SELCALL - you have it? registered it? use it? find it useful? thoughts?

[KD0JKM]

I request the forums opinion and thoughts on SELCALL:

- Who has it on at least one of their rigs?
- Who has actually registered for a SELCALL ID at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hflink/ ?
- Do you use it regularly? Leave it on all day, or maybe unattended just at night?
- Do you find it useful, specifically in the context of EmComms? Any thoughts on how it could be put to better use?

73,
Marcus
KD0JKM

[NA0AA]

No
No
No
Maybe.

[ZENKI]

HF selcall works very well on HF.  I have experience using HF selcall professionally and  it would make a  great tool to check propagation, power and antenna effectiveness. What i would not like to see is the HF channelized by numerous stations setting up net or selcall monitored channels. This would be selfish and not how the ham HF service should work internationally. We already have problems especially on 20 meters with illegal ALE activity setting up call channels.

SELCALL can work like the Californian beacon network however it would be more effective. If we allocated each DXCC country a beacon selcall ID we could check a propagation path at any time we want to operate. While modes like WHISPER are great, they so inconvenient and require a laborious  computer setup, accurate timing and a internet connection. ALL HF SELCALL beaconing would require for hams is a simple HF SELCALL MIC that could be added to any radio.

I would confine HF SELCALL to HF ham bands for propagation checks only.

I request the forums opinion and thoughts on SELCALL:

- Who has it on at least one of their rigs?
- Who has actually registered for a SELCALL ID at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hflink/ ?
- Do you use it regularly? Leave it on all day, or maybe unattended just at night?
- Do you find it useful, specifically in the context of EmComms? Any thoughts on how it could be put to better use?

73,
Marcus
KD0JKM

[KD0JKM]

Zenki,

Thank you for your interesting and thought provoking post. I like the idea. Suggestions on how it could be implemented?

Regarding my following two questions:

- Do you use it regularly? Leave it on all day, or maybe unattended just at night?
- Do you find it useful, specifically in the context of EmComms? Any thoughts on how it could be put to better use?

Here are further thoughts on this:
How many hours per day do you spend on your rig? 1? 2? More? How many hours per day could your rig scan for emergency calls if it had SELCALL and you are not using it for other activities? 24 hours minus X hours of "other activities".
That's a LOT of hours that your rig could listen for a distress call (and alert you of it) while you are out shopping, sleeping, whatever. I suspect that most people in distress would be grateful if you saw their message - even when it is with many hours of delay. Better a message going through than no message being received at all. Don't you think that increases your chances of getting out your distress call if more Hams were scanning SELCALL?

Why not just scan the following:
http://mmsn.org/iaru.html
http://hflink.com/emcomm/
all day? Tried it - but noticed immediately that "normal" conversations are going on too - and would you want your rig blurting throughout your house or apartment all day with some random chatter? Most likely not. Selcall scanning will only open up your loudspeaker, when a Selcall is actually received.

My rig is now scanning the SELCALL frequencies http://hflink.com/selcall/channels/   virtually non-stop when I am not using it in another way.

I know that one post said to call on frequencies where you hear traffic. If it works - great! If not, then you probably don't have enough power in your amp or else. A digital signal going through would be preferable - right?

Does anyone have a better suggestion (except for maybe getting ALE and contacting the HFLINK stations) on how to scan for and send out distress calls? HAM-only solutions requested!

73,
Marcus
KD0JKM

[AE6ZW]

I did not know much about ALE until I read this forum .
it is very interesting, and sound like can be used for FM also.  I guess it work like HF version of Digital Tone Squelch and slow data link
since, I only have old radio does not have computer control , and manual ANT tuner, it may not work well for me, and my VFO is not stable enough for much of digital signaling.
http://hflink.com/technical/