[Lowfer] 136 kHz Rulemaking and Daytime Tests?

[JD]

Did you figure out last hour's puzzle about Dex's Mystery Modes from the 
picture?  The clues are in the sidebands in the preceding picture.

I noticed most of the energy during the longer fuzzy strips was confined in 
a band just under 0.35 Hz wide, suggesting the mode used elements about 3 
seconds in length.  Since there were uneven concentrations of energy between 
the limits, I also surmised some of the elements were longer duration.  That 
vaguely hinted QRSS3 to me, but those "flatline" intervals between the fuzzy 
strips didn't fit.  What sort of exotic modulation scheme had Dex cooked up?

Other sidebands provided the answer, once I realized that's what the seeming 
"T" identifier actually was, and not a fourth station participating in the 
daytime experiment.  Once I saw enough of them on screen, I realized the 
upper "T" and lower "T" were mirror images of each other, centered on XKO's 
frequency and about 3 Hz from it, occuring only when XKO went "flatline."

Then it dawned on me--he was alternating 7 wpm CW with QRSS3!

I tried to detect the modulation by ear.  I could easily tell when either MP 
or XKO keyed on, but it was impossible to tell which was which, and when 
both _were_ on, the beat notes between the two carriers wreaked havoc on 
both the CW and QRSS3 keying.

Then it dawned on me...open two more Argo windows, and simultaneously look 
in QRSS10 and QRSS3 modes.  Well, sure enough, at 10 seconds there were 
additional keying sidebands + and - 9 Hz from Dex's carrier during the 
seeming flatline intervals, which no longer looked quite so inert.  But it 
was the QRSS3 window that revealed more.  (Excerpts attached.)

Even at nearly 20 dB lower level than MP, XGJ was still right at the 
threshold for decoding with QRSS3.  And, as I have so often opined in the 
past, MP would clearly have decoded well at QRSS3.  The first set of upper 
and lower sidebands of the 7 wpm keying are fainter in the attached than the 
seeming Ts in the previous QRSS30 image, but they too are faintly visible. 
You can actually see how the upper one beats against MP at about an 0.2 Hz 
rate, approximately two beats per 10 second time tick.

One more 137.78 capture shortly.

John