It appears that the FCC is going to give the official green light for us digital ops to openly and legally experiment with new "public domain" digital, analog (non-voice) and "fuzzy" modes. Actually, the race has already begun, as you know, if you have listenned on the bands lately. With that understanding, a new mode for sharing images is in the works and may be coming to a windows program soon!
For years, SSTV has been the only method for broadcasting images on the HF band. (Binary transfer of digitized pictures is not the same as broadcasting an image that can be viewed in real time.) With all the new techniques of DSP using the PC soundcard, it is time to have a new method for sharing image files. With that as a background, let the discussion begin!
Several proposals on various e-groups have been made and I believe some coding has already begun. I personally am looking for a method that combines keyboard text with the ability to send images, all in one program. The process should be seamless so that the experience is easy and similar in nature to how SSTV is operated on the HF phone bands. The new mode should use MFSK for both text and image transmittion. The operating band width should be reasonably small but allow a reasonable speed of image transmission. (B&W pic mode might be an option for even faster transmission.) The new mode is intended to be operated in the exsisting digital bands, (not in the phone bands) possibly where MFSK16 operation is normally found on all HF bands. It would be used to share images in single QSOs or in a round table group. It could be also used as a text only mode (with FEC) if no images were needed or wanted. This new mode would basically replace the microphone with a keyboard (for us die-hard digi operators) but not eliminate SSTV on the phone bands.
Any ideas or helpful comments? SEE you on the digi bands... ;-)
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Topic: A new form of SSTV (Read 6142 times)