ARRL's HF Digital Handbook

by Steve Ford

ARRL s HF Digital Handbook is your guide to understanding the most active HF digital communication modes in use today. There is something here for every radio operator beginners and more advanced operators alike. And, as this technology rapidly advances, your increased understanding of digital communication techniques will make certain that you stay in the race as new modes and methods unfold.

This fourth edition book includes expanded station setup information, discussion of PSKMail and other varieties of PSK, new content on Olivia, DominoEX, HF digital voice and image modes, and Automatic Link Establishment.

Just getting started? All it takes is your sound-card-equipped computer and your HF transceiver. ARRL s HF Digital Handbook will guide you through the rest!



Assembling Your HF Digital Station
RTTY
PSK31
PACTOR
Winlink 2000
Clover
Hellschreiber
MFSK
G-TOR, MT-63, Throb, Olivia and DominoEX
HF Digital Contesting
HF Digital Voice and Image
Automatic Link Establishment ...and much more!

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Gene · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would certainly earn a higher rating if it were more current. So the two stars is based on the edition I read, not on the current edition published by ARRL. It was a good overview of digital HF communications, and having read it, I feel more ready to attempt BPSK31 and RTTY for the first time soon.

The book would have benefited from having a more thorough review of interface hardware between computers and HF rigs. I'm thinking about a number of different interface choices, and the book did not bring me any closer to figuring out which device to purchase. But again, providing such analysis of specific hardware (or software) would tend to make the book seem outdated even earlier than would be the case if it sticks to general characteristics of HF digital modes and how to use them.

The technical descriptions of each mode seemed less thorough than what I remember learning in college, but adequate for an introduction to new users. I would have liked a bit more coverage of standard practices for QSOs: what abbreviations are commmonly used, what typical QSOs look like, etc.

Again, I say three stars in principal, but only two for this old edition that a friend has kindly placed in my hands to encourage me to get on the air in something besides SSB.