[UK-CONTEST] Re Skimmer - was QTC in WAEDC RTTY

[Dave Lawley]

I think it's a question of degree Peter.

A machine code reader of whatever sort, listening in a 500Hz or even 
2kHz bandwidth, is one thing. CW-Skimmer when hooked up to an SDR can 
read Morse across the *whole* band or bands.

Just imagine in AFS. You stop keying for 30 seconds, and ALL the 
stations that are CQing anywhere from 3.510 to 3.580 get shown in your 
PC display.

That looks and feels very much like an extremely effective packet 
cluster system. In fact, even more so. No-one spots G4BUO CQing, because 
I'm not DX, not a mult, I'm "just another G" but Skimmer is democratic 
and spots everything.

So, the art of S+P becomes the art of pounce alone. The searching has 
been done for you, by a machine. Lord help us.

Dave G4BUO

Peter Hobbs wrote:
> Hi Paul
> 
> So I'm not allowed to use an automatic CW decoder??  I can recall working a 
> fully automatic KH6IJ back in the late 1950's.  SD encourages you to operate 
> CW as a data mode in the TX direction, so why not the other way around?  And 
> what about my hand-crafted master.dta file - another time saver?  Surely any 
> arrangement of my station that I may care to make is my business, as long as 
> I don't receive real-time help from others . . .
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I enjoy copying CW as much as any, but I'm one of the 
> Old F***s and we really shouldn't close our eyes (or ears!) to new ways of 
> doing things (or are they so new? - morse undulators* were widely used 
> during WWII)
> 
> 73
> Peter G3LET
> 
> * for those of more recent vintage, an undulator is a bit like a telegram, 
> except the paper is inked by a solenoid driven pen, coupled to the 
> (rectified) receiver audio output.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Paul O'Kane" <pokane at ei5di.com>
> To: "UK Contest Reflector" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 1:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Re Skimmer - was QTC in WAEDC RTTY
> 
> 
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Peter Hobbs" <peter at tilgate.co.uk>
>>
>>> ... but I've never understood the hang-up over Skimmer
>>> anyway.  It's a single op using *another* fancy radio.
>>> No different in principle to SO2R or a spectrum display.
>> Sorry, can't go along with that :-)
>>
>> It's one thing having a spectrum display, or a second radio,
>> showing you where there are other CW signals, but it's another
>> thing entirely when they are identified in advance.
>>
>> Skimmer decodes multiple CW signals in real time.  In effect,
>> the use of Skimmer moves CW closer to "just another data mode"
>> - as does any CW decoder.
>>
>> What's the difference between CW and "just another data
>> mode"?  Copying by ear.
>>
>> 73,
>> Paul EI5DI