Recommendation for a "Digital Night"

[G7CNF]

Hi.

I am relatively new to 4m digital, and am currently struggling to make contacts. As will be seen by my other posts I have a keen interest in the digimodes, in addition to Phone and CW. I have called CQ at every opportunity on .200 SSB, .260 FM and .450 FM – all to no avail. Plus, attempted skeds out-of-country on .160 with WSJT modes. Regretfully I am not available Sunday mornings for the contests.

I would like to propose a digital night. Such a theme was started on 6m several years ago and has proved a success; this is currently held on Monday nights.

I have heard very little activity in my area on 4, (Shepton Mallet, Somerset) and no digital activity whatsoever, despite having a highly efficient omni directional antenna for 4m mounted at 14m (Horizontal) I am currently restricted to 10W.

4m presents a fantastic opportunity for good DX as well as local ragchews, having so few countries currently subscribed, the band is fundamentally "clean". As modes like JT6m are highly efficient and far exceed the likes of CW, coupled with Tropo, meteor scatter, iono, etc with the right equipment geography is quite irrelevant.

Thus I propose a digital night to try and get things moving, and for experimentation. Very good success is obtained on 6m with JT6M, which has brought the band to life.

We of course already have a psk centre of activity, not that I ever hear anything on that either, however JT6m is MUCH more efficient than this mode.

As I have previously done skeds on 70.160, I would like to propose this be informally adopted as JT6M calling. If this proves successful, perhaps we can experiment with other narrow modes by sked and really find out what works on 4?

Propose 1800 UTC onwards to accommodate the countries ahead of us, open-ended.

I offer a vote of Tuesday to Friday for setting up “Digi-niteâ€Â

[G7CNF]

Well Guys, one week on, 77 views 10 votes cast and so far it's a close call between Tuesdays and Fridays, with Tuesdays just pipping to the post.

Thank you for you input so far. I would be interested in anyone's view about time of day (or night!) that we should try this. I feel that leaving it too open-ended is too wide a margin-for-error - leaving people listening to white noise, giving up and shutting down, just as the next one comes along to give it a shot.

I am thinking perhaps wee need to bring this down to maybe 2 hours max. What do you think?

It doesn't matter how we do this, it will never suit everyone. Due to my family life comitments 8pm to 10pm suits me best.

I also recommend communicating using the spotting services, those of you with HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) will be familiar with http://oh2aq.kolumbus.com/dxs/ and http://www.ham-radio.ch/dxc/

I make good use of kolumbus when JT6M'ing on 6m, it really helps to coordinate things. Most spots on one appear on the other BUT NOT ALL!!

For the time being I will be QRV Tuesday nights beaming north from Somerset (IO81re) 9-10pm, 70.160Mhz. I am still restricted to 10W until I collect all the remaining bits to complete my GI-7b triode amp for 6 & 4m.

Hope to hear you soon, best wishes,

Nige. G7CNF.

[M0GZS]

Seems to work Nigel,

just heard

G7CNF G3UVR

Will try and get the TX side working over the next couple of days, and join in next Tuesday, 9 - 10pm is good for me too.

Graeme
2E0GZS
Southport, Lancashire

[G7CNF]

Tuesday 23/3/05

Heard:

G3UVR - pings plus "Test de G3UVR" - prob MS

G0EZY - QSB'ing on tropo.

No confirmed contacts made.

See http://www.70mhz.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=200 for results.

[G3UVR]

Nige.

At the moment new to data modes but when you were running a test with S51DI 22/3/2005 I could here you all the time up to S5. Was using your signal to set up WSJT but couldnt get hold of you on the DX cluster to let you know. QTH Wirral. IO83KH

73 for now de Denis G3UVR

[G7CNF]

@ G3UVR.

Hi Denis. I don't know if you have noticed the thread in "Narrow band data modes" but you did make the trip the other night, unfortunately it wa a fleeting "ping" and I missed it (must have had my head in the GI7b project).

See here http://www.70mhz.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=200

Best wishes and hope to confirm a contact soon.

[G3UVR]

Hello again Nige..

Suprised you heard me the other night. Was only running 4.5 watts setting up the driver stage levels for WSJT. I wasnt even using correct time periods just for the first time connected up the laptop to the mic socket and monitoring the recovered audio. As far as activity evenings for Data Tuesdays or Thursdays suit me best.
Thanks to the other stations that noticed and reported me.

73 de G3UVR

[G7CNF]

Hi again Denis.

That is one of the most beautiful things about the wsjt modes. WSJT is dedicated to weak signal handling, and only requires pings (depending on mode) of the order of 12-50ms to gain enough information to complete a part of the contact.

Meteor scatter, troposcatter, tropo , e, and a host of other variables can play a part, and the great thing is you don't have to be QRO to achieve this.

I had a QSO on 6m last week with OK1 on 10w (1100km). That is one of the reasons why I am selling the WSJT wares on 4m; apart from those of us with construction skills (numbers now dwindling) most have only the power the rigs supply, so the order is 10-15w. To many, 4m is a completely dead band, and the weak signal modes will combat that.

And hey - what about those poor 2e0's with only 10w to play with?? WSJT!!!!!!

I can tell you that I had an opportunity to ditch my FT-847 for a TS2000 this week for a reasonable price, a trade that most sensible amateurs would make. I very nearly did but for the fact that I would lose 4m and it's accompanying opportunities. Am I mad? I have had 1 YES 1 phone QSO in a month on this band, most would give up at that rate!

The other reason I didn't dich my 847 is that I have spent about 4 hours reworking the receiver ehnancing it well beyond the original spec.

Hope to hear you soon, best wishes, Nige.