PSK63 or Phase Shift Keying, 63 Baud

Baud

In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a...

, is a digital

Digital

A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

 radio modulation mode used primarily in the amateur radio

Amateur radio

Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...

 field to conduct real-time keyboard-to-keyboard informal text chat

Synchronous conferencing

Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in science, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe online chat technologies. It has arisen at a time when the term chat had a negative connotation...

 between amateur radio operators.

History

In April 2003, Skip Teller, KH6TY, the creator of Digipan , requested an addition to Moe (AE4JY) Wheatley's PSKCore DLL to support the PSK63 mode. Subsequently, another mode - PSK125 - has been added to the PSKCore DLL.

• Unlike PSK63F, PSK63 does not use forward error correction
  Forward error correction
  In telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, forward error correction or channel coding is a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels....
  
   (FEC).
• Therefore PSK 63 is twice as fast as PSK63F's but exactly the same speed as PSK125F.
• It has been suggested that PSK63 should be a good contesting mode, noting that it is both faster and uses less bandwidth than standard RTTYhttp://storm.ca/~ve3iay/digital.html.

Spectrum efficiency compared to other modes

Mode Support

PSK63 is now supported directly in KH6TY's own QuikPSK software, as well as in Digipan, AA6YQ's WinWarbler, F6CTE's MultiPSK, AE4JY's WinPSK, HB9DRV's DM780 , PSK31 Deluxe, MMVARI, Fldigi, MIXW, and DL4RCK's RCKRtty.

Others are likely to follow, now that version 1.17 of the PSKCore dll supports both PSK31 and PSK63. QuikPSK, MultiPSK and PSK31 Deluxe can decode up to 24 signals simultaneously. QuickPSK has a unique additional capability to send colour thumbnail pictures (32x32 pixel, 16 colours) using the PSK63 mode.

PSK Software Core

A PSK63-only version of the PSKCore dll is also available at KH6TY's web site for use with any software that uses PSKCore to implement PSK31. Simply by replacing the original PSKCore file (it is suggested that you rename the original rather than deleting it) with the new version, the PSK31 software supports PSK63 instead of PSK31.

This technique has been used during early experiments with the PSK63 mode, but it is not likely to continue to be very widely used now that software that supports PSK63 directly has become widely available.

The official distribution of the PSKCore DLL, which supports PSK31, PSK63, and PSK125, is available on Moe (AE4JY) Wheatley's website: http://www.moetronix.com/ae4jy/

External links

• "BPSK63, QPSK63 and PSK63F"