[Elecraft] Seems That 6 Meters is Some What Open

[Jim Brown]

Hi Gregg,

 From where I sit, the advantage is that FT8 allows operators who don't 
know CW to "light up" a grid with modest stations and make QSOs under 
conditions that simply don't support a SSB QSO. Yes, CW is MUCH faster 
-- IF there are good ops on both ends. But FT8 also goes at least 6 dB 
deeper into the noise than CW, and CW is at least 10 dB better than SSB.

I worked 40 new grids last season, and 40 new ones this season. Last 
season, all but three were worked with WSJT-X.  Eight were MSK144 to two 
hams doing grid trips. The rest were evenly split between JT65 and FT8. 
This year I've ONLY worked FT8. I estimate that at least half of those 
80 grids have no hams who work CW and are active on 6M.

73, Jim K9YC

On 6/21/2018 1:34 PM, gregg.w6izt1 at gmail.com wrote:
> I'm not convinced of the merit of FT8 when trying to work multi hop E skip.
> It takes too long to complete and exchange and propagation is constantly
> changing. Several stations that I missed on FT8 were strong enough for a 10
> -15 second CW Q, but were not strong enough over 60 seconds to complete an
> FT8 Q.