[NLRS] PSK31 on 2m SSB

[Dan Larson]

Does anyone on this list have experience with PSk31 on 2m SSB?

What I am interested in is whether it can allow communications 
farther than SSB, given the same antennas, same radios, and same
station locations. This seems to be true for HF, but I think we
can only depend on tropo scatter on 2m at that distance.

I am looking for a reliable way of communicating with some other
HAMs back in the twin cities from my weekend QTH near Brainerd.
They currently do not have HF privileges themselves.

The straight line distance is about 125 miles. This is well 
past "line of sight" so tropo scatter and occasional tropo ducting
is our only hope.

With our 6 element yagis only up at 25ft on one end and maybe 35ft
on the other end, we have only been able to make the contact using SSB
directly when tropospheric enhancement is taking place. Other times
we can "hear" each other down in the static but can't copy. An amplifier
is not really an option for me because of the inevitable interference
with the cheap broadband TV antenna amplifiers belonging to the other
campers in close proximity to me! I've had enough complaints at 50W.

My thought is that perhaps with PSK31 we can concentrate all of 
our RF energy in a much smaller bandwidth and be able to carry on
with our QSO.

Dan
KC0LUY