Single-sideband modulation

Let's go with our first news story.

It says here, "Is RADE, R-A-D-E, be the next SSB on, uh, HF?" So obviously, years and years ago, A- AM was the, uh, mode of operation everybody did.

I met a G3 just before he became a silent key, and he told me he was a naughty boy 'cause he operated SSB.

But we're now looking to get digital on HF, and I think this could be a good thing.

Ed, do you wanna go first on this one?

So must be 12, 14 years been developed.

And the, the latest addition to FreeDV, it actually changes quite a lot compared to the, the old Codec 2.

Uh, the end result is we've got digitized audio being sent like you would send a, an RTTY or an FT8 signal, so generated in a computer somewhere, and then sent to the, what is actually an SSB transmitter, effectively, and then decoded at the other end.

ATSU five whiskey one sierra alpha and YACHO five whiskey oscar-- Sorry, five whiskey zero alpha fox are active in Upolu Island in Samoa, OC097, until the 12th of October.

They're operating SSB ten to forty meter bands.

QSL via Logbook of the World.

More info via qsl.net. 9H6C will be active from Malta, IOTA EU023, from Saturday the 10th to Monday the 12th of October.

The exchange is signal report and four character locator.

Wednesday the 7th of October, the UKEICC eighty meter contest takes place from 2000 to 2100 UTC.

Using SSB on the eighty meter band, the exchange is your six character locator.

Thursday the 8th, RSGB 50 Megs UK AC Contest Runs from 1900 to 2130 UTC.

We look forward to seeing you on the new This Week in Amateur Radio Discord server.

It's been a half century since single sideband, SSB, supplanted amplitude modulation is the most popular voice mode on HF, due largely to its spectrum efficiency, occupying roughly half the bandwidth of an AM signal.

Now there's a new digital voice mode from FreeDV called Radio Auto Encoder, or RADE, that occupies half the bandwidth of an SSB signal and reportedly provides more natural-sounding speech.

According to Amateur Radio Digital Communications, which funded research and advanced RADE's development, FreeDV RADE combines machine learning with classical digital signal processing, or DSP, and can operate at signal-to-noise ratios as low as minus 2 dB.

Its design also addresses spectrum use, speech quality, and power efficiency, all important considerations for voice communications over HF.

For more information, as well as links to complete obituaries, see this week's ARRL Letter.

[Morse code] It's been a half century since single sideband, or SSB, supplanted AM, amplitude modulation, as the most popular voice mode on HF.

This was due largely to SSB's spectrum efficiency, occupying roughly half the bandwidth of an AM signal.

Now there's a new digital voice mode from FreeDV called Radio Auto Encoder, or RAID, that's only half as wide as an SSB signal and reportedly provides more natural-sounding speech.

According to ARDC, which funded research that advanced RAID's development, manufacturers are beginning to integrate the mode directly into their radios, starting with a module that can be downloaded and installed on certain Flex Radio models.

More details are in this week's ARRL Letter.