[Lowfer] Opera Tests

[John Andrews]

Jay and I have run a couple of daytime test sessions on Opera. It's 
tough to make real science of this, given the vagaries of noise, 
interference and fading, but we do have a few conclusions. In all cases, 
our goal was to find the minimum power level needed to decode a message, 
not just to follow the SNR figures provided by the various programs.

Opera2 is roughly equivalent to QRSS3. Haven't done any slower QRSS 
tests yet. If there's some linearity, Opera32 might be as good as 
QRSS30, but the issue of "all or none" copy brought up by M0BMU might be 
important. The brain is a really neat processor.

Opera4 is about the same as WSPR, but obviously takes 4 minutes instead 
of 2 minutes for a message.

It does seem that there is a 3 dB gain with each doubling of the length 
of the message.

WOLF remains the best weak-signal text mode. A WOLF message sent at the 
same power level as a just-above-the-threshold Opera32 signal decoded in 
3 minutes, 10 seconds, instead of Opera's 32 minutes. Late-afternoon 
fading prohibited any further tests, but WOLF should have at least a 3 
dB advantage. Disclaimer: WOLF normally requires an SSB exciter and 
linear PA.

All in all, Opera does seem to be very useful. Since all of these tests 
have been done in quiet, daytime winter conditions, they don't include 
the results of nighttime fading and t-storm static. More to do!

John, W1TAG, etc.