EasyPal – Image Transfer Made Easy

I was chatting with a club member this weekend. He told me about a digital slow scan tv modulation mode designed for use in the HF bands on a typical SSB bandwidth.

I know about analog slow scan television and have heard about many binary transfer methods for HF. This was the first time I heard something coined “Digital Slow Scan TV.” The program is called Easypal and can be found easily via a web search.

There appears to be a dedicated team behind this program which suggests a healthy development effort.

Indeed, after downloading the program and installing it on a Windows XP system, I was using it in no time. My friend was on the local repeater at the time and guided me through appropriate default options to use.

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Digital Modes Need Calibrated Soundcards

I made my very first Olivia QSO tonight. It was a bit daunting, but I took the time to study a little about the standard, already had MixW rigged up with the Olivia DLL, listened around a bit on 20 meters then 40, figured out where to call CQ and just did it.

It was not even two minutes before a ham came back to my Olivia 16/500 call on one of the 40 meter calling frequencies.

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The Navigator from US Interface – a First Look

Many times I have built home-brew radio to computer sound card audio interfaces with success. The goals were to have some fun with the many digital modes out there including PSK31, MFSK, Olivia and RTTY with an emphasis on PSK31.

Also available for use are handy CW decoders like CWGet and CWSkimmer.

To complete the computer to radio marriage I purchased and built a WinKey and Winkey USB kit from K1EL.

By this time, the number of cables between the computer and the radio was getting a little out of hand. I sought a new approach that connected to the computer with just one cable.

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PSK with no Interface

Perhaps you have heard about PSK31 and the many other digital modes available to today’s ham radio operators.

You have gone the next step and know you need to, somehow, connect your computer soundcard with your radio’s speaker and microphone.

Many devices exist to help you do just that including US Interface, BuxComm, SignaLink, etc. I have my eyes set on the US Interface Navigator product to be my sound interface plus mop up a WinKey CW Keyer and rig control (CAT) in one box entirely powered by the USB port. Nice.

However, I am enjoying the digital modes today with absolutely no interface. How?

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