Try FSQ for fast, simple QSOs

I’m an occasional user of digital modes, mostly PSK-31. Last night, though, I made my first FSQ QSO. What is FSQ? Well, ZL2AFP, one of the developers, describes it this way:

FSQ is a Fast Simple QSO mode designed specifically for HF. It works well under NVIS and sunrise/sunset conditions on the lower bands, and also works well for short skip and grey-line on higher bands. It can also be used on VHF FM, and clearly has a much wider useful range of operating conditions that other more conventional digital modes. FSQ transmission is also well within the capability of micro-controller based devices for low-power propagation transmissions (MEPT and telemetry). The FSQ modulation, coding and FSQCall protocol are publicly disclosed and described, and the software is open source.

I forget how I got interested in FSQ, but I probably heard about it sometime late August, and then there was an article about it in the September 2015 QST.

It has several features that really appeal to me:

1. It’s a lot like chatting over the Internet. You simply type in a line, hit RETURN, and the software sends your callsign and the line you just typed.
2. It has an image mode.
3. You can selectively call a station.

That third feature would seem to be especially useful for use on VHF. I envision a “network” of stations here in Ann Arbor who are all running FSQ, monitoring the local repeater. I would use this network to send messages and images, maybe schematics, to those stations when I had something to send them. There’s also a relay feature that you could use to send messages to stations that perhaps cannot reach the repeater, but could reach a station not on the repeater.

Thom, W8TAM, and I are going to experiment a little with this mode of operation. One thing we found is that the VHF transceivers that we both have do not have VOX capability. So, as we also want to experiment with cheap sound cards other than the Signalink (like this Syba sound card), we’re also building the ZL1BPU VOX PTT circuit (see below). Depending on what you have in your junkbox, this circuit should cost you about ten bucks.

I was hoping that Thom and I would have had this all working on 2m by now, but circumstances have gotten in the way. I did, however, make my first FSQ QSOs on 40m last night.

My first FSQ actually started out as a CW QSO. I called CQ on 7026 kHz and got a call from Peter, VE3SO. During our QSO, I mentioned that I was going to try out FSQ later that evening. Peter said that he hadn’t heard about FSQ before, but it sounded interesting. I mentioned the article in the September QST.

After signing with Peter, I tuned up to 7104 kHz, the FSQ frequency on 40m. While playing around with the FLDIGI program, which now supports FSQ, I saw the callsign ve3so pop up on my screen. Peter went from just hearing about the mode to his first QSO in minutes! He was my first FSQ QSO as well.

So, I’m off and running with FSQ. If you already have a digital modes interface for your computer, give it a try. Listen for me on 7104 kHz.