The CCARC meeting this month was presented by Bob (KB3KOW) and Jeff (KB3SPH) and was an introduction to some various digital modes to include FT8, JS8Call, VarAC and finaly Easypal.
Instead of having radios set up, Jeff and Bob made use of the audio cards on the laptops and ran normal audio cables between the two PCs. One of the audio cables was on a splitter with a speaker attached so that the audience could hear what each mode sounded like.
The first program was WSJT and a demo of FT8. The goal here was to show how automated the process is once someone responds to a CQ. We answered questions as the demo progressed, but one question was “so, you can’t do any chatting on this mode?” which was a good lead into the second program.
JS8Call was used to demo the ability to do weak signal ‘chatting’ between two stations using the JS8 protocol, which is similar to the FT8 protocol. We exchanges some short notes back and forth much as same as sending an SMS message between phones.
We then moved on to VarAC. This software makes use of the VARA sound card modem and allows you to connect directly to another station and transfer files, chat and even leave ‘v-mail’ in the event the other operator is away from their keyboard. We also demonstrated the potential to be able to relay messages between two sites but using a third site as the temporary staging area.
Finally, we tested EasyPal. This is a digital Slow Scan TV (SSTV) software that allows the transmission of some good quality pictures, however, as we were able to show, much like digital TV, it’s either there or it isn’t and if enough packets of information is lost during transmission, nothing shows up on screen like it would using an analog program like MMSSTV