PSK31 was designed around the speed of human typing, and unlike FT8 it carries whatever you want to say. A PSK31 waterfall shows dozens of signals side by side in the space one SSB conversation would take.
It is far more sensitive than RTTY and far more conversational than FT8, which makes it a good middle ground and a comfortable first digital mode.
Keep your audio drive low. Overdriving produces splatter across the waterfall and other operators will notice.
At a Glance
- Category
- Digital data
- On the air since
- 1998
- Bandwidth
- About 31 Hz
- Speed
- Roughly typing speed
- What you need
- A sound card interface
- Where to listen
- Around 14.070 MHz and the equivalent segments on other bands