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 Previous: ARISS Antennas Move Closer to Launch |  Next: ARES Volunteers for Pentagon Disaster Stabilizes; New York City Operations Continue |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
September 15, 2001
This week, we visit the Web site that is dedicated to a unique application for meteor scatter communications.
Traditionally, meteor scatter operators use CW or SSB to propagate signals via the ionized trails left by meteors entering our atmosphere. Some operators use SSB, but to be successful in the voice mode requires long meteor burns, which are less common than the short duration ("pings") of a typical meteor. Thus, high-speed CW is the way to get the most intelligence propagated in the short amount of time that most meteors offer.
To accomplish this, hams use computers or sped-up tape recordings to send high speed CW. They use the same equipment to record high speed CW, but to decode what they receive, they must replay the recording in slow motion and decipher the received CW by ear.
 The WSJT Home Page is dedicated to a new application that brings meteor scatter communications into the 21st Century. |
Not any more! WSJT, written by Joe Taylor, K1JT, is a high-speed communications program developed for meteor scatter operation using 4-tone 441-baud FSK to communicate by means of a computer sound card. It is similar to the high speed CW mode with a big exception: WSJT decodes the received signal automatically during the transmit sequence! This is a huge step in making high-speed meteor scatter communications more like real radio communications. And the icing on the cake is that the software is free to anyone for Amateur Radio use.
K1JT has created a Web site dedicated to WSJT where you can download a copy of the software and find out more about it. The page includes screen shots of the software, announcements and read me files about WSJT, a HTML-formatted manual, and the definition and specification of the FSK441 encoding scheme used in WSJT.
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (514 pieces in 23 years), not to mention the author of five ARRL books and contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles. First licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can remember, however, instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny Way, he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan, send email to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: ARISS Antennas Move Closer to Launch | Next: ARES Volunteers for Pentagon Disaster Stabilizes; New York City Operations Continue |
