Friday, May 20, 2011

PSK-31 and the QSL Rate-Tis a Puzzlement

PSK is a robust mode, no doubt about it-except over the pole. Its the replacement for CW us tin ear terminal no-codes have been waiting for; Narrow bandwidth and good distance for power-I'm at 2K+ miles per watt now (Bolshoi spasebo Fedor!) confirmed. Last night was up and down the east coast and into the UK on 2.5W-what now is a typical night (slow radioing these days as Joy and I are taking care of a second harmonic while his mother preps and takes her medical boards. My job is to make sure all my old fart friends don't send him home with a BB Gun, three pocket knives and a Coon Hound pup. And buy him chocolate!) And, BTW the YL has her first novel published, The 13th Victim (Renee Porter) on Amazon for Kindle-Remember buy the book-buy me a tower! HI! Anywho-what has surprised me is the QSL rate among PSKers (PSKees?), the first four months I was back on the air on SSB, and very active after a seven year drought,  I got a total of 15 cards E and snailmail. I got 14 the first month, and not too active because of other demands, on PSK-31. Also got a lot of over-the-air help getting my lash-up fine tuned. This seems like what the six meter band was like back in the 90's: helpful and not having a bad case of "QSY this is my frequency." Maybe the narrow bandwidth has something to do with it, maybe its what CW is like??? Tis a puzzlement.

73 es gud dx Rob