[Elecraft] Brief VHF Contest report using FT8 on 6 meters

[donovanf at starpower.net]

I had limited time this weekend, and decided to operate only on 6 meters 
using only the new FT8 digital mode. I operated for only one hour on 
Saturday evening and three hours on Sunday, mostly in the afternoon. 



My result was 70 QSOs in 35 grids. Of course it was much slower than 
CW and SSB but much faster than JT65 where the QSO rate would have 
been prohibitively slow. The number of QSOs could have been easily 
doubled with better propagation during the four hours when I was active. 


22 QSOs were completed during which the FT8 software reported 
SNRs from my receiver below -10 dB. Some of these 22 QSOs may 
have been difficult to complete on CW. 


-11 dB 3 QSOs 
-12 dB 4 QSOs 
-13 dB 4 QSOs 
-15 dB 3 QSOs 
-16 dB 3 QSOs 
-17 dB 2 QSOs 
-18 dB 2 QSOs 
-19 dB 1 QSO 


There's an opportunity to significantly improve the FT8 contest QSO 
rate by introducing a Contest Mode that eliminates the 73 TX Message. 
In my opinion there's no need for the 73 TX Message in contests, 
if FT8 software doesn't receive the RRR message it automatically 
resends the previous TX message until the RRR message is received. 
If an RRR TX message is not received the QSO is not logged. 
This FT8 behavior is unambiguous with no need for the 73 TX Message. 


The 15 second sequences worked very well, there was never a need 
for additional delay between sequences because in almost every case 
when I started the next sequence a few seconds late the FT8 software 
decoded my transmission despite my delay. Better behavior of the 
automatic CQ reply function -- so that it functions exactly like 
double-clicking on the call of the station replying to a CQ -- would 
have eliminated most of those delayed TX messages 


It was a very enjoyable experience, kudos to the FT8 development team. 


73 
Frank 
W3LPL