[WriteLog] Any new thoughts on "stuttering"?

[Don Hill]

AFSK sucks.  No way around it.  FSK is pure on and off keying.  Nothing
could be simpler.  No RF to screw up the audio.  No need to adjust your
MIC gain, etc., etc.

However, when my TS870 took a lightning strike two weeks ago, it would
only work on AFSK and I was able to work ZD9ZM with it.  I did notice the
stuttering idle, but it is really not a factor.  In a contest you are sending
preprogrammed buffers and therefore, not many, if any, idle diddles are
sent.

If you have a radio that is not FSK capable, AFSK does work.  If you have
an FSK radio, there is NO reason you shouldn't use it.  It makes for a cleaner,
more reliable transmit signal, not to mention being able to use the narrow
RTTY filters vs. wide SSB filters.  The TS870 does have a narrow filter that
can be used in LSB for RTTY, but it is not nearly as effective as the 500 hz
filter in the RTTY mode.  And of course, the 250 hz filter is tops in crowded
RTTY contesting conditions.

Solar flux is rising, A index is falling.  Could we possibly have as good of
condx as we had last year????

73, Don AA5AU

----- Original Message -----
From: Randy Thompson, K5ZD <k5zd@ma.ultranet.com>
To: WA9ALS - John <jfleming@shelbynet.net>; <Writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 5:50 PM
Subject: RE: [WriteLog] Any new thoughts on "stuttering"?


>
> After 2 years of using WL in AFSK mode, I finally got busy last night and
> wired up FSK.  If someone had told me long ago that I could just take the
> same transistor circuit I use for CW and move it from pin 4 to pin 3 on the
> COM port, I would have done it long ago!
>
> Anyway, I also noticed that the transmission time in FSK seemed to be
> shorter than I am used to in AFSK.  Didn't look into why, but hope that
> extra 1 second less per transmission will help lead to more QSOs!
>
> See you guys this weekend.
>
> Randy, K5ZD
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-writelog@contesting.com
> > [mailto:owner-writelog@contesting.com]On Behalf Of WA9ALS - John
> > Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 10:43 PM
> > To: Writelog@contesting.com
> > Subject: [WriteLog] Any new thoughts on "stuttering"?
> >
> >
> >
> > I hadn't run Winrtty in AFSK for awhile until this afternoon - Now I
> > remember why - stuttering.  I had forgotten about it because it doesn't
> > happen in FSK.  I had a long QSO with a friend, and he observes the same
> > behavior.  Idle diddling is irregular, and there is a delayed mark tone
> > at the beginning and end of each transmission, essentially regardless of
> > PTTDELAY (not exact syntax) settings in the ini file.
> >
> > I've just been timing one contest exchange buffer - In FSK mode it takes
> > 4.85 seconds from keydown til keyup, but the same buffer in AFSK takes a
> > full second longer.  The end result is irregular diddling and a delayed
> > mark tone at the beginning and end of transmission - even in ALT-K mode
> > (doesn't depend on something like %R being at the beginning of the
> > buffer).
> >
> > My report was in general that the signal sounded MUCH BETTER in FSK
> > mode, mostly due to timing/regularity.
> >
> > Does anyone have any NEW comments on AFSK vs FSK and the "stuttering
> > problem"?  I only ask because I might run AFSK if I could get it to
> > operate and sound like FSK!
> > How many of you guys are running AFSK and how many FSK?  I basically
> > wouldn't use mine in AFSK due to these characteristics.  Thanks - 73
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
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>




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