Write-Log, Binary Phase Shift Keying (PSK31), Digital Panoramic Tuning (DigiPan) and Radio Set-Up.

Write-Log

Click her to open this box. Set the frequency and mode before operating. Click FSK for PSK-31 Contacts. Please try not to forget to avoid unnecessary editing.

Write-Log
Super Check Partial

Click Window then Band Summary. Networking will display all Stations.

Click Window then Super Check Partial

Click Contest then Multipliers

Logged Stations

Enter Call, Operating Class and Section. Tab over by using Space Bar

Alt W Clears this entire row. Left, Right Arrows and Backspace allows for editing.

What is PSK31?
PSK31 was developed by Peter Martinez (G3PLX) and introduced to the amateur community in December 1998. PSK31 was also known as Varicode Mode (Variable Number of Bits) From the perspective of the transmitter, this amounts to little more than somebody whistling into the microphone. PSK31 rapidly shifts the phase of the audio signal between two states. These shifts serve the same function as two FSK tones traditionally used by RTTY. Instead of shifting frequency were shifting phase. PSK31's bandwidth of 31.25 Hz was chosen because a normal typing speed of about 50 words per minute requires a bit rate of about 32 bits per second (1Bit/Hz). PSK31s 31.25 Hz can be derived from the 8 KHz sample rate used by the DSP chips in computer sound cards

What is PSK31?

BIT Value 0 1

Amount of Shift None 1/2

Degrees of Shift 00 1800

Time Domain

Frequency Domain

PSK 31 vs. RTTY

The chart at the right shows the BIT Error Rate (BER) as a function of Signal-to-Noise ratio in a noiseless environment.
Note: BER is the number of BITs received in error. For example, a BER of 10-5 is 1 erroneous BIT received in error out of 100,000.
1 10 1 0.1

RTTY
0.01
3 4

For Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratios greater than 10 dB, PSK-31 is virtually error free.
S/N=10Log(Power of the Signal Power of the Noise). In other terms, if the noise level is 1uV then you need 3.16uV for 10dB S/N

Bit Error Rate

1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10

PSK-31 PSK-31

6 7

8 9

QPSK-31
0 5 10 15 20

At poor S/N ratios the BER of PSK-31 is five times better than RTTY Note the curve that represents QPSK-31.

10

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (dB)

PSK31 - Real World Performance

The power in a PSK-31 signal is concentrated in a 31.25 Hz bandwidth versus 250 Hz (BW not frequency shift) for RTTY and 3300 Hz for SSB. Assuming 100 watts of transmit power, the PSK-31 signal has 3.2 watts/Hz vs. 30mW/Hz for SSB. If a signal provides 20 dB S/N ratio at the receiver using SSB, the same S/N ratio is achieved with 8W using RTTY and only 1W using PSK-31! Lower Case characters are more efficient than upper case due to Varicode (not to be confused with ASCII or Binary code). PSK31 characters contain a variable number of bits. Lower-case PSK31 characters have fewer bits than their upper-case equivalents, so lower-case text transmits faster and decodes better For example, the letter a has the Varicode 1011. The capital letter A has a Varicode of 1111101.
The letter a has four BITs

FYI: The better alternative QPSK31

QPSK31 has FEC convolutional code; lowers the number of errors Forward Error Correction (FEC) is when redundant data is sent 900 out of phase with the primary data stream. A Viterbi Decoder decodes the bit stream and estimates likelihood the data is correct or not. If not it corrects the error. Under very poor propagation conditions (like now); 1 out of 5 PSK-31 characters get thru compared to 1 out of 2 QPSK-31 characters.

DigiPan Signal Channel

This is the Receive Window

Right Click to put cursor on the signal you want to receive.

This is the Transmit Window

Preset FD Macro's

DigiPan Multichannel
3A NNJ Click Call Goes here

CQ

IMD

Radio Set Up
PSK-31 is a 100% duty cycle mode. For all radios reduce power by 50% Turn Audio Compression OFF With MIC Gain very low and power very low click T/R button on DigiPan to Transmit Adjust MIC gain so ALC has little or no needle movement
This is to prevent Inter-Modulation Distortion from being transmitted. Digital waveforms inherently produce IMDs.

Adjust power to ~50W (typical). Re-adjust MIC gain for little or no ALC needle movement Re-adjust power output. Click T/R again to go back to Receive You can operate any mode that you please; SSB, CW or PSK-31. All three HF stations will have full three mode capability. If you dont know ASK!!! Dont guess!!!