With the advent of computers with sound cards has come the ability of most Hams to get on new digital modes like PSK31, MFSK16, and the old and venerable RTTY.
Simply by interfacing the computer/sound card to the radio these applications will allow the average Ham to get on the air using these new narrow bandwidth modes without expensive terminal node controllers.
Here is a screenshot of a contact I made with a Ham in South Africa using the narrow bandwidth PSK31 mode. The sound card generates the tones and feeds them to and from my radio. The computer does the transmit/receive switching. Each yellow line on the waterfall display represents a signal just 31.5 Hz wide in the passband of the receiver. The software is called Digipan.
PSK31
The other mode I use is RTTY. RTTY has been around for years but has in the past required the use of old, heavy, teletype machines, or expensive terminal node controllers to operate. With the computer/ sound card it's now easy for hams to get on the air with this mode of communication. Here is a screenshot of my RTTY app called MMTTY while I was typing to another Ham in Michigan.
MMTTY
Simply by interfacing the computer/sound card to the radio these applications will allow the average Ham to get on the air using these new narrow bandwidth modes without expensive terminal node controllers.
Here is a screenshot of a contact I made with a Ham in South Africa using the narrow bandwidth PSK31 mode. The sound card generates the tones and feeds them to and from my radio. The computer does the transmit/receive switching. Each yellow line on the waterfall display represents a signal just 31.5 Hz wide in the passband of the receiver. The software is called Digipan.
PSK31
The other mode I use is RTTY. RTTY has been around for years but has in the past required the use of old, heavy, teletype machines, or expensive terminal node controllers to operate. With the computer/ sound card it's now easy for hams to get on the air with this mode of communication. Here is a screenshot of my RTTY app called MMTTY while I was typing to another Ham in Michigan.
MMTTY