[Elecraft] [KX3] Boldly OT: 6 meter Sporadic-E season and the FT-8 microjuggernaut

[Jim Brown]

On 6/1/2018 9:00 AM, Michael Blake wrote:
> I believe the main selling point is that you can work DXCC in short time with zero personal involvement:)

As I understand it, FT8 was developed primarily with 6M E-skip in mind, 
because an older weak signal mode, JT65 took so long that a double hop 
opening had faded before a QSO could be completed.

I chase 6M grids. Last season, I worked >140 grids, 40 of which were new 
ones. That's not easy to do from the west coast when you already have 
350 confirmed. 13 were JT65 or JT9, 14 were FT8, 10 were MSK144, 3 were 
CW, and 1 was SSB. When you reach that level, the grids you're missing 
are mostly those with low population density. A relatively small number 
of hams working 6M know CW, and all of the WSJT modes are 20 dB or more 
better than SSB. So FT8, by virtue of its new popularity, is lighting up 
a bunch of grids that were otherwise not available for marginal conditions.

In two strong openings about ten days ago, I worked more than a dozen JA 
stations in 9 grids!  All but one has already been confirmed in LOTW. 
That's another strong point -- in general, those who use digital modes 
are FAR more likely to be on LOTW, which saves a lot of postage if 
you're chasing awards.

73, Jim K9YC