[Lowfer] 13 MHz HiFERs?

[JD]

>>> I know that HiFers are limited in ERP by Part 15...but, are we also 
>>> limited as to TX Mode??? Is QRSS the only game in town???

Nope, and nope.  The field strength is one limit (peak, not average carrier 
level), and confining emissions to the band is another; but so far as mode, 
anything that meets those two requirements is fine from a regulatory 
standpoint.

As a practical matter, QRSS3 is an especially good fit between the 
simultaneous needs for a slow mode to enable weak signal decoding, yet one 
which is fast enough to fit most or all of an identifier between fades when 
the ionosphere is less than stable.

The nature of QSB at 22 meters is such that, statistically, you may have a 
few seconds out of every 3-10 minutes where conventional CW will be loud 
enough to copy by ear...but you may have to sit and listen for a long time 
before it does, and depending on the path, it may last for just the duration 
of a few letters.

As you lengthen the dot length beyond 3 seconds, on the other hand, 
individual elements of each character can get broken up by fading.  Some 
guys have tried QRSS6 and longer, but I've always had a hard time 
deciphering the results because of the gaps.  I found myself asking, "Was 
that a dash, or a couple of dots?"  The same problem applies to DFCW of FSK 
CW as well.

There is one much slower mode that _does_ work at 22 meters, though.  Garry 
Hess' modified slash code is compatible with QRSS3, but can be integrated 
over longer time frames very effectively.  In that mode, it's not the 
duration which determines whether an element is a dot or a dash, but the 
slope of the ramp.  The eye is very efficient at sorting out the slope of 
ramp waveforms, even if part of the ramp is missing.

There's a post of mine on the Message Board a couple of weeks back that 
illustrates that mode, although admittedly it was on a day when Garry's 
signals were the strongest on the band.  I have made captures on other days 
when they were the weakest signals, however, and the extra-slow ramps 
remained a lot clearer than the QRSS3 when both were at the edge of 
visibility.

John