Macro-free Sundays

[WA8JXM]

Nah... see a "normal digital mode" would be macros and then next contact.... an hour and a half qso is exotic.

Well I'm happy to say that most evenings I have a nice long digital QSO of around an hour or so.   Thor, MFSK16, MT63-500, DominoEX, Contestia....   40, 80 or 160m.

One evening I started a QSO using with a VE9 using Thor but heavy QRN (S9+) was hurting the copy and I was about to give up.  But we switched to Olivia and then Contestia 250/8 and continued for an hour with 100% copy.

I've since learned that MT-63 is even much better than Olivia or  Contestia when QRN and QRM are bad. 

Ken

[KL3HY]

I'm a brand new General class and just made my first real PSK31 contact on 10m yesterday.  It turned out to be with a macro jockey.  I was amazed that when I answered his CQ, he simply hit his brag macro, giving me 10 lines of details about his radio and computer gear, and then without waiting for me to reply he immediately began calling CQ again!

Prior to that contact I'd read much of this thread, but to see it happen first hand was very interesting.  At that moment I resolved to use a bare minimum of macros in any digital QSO in the future.  I may relax my view on macros in the future after I get some more time on the air, but I doubt it--I just don't see the point in being a macro jockey.

Mike

[WA8JXM]

Mike,

perhaps he had a malfunction at his station, maybe some interference wiped out your transmission, or maybe he was just a LID (poor operator).  Too bad that your first QSO turned out poorly, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the hobby.   There are many other stations out there

10m is a band where propagation can change very rapidly (S9 one tranmission and zero the next) but it also is a band where QRM will wipe out one signal while the other station doesn't hear it all all.    10m can be an exciting band when it is open since it allows very easy long distance communication, but I have never really cared for the propagation on the band and the way it behaves.   But that's just me.

73
Ken