[Lowfer] 3-way MFSK8 QSO Tonight

[Jay Rusgrove]

Thanks to VE3EAR, W3NF, W1LE, K3DJC, W2SES, KN8AZN, VE1VDM, K0TO and W0RPK
for the reports on our three way MFSK8 QSO. John's power amplifier developed
a problem about half way through so Dex and I continued on without him.
Results appear to be mixed so we will likely repeat this 3 way QSO again.

At my end there were two or three times that the decoder was very slow to
sync up as another station started transmitting - even though the signal
level was quite strong and appeared to be properly placed in the waterfall.
During one episode, I stopped and restarted the decoder after about 10
seconds of 'garbage' and this cleared the problem. Once 'in sync' the
decoder seemed to ride through fades with no problem and recover quickly
after only a few missed characters. Dex was experiencing similar sync
problems so we switched to MFSK16 which  provided immediate sync and no
further problems were noted, although we were near the end of the QSO and
made only one or two more transmissions.

For a further look at this sync problem I'll make transmissions tonight
using both MFSK8 and MFSK16. Times / modes to be announced. To see how well
the modes sync I'll let the carrier drop between messages for a few seconds.
Each transmission will be preceded with and end with six periods ......

As usual, reports, comments and suggestions on these tests are greatly
appreciated.

Jay W1VD  WD2XNS  WE2XGR/2