FLDIGI question

Discussion in 'Survival Communications' started by Southbound, Apr 22, 2018.


  1. Southbound

    Southbound Monkey++

    I want to use fldigi with my Icom 706 mkII. I downloaded it and have been watching YT videos without success. Does anyone have experience with the software using a 706? Any help is appreciated.
     
    sec_monkey likes this.
  2. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    The only reason I am responding is because it is obvious to anyone who looks at my profile, is that I am in florida. Sad part is, not only can I not answer your question, I am such a techtard, that I am not even sure what your question or the gear you are talking about is. With regard to digital cell phone signals, florida has many nearly dead zones. If you are in or really close to a major city everything usually works fine. in rural areas not so much. I hope you get your answer.
     
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  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Nothing to do with FL, chiefie. It is a digital mode of radio comms. "fast light digital" Has nothing to do with light either, it is "light" vs. "heavy."

    And that is all I know or even think I know about it.
     
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  4. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Are you trying to use the CAT interface to control the rig or just 'do' digital modes?
    Are you trying to use the code from Source Forge?
     
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  5. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    LOL. .... ghrit I only tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
    well except for fishing tales. Told y'all I was a techtard.
     
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  6. Southbound

    Southbound Monkey++

    Tac I too am a techtard. DKR I have no idea. I want to use it to listen to Morse code (CW)to help me learn it. I have been a HAM since 95 and only used local repeaters. I'm working on studying for an upgrade.
     
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  7. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Assuming you are a Tech, there are bands where you can use and listen to CW other than 2M and 70cm. If you have an hf rig already, listening on the low ends of the bands where the coders hang out, will get you all the hearing you can stand.

    It flashes on me that you may not have a rig that covers hf code bands. That being so, there are "cheap" radio receivers that will cover the bands of interest. Kaito is one commonly recommended radio receiver for preppers. Tuning is tricky, but it works. There are others.
     
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  8. Southbound

    Southbound Monkey++

    I am a Tech. I am fortunate/unfortunate to have inherited my father-in laws equipment and have HF. I strung up a home-brew dipole and listen from time to time. I hope the fldigi will help with learning code.
     
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  9. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    If I understand all I know fldigi will do zilch for learning CW. If I understand all I think I know, the messages are typed in on a keyboard, and converted in software. I can tell you for sure that when transmitted, all you hear is a gawdawful noise.

    There are a couple guys in the club that are putting together an fldigi mode for ARES use. I think, but do not know, that they are leaning toward FT65.
     
    sec_monkey likes this.
  10. sec_monkey

    sec_monkey SM Security Administrator

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    most modes run way too fast to be understandable by humans plus they use several different encodings

    there are scripts that convert from CW to ASCII plus vice versa
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2018
  11. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    @William Warren I suspect this is a question for you... He is our Digital HF Guru, here on the Monkey....
     
    sec_monkey likes this.
  12. Tempstar

    Tempstar Monkey+++

    Start listening around 7.010 and tune up from there. You should hear all of the CW you want. The 706 will tune there. Good luck!
     
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  13. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    For CW practice, use "Continues Wave" - it is a free app that is played by Alexi

    may be obtained form https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C7HS47J/?tag=survivalmonke-20

    FWIW, listening to Qs on the iar is good practice, but speed requires a bit of a path to follow - this app offers that path,.
     
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  14. ochit

    ochit Monkey+

    I guess my tin cans and string are secure but a bit dated.
     
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  15. William Warren

    William Warren Monkey+++

    Since I am an "Old Law" Extra, and I took the 20 wpm test to get that status, I'm going to say that I don't think CW is the best use of your time. I climbed the mountain, so I'm entitled to say that the view isn't worth the effort.

    To get an upgrade to General, I suggest you get one of Gordon West's courses and learn the material that's needed to pass the current test. There's plenty of time for CW later, if that's still of interest after you get experience on the low bands, including the current digital modes that pass information more quickly and reliably than you could with CW.

    William Warren
     
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  16. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    WW is most correct. My KX2 has a feature where PSK-31 can be sent...using a set of paddles, freq set the same way....

    OTOH, you can use cheap, simple equipment and still have fun...
     
  17. William Warren

    William Warren Monkey+++

    No offense, but I'd shy away from FT65 for ARES.

    From the WSJT-X home website at Princeton:
    They use nearly identical message structure and source encoding. JT65 and QRA64 were designed for EME (“moonbounce”) on the VHF/UHF bands and have also proven very effective for worldwide QRP communication on the HF bands. QRA64 has a number of advantages over JT65, including better performance on the very weakest signals. We imagine that over time it may replace JT65 for EME use. JT9 was originally designed for the LF, MF, and lower HF bands. Its submode JT9A is 2 dB more sensitive than JT65 while using less than 10% of the bandwidth. JT4 offers a wide variety of tone spacings and has proven highly effective for EME on microwave bands up to 24 GHz. These four “slow” modes use one-minute timed sequences of alternating transmission and reception, so a minimal QSO takes four to six minutes — two or three transmissions by each station, one sending in odd UTC minutes and the other even. (emphasis added)
    (See WSJT-X User Guide for the complete text).

    ARES operations are focused more on short-term, quick messages, sometimes generated directly by medical personnel at emergency sites or triage centers, since experience has shown that doctors are more effective when given the tools that they use everyday, such as standard medical reporting software, so ARES has concentrated on digital message delivery. The "JT" modes were made for very weak signal work, such as Earth-Moon-Earth (EME), a.k.a. Moonbounce. EmCom (Emergency Communications) is now about fitting hams into the Incident Management System, and providing communications channels that connect directly to other computers for high-speed email delivery rather than voice or CW message handling.
     
  18. William Warren

    William Warren Monkey+++

    I just retired! I resign! :sleep:

    My "Digital HF" experience dates from the days of 850 Hz-shift Teletype. Modern digital comms are always done with software, and require little more than a laptop and some connecting cables to deliver automatically-corrected data channels which are much more effective at getting the job done. A good thing, too: hams used to be a roadblock to getting messages into and out of disaster areas, but now that CW isn't required anymore, we're catching up with the digital age.
     
  19. Idahoser

    Idahoser Monkey+++ Founding Member

    digital modes require some kind of computer sound device and a way of getting that into and out of the radio. In it's simplest form then, you could have your laptop's microphone 'listen' to a shortwave radio's speaker and it will indeed function. Any kind of noise in the room will of course interfere. It's much better to have some extra circuitry to isolate the electrical grounds and so you usually end up with something like a SignaLink with an interface cable designed for your particular radio. The whole kit (new) is about $125. It can be done other ways, but this is the cheap/easy way to get started. The software on the PC is typically available for free download.
    NONE of this is part of CW. Just tune in and listen. Decoding is harder than sending.
     
    sec_monkey likes this.
  1. DKR
  2. William Warren
  3. bumpshadow
  4. hitchcock4
  5. DKR
  6. SB21
  7. Bandit99
  8. BTPost
  9. DKR
  10. BenP
  11. Hanzo
  12. Asia-Off-Grid
  13. Asia-Off-Grid
  14. ED GEiN
  15. ED GEiN
  16. Tempstar
  17. BenP
  18. Idahoser
  19. hitchcock4
  20. BTPost
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