The list below should be considered a guide and not the required frequencies. You may have to tune up and down a few KC to find other active stations. The 20 meter frequencies are probably the most active but are also subbands for RTTY and packet use so be mindful of others!
Region 1 Europe digital mode frequencies are typically in the lower portion of the band which is an SWR bonus if your antenna is tuned for the CW portion of the band.
Soundcard digital modes are used using USB, never LSB. Clover, RTTY, PACKET, AMTOR and PACTOR typically use LSB, however.
Frequencies listed below are for dial QRG:
Digital modes excel at LOW power. Using more than 20 watts causes
interference to others on the band (AGC pumping) and does not help get you
through poor band conditions. MFSK16 will work quite well at 5
watts.
Common practice today, unfortunately, has been to run digital modes at the highest possible output power. If QRO is necessary to accomplish a QSO, regulate the output power using the microphone gain while PC audio output is at maximum - do NOT connect your computer's amplified output to your radio, use only the line level outputs. Using the amplified outputs typically produce distortion and splatter the band. The cleanest signal transmitted typically can be obtained by using lower microphone gain and higher line level output volume. As with all digital modes, speech processing and ALC should never be used. PEP wattmeters should be used to determine the actual output power.
ZL1BPU has written an excellent book about digital modes. Look for his book titled Digital Modes for All Occasions The book contains information about mode duty cycles and bandwidth which is quite useful when determining our rig's capability to run the different modes.
The best way to guarantee successful contacts with digital modes other than PSK31 is to email the mailing lists and set a sked, or QSY up the band a few KC and switch to a different mode.
This list is very open to suggestions and corrections - please send any corrections/comments to me. If you know of other frequencies that are more popular than those listed above please let me know!
