[TowerTalk] The bad news

[Don Havlicek]

Tom,
I definitely agree and couldn't have said it any better than you did!
Congratulations on putting my exact thoughts into your tome.
Don
N8DE

Tom Rauch wrote:
>>However, the evidence is that narrowband digital  (psk31)
> 
> will
> 
>>copy at signal levels you cannot hear...making CW less
> 
> than the
> 
>>ultimate weak signal mode...although certainly simpler.
> 
> 
> Sorry Jim, that just isn't true. That rumor probably comes
> from the fact many people using PSK don't understand radio
> systems very well.
> 
> People listen to a receiver on 2-3kHz bandwidth and can't
> sort the tone from noise. They then go away enamored with
> PSK, thinking it is a magical answer to all things weak.
> 
> What they forget is the PSK system "listens" through a
> narrow filter of less than 100Hz. If they knew CW and
> listened to the CW or PSK tone with the same bandwidth and
> the same slow sending rate as PSK they would find a good CW
> op can copy as well as or better than a PSK signal will
> print. The balance really tips in favor of CW when you
> consider transmitter energy used and dynamic range of the
> system.
> 
> PSK has horrid dynamic range, that's why PSK operators are
> constantly at each other's throats about antennas and power.
> They demand everyone run low power and often suggest people
> use an intentionally poor antenna to keep signal levels
> down. The reason they make those demands is PSK is
> inherently a very poor system for dynamic range. PSK depends
> on distortion-free operation of every mixer and gain block
> between a D to A converter in the sound card at the
> transmitter and an A to D converter in the sound card at the
> receiver.
> 
> I think what Hams miss is the dumbing down we are going
> through, and make no mistake about it Ham radio is dumbing
> down, is a social change. Societies eventually peak
> technically. They lose basic skills because those basic
> skills are replaced by "advanced" technology that springs
> from the basic skills. That's where we are at.
> 
> Get used to it. Basic skills that are the root of our
> technical advancement are going away. People are getting
> lazy, and most people don't want to learn technical things
> just for the sake of enjoying learning. The fashionable
> thing is to make an excuse why basic skills aren't useful.
> 
> 73 Tom
> 
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