"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message
...

wrote in message

It is unfortunate that the PACTOR 2 and 3 are proprietary and yet have an
established infrastructure that hams could use for e-mail (similar to/same
as sailmail). I don't understand why hams let that happen. I was looking for
a way to send email to family in the USA when I visit relatives on Siquijor
Island in the Philippines (recently they did open up 1 internet cafe on the
island about 12 Km from where I stay, operating at dial-up speeds, but I
would rather just use my radio if I could). I came across ALE as a possible
mode where I could just use a PC and a rigblaster but ALE is still very
experimental with none of the established infrastructure that PACTOR 2/3
have. I think ALE and PACTOR may be technically illegal in the amateur bands
due to their transmission protocols, not always listening for spectrum
occupation before transmitting, on their extremely wide bandwidths.

Anyhow, being largely a seafaring nation, and a poor nation largely unable
to afford modern rigs, code is still king in the Phils and you hear it all
the time on 40m and 80m. Even on their cell phones, (which curiously they
CAN afford), when they receive an SMS message, you hear the phones beeping
di-di-dit dah-dah di-di-dit ("SMS", for those of you from 6 land ;-)) when
they receive new messages. Due to cost, they use SMS much more often than
voice. Every school child in the Philippines knows basic morse since so many
of the kids end up going on to school for seafaring occupations. They did
not pay any attention to the USA FCC's elimination of code requirements for
navigation although I am sure that 50 years from now they will be up to our
current US standards.

As Carl and the other techies know, for computer transmissions in real time
QSO's, psk31 is an extremely simple and very narrow band mode that you can
use directly to your rig from the sound card of your PC (it is highly
recommend that you build a simple isolation circuit between PC and rig). In
my opinion, psk31 is superior to code and will overtake computer CW in about
25 years after every 3rd world ham has access to a PC for non-productive
hobby use (right now, many countries do not even have access to PC's in the
primary schools yet). Assuming you have a few toroids and tranistors
available at home or work, the cost is free. Interestingly, there is a small
movement among psk31ers trying to make PACTOR illegal due to its huge
bandwidth and what seems like malicious digital QRM when it wipes out every
station in its path when it transmits without checking for existing band
usage...if you have ever used psk31 and got smeared by PACTOR you would know
what I mean. ALE and PACTOR should not be illegal of course, but they should
have a dedicated portion of the AR spectrum limited for their usage where it
could be a "primary" occupant and other modes are "secondary". The
gentlemens' agreements in the band plans don't always help these days.