[Elecraft] Elecraft & Digital modes...

[John Ragle]

As I was trying to point out before, the availability of a variety of 
modes on rigs like the K3 encourages a variety of operating styles. My 
observation, like that of the two appended remarks, is that modes such 
as RTTY, PSK, Olivia and others seem to encourage a bit more rag-chewing 
than does, say, high-speed CW. I use these modes on my K3/100 and on my 
K2/100 before it, and both boxes perform wonderfully.

It is a pity that a weak-signal mode like Olivia 500/16 is not more used 
on 6 meters. Even on 2 meters,such modes are probably worth trying even 
though multi-pathing becomes a relevant problem.

My favorite mode has become PSK31 -- it is wonderfully conservative of 
band-width, and is reasonably useful even when conditions are not 
perfect. Olivia 500/16 is less often encountered, but it is quite 
astonishing to find text rising like Lazarus from the noise...

The point of all this palaver would seem to be "use the capabilities of 
the new-age transceiver to their fullest." This is a plug for the K3, 
which does it all in fine form, but also a resounding "hurrah!" for 
software oriented hams producing outstanding software like fldigi. Not 
all the newest transceivers on the market have these capabilities. 
Between the K2 and the K3 I owned a Flex 3000, which (once set up) 
worked the digital modes quite well with fldigi. However, it was almost 
unusable on CW. Its greatest attraction seemed to be with operators who 
wanted high-quality AM(!), a retrograde tendency if ever there was one.

John Ragle -- W1ZI

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On 7/9/2010 12:21 AM, Joe Planisky wrote: (JLR edited)
> I've had good luck finding rag chews using the Olivia mode....(its) slowness seems to make it
> unpopular with the RST-QTH-Name-73 crowd...the slow speed
> also seems to encourage rag chewing.
>
>
> On Jul 8, 2010, at 7:04 PM, Don Cunningham wrote: (JLR edited)
>> ...I spend DAYS looking for a good, RTTY ragchew, unless one of
>> my old friends shows up on frequency.  ... I thought maybe it was
>> a change in technology, so geared up for PSK, but got the very same...
>>