[Elecraft] [OT] CW speed and decoders and SS

[David Wilburn]

A friend has the MFJ pocket decoder.  I have tried it.  It is not
perfect, but if you connect it to the radio instead of just audio, it
works better.  And with the filters in the K2, I can drill down to the
signals I want.  My thoughts were that most were sending electronically,
as you mentioned, which is what these decoders like.

It has taken me years to get to where I am with my copy.  I'm mainly
looking for something to help me get snippets of the exchange while I am
listening to QSO's, so I know most of the info when I return their CQ.

Would be happy to practice with you sometime Julian, I sure need the
practice.  Many have mentioned the smaller nets and contests too.  I
need to do more of those also, to build up my skills.  SS was only my
4th contest, and only my 3rd CW contest.

When I was frustrated at the beginning of the contest, I downloaded HRD
and tried to figure it out. Finally worked through all of that, to find
out that the sound card in my only windows machine is deaf.  I have a
linux box sitting there, but did not try it.
-  

David Wilburn
dave.wilburn at verizon.net
K4DGW
K2 S/N 5982


On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 14:29 +0000, Julian G4ILO wrote:
> I've never tried the MFJ, though I was tempted to get one.
> 
> On Windows PCs, the CW decoder in MixW is pretty poor. About the best
> is CWGet, as long as you manually set the threshold to above the level
> of noise. However, all DSP based Morse decoders only work when you
> click on the exact centre of the transmitted signal - just like
> receiving PSK. Unfortunately in CW - unlike data modes - people don't
> usually reply on the exact frequency you are sending on. Any AFC
> function in the software is much too slow, and just as likely to lock
> on to another signal entirely. So the reality is that computer
> decoders are useless for contest work except in S&P mode where you can
> net on to the station you want to work before you call him.
> 
> In those circumstances I have found they work really well, especially
> as contest stations are usually sending well formed electronically
> generated code which computer decoders prefer.
> 
> Pocket Digi running on a Windows CE hand-held (e.g. Dell Axim) makes a
> very good standalone decoder. Just stand it next to the radio and it
> decodes whatever it hears on its microphone.
> 
> The best computer decoder I have tried was G-PSK31 for Linux. That was
> one of the reasons behind my attempt to switch to Linux for the shack.
> Unfortunately after someone suggested I try FLDigi my sound card
> stopped working with either of the programs and I hadn't a clue how to
> fix it, so I went back to Windows.
>