Question
Which type of code is used for sending characters in a PSK31 signal?
Answer Options
- A) Varicode
- B) Viterbi
- C) Volumetric
- D) Binary
Correct Answer: A
Explanation
PSK31 uses a specialized, highly efficient character encoding method called Varicode. Unlike fixed-length codes (like ASCII or Baudot), Varicode uses a variable number of bits to represent characters.
Varicode is based on Huffman coding principles, where the most commonly used characters in the English language are assigned the shortest bit sequences (e.g., space and ‘E’). Less frequent characters (e.g., numbers and punctuation) receive longer bit sequences. This efficiency minimizes the time the transmitter is keyed, which results in a very narrow transmitted bandwidth.
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