[WriteLog] digirite issues during the WW

Mon Sep 2 13:15:05 EDT 2019

This inability to decode was not limited to Digirite. I used the WSJT-X
with N1MM solution.

I wondered if there was almost a de-sensing effect from generally full
waterfalls. Whether as it were the soundcards were not swamped with signals
making decoding difficult.

I don't know the tchnical terms but many many strong signals arrived here
and stations I normally work with ease on the regular week=day band
conditions were not copying me and even though they were +NN dB signal
levels were decoding only intermittently.

At my end I just felt like either rig but more likely soundcard was
essentially "overloaded" or "swamped" with signals.

I am curious as to the conclusions.

72 and thans for the many QSO's

Dean - 8P6SH/8P2K

*Dean St.Hill*

*Bajanscapes*
https://www.facebook.com/bajanscapes/

*17 Ocean City*
*St.Philip*
*Barbados*

*246-825-2039*
*246-416-5277*

*dmsthill at gmail.com <dmsthill at gmail.com>*

On Mon, Sep 2, 2019 at 12:15 PM Randy Thompson K5ZD <k5zd at charter.net>
wrote:

> I can confirm the same.  Ability to decode did seem to degrade during the
> contest.  And this was even when I had a number of hours away from the
> radio, but with WL/DR still running and decoding.  Something to look for.
>
> It is frustrating with the digi modes because there is no way for the human
> ear to detect any differences.  You look at the waterfall and the SNR and
> mutter...
>
> Randy K5ZD
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: WriteLog <writelog-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Ron
> > Lodewyck
> > Sent: Monday, September 02, 2019 10:26 AM
> > To: Don Hill AA5AU <aa5au at bellsouth.net>
> > Cc: Ken Beals <k6mr at outlook.com>; Writelog Forum
> > <writelog at contesting.com>; Ron Lodewyck <ronl at csustan.edu>; Ed Muns
> > <w0yk at msn.com>
> > Subject: Re: [WriteLog] digirite issues during the WW
> >
> > I agree with Don - there needs to be another RR73 follow-up when you are
> > the CQer and the other guy repeats his report.
> >
> > And I had the same issue as Ed (and also, as I recall, Ken K6MR)
> > regarding mysterious end to QSOs.  I stopped getting replies to my CQ's
> > as well as calls to others - some quite strong - around 0230 UTC or so
> > when I switched to 80M. Rate went to near, but not quite, zero, for over
> > an hour.
> > Gave up in frustration.  Should have rebooted I think. Anyway, I checked
> > on Ed's hypothesis that our clocks might have drifted or been off too
> > much for
> > FT4 by looking in the DigiRite Log (wow! it saves EVERYTHING decoded or
> > transmitted. Impressive and useful.) I see no correlation between DT
> > (clock
> > difference) and success in either CQing or answering others from the
> > beginning of the contest to when I switched to 80 M. From the very
> > beginning of the contest there is a wide variation in decoded signals DT
> > from (in my case) -0.1 to +1.0 and many successful QSOs on FT4. That same
> > range of DT occurs later, when I switched to 80M, and the rate went to
> > near
> > zero.   So, clock synchronization does not SEEM to be the culprit - at
> > least in my case. Something else was going on but beats me what...
> >
> > See Don's comments on the two situations where RR73 needs to be sent
> > again.
> > 73,
> > Ron N6EE
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Sep 1, 2019 at 10:31 PM Don Hill AA5AU <aa5au at bellsouth.net>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > [Don AA5AU] The message doesn't appear fast enough in "Calculated next
> > > to send" to know if something is going to be sent or not. I was
> > > frustrated time and again when I went S&P to call a station while I
> > > had CQ enabled. This is what happens.
> > >
> > > CQ W0YK CM97
> > > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > > CQ AA5AU EL49
> > >
> > > I don't think this is right. We can debate it. I would think my last
> > > transmission should be W0YK AA5AU RR73. I understand the rationale
> > > behind going right back into a CQ. But it gets cloudy when I don't
> > > receive the W0YK AA5AU RR73 message on the first try. It goes like
> > > this:
> > >
> > > CQ W0YK CM97
> > > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > > nothing copied from W0YK
> > > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > > nothing copied from W0YK
> > > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > > CQ AA5AU EL49
> > >
> > > W0YK may be thinking that the QSO is not complete because I went right
> > > back into CQ without sending RR73 and he does not log it. We are both
> > > out of a contact.
> > >
> > > I got good at turning off CQ. When I turned off CQ while S&P,
> > > sometimes it sends the ending RR73, but sometimes it sending NOTHING AT
> > ALL like this:
> > >
> > > CQ W0YK CM97
> > > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > > ...DigiRite sends nothing...
> > >
> > > I'm sitting there looking at "Calculated next to send" and don't see
> > > anything then realize nothing is getting sent. I finally use
> > > "Alternate messages" to send the RR73 message but it's a cycle or two
> > > too late. This was the biggest issue I had with DigiRite all weekend.
> > > I use "Alternate messages" to send RR73 for probably half my contacts.
> > >
> > > .
> > >
> >
> >
> > > [Don AA5AU] The only other issue I can think of now is when you are
> > > the CQ station, another station answers, you send RR73 but the other
> > > station didn't receive it and sends their grid again and WriteLog then
> > > sends R + Grid message instead of RR73. Like this:
> > >
> > > CQ WW AA5AU EL49
> > > AA5AU VE6AX DO20
> > > VE6AX AA5AU RR73
> > > AA5AU VE6AX DO20
> > > VE6AX AA5AU R EL49
> > >
> > > Why not just send VE6AX AA5AU RR73 again?
> > >
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>
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