoughts on PSK63 SPRINT...

[WA9ALS - John]

> have a bunch ready to get to. I had NO problem with a wide bandwidth using
> my TS870, none at all.

This is a little like saying "I didn't have any problems with my poor
receive antenna - I worked everyone I heard".  Problem is, other people with
better receive antennas heard more than you.  How do you know that you
didn't have any problems?  Did you narrow your filtering and observe if you
found more printable signals?  The problem with using wide passbands is well
known.  Sure, you can work the strong signals.  However, if you're working a
barely printable station and a strong signal comes on in your passband, you
will lose print on the weak signal.  This is true even with a "fairly
narrow" filter, e.g. 500 Hz, and many are running even wider passbands.
This can be dealt with effectively with rigs like the PROII that allow
variable passband control down to a few Hz, but then you've lost some of the
"advantages" of seeing the band on a waterfall display.  In classic
fast-paced RTTY contesting, people have not been willing to spend a lot of
time (even a few seconds) tuning a signal or using various rig DSP controls
trying to pull someone out.  Can anyone imagine working 1000 or more PSK63
signals in a contest?  I guess we'll know when the first real contest
appears this fall.

http://www.qsl.net/wa9als/passband.htm