[Ham-Mac] #whats wrong with this image

[w1hkj]

My original post was not intended to start a range war, but to elicit 
thought on the subject.  So far I've seen a few good answers.  Dave, 
KX3DX, and Tom, W7SUA,  being the most thought provoking.

  * KX3DX: Getting back to the original post...there are still a few
    cheap DSB kits available for ft8.  I see their other sideband in the
    psk window quite often
  * W7SUA: The picture looks like FT8 or JS8 signals with users filling
    all space they think is not being used. Last night was a 40m FT8
    signal with what I would have called 3rd order intermod products
    above and below 7074! Significant QRM every 15 seconds. Bunch of us
    that have an Olivia net near 7073 notice many FT8 signals many of
    which can not be decoded until I switch to LSB so I presume either
    new users that do not know to use USB or users with radios that have
    poor opposite sideband suppression.

I occassionally run wsjtx on Linux, Windows and MacOS.  It's a nice Qt 
application with a few flaws that need to be fixed.

  * on Linux if you select pulse as the audio interface there is nearly
    a 100% chance that a Zombie thread will be left running when wstjx
    is shut down.  A Zombie is a background process that remains running
    after an application is closed.  It looks like the audio processing
    is running on a separate thread that is not properly terminated
    during the shutdown process.  It's not only a Zombie, but one that
    consumes 100% of the cpu upon which it is running.  If you try to
    start a new wsjtx session it will tell you that a wsjtx session is
    already running.  You have to kill the Zombie.

    . open a terminal and view the running processes.  Use top, htop, or
    ps -a from the command line
    . note the process number NNNN and then execute "kill -9 NNNN"
    . don't use pulse, select a direct audio interface instead, ALSA or
    Portaudio

  * the application correctly recommends the USB tuning frequency for
    the various bands, i.e. 7074.000 KHz.  the operator is free to
    ignore that recommendation.  A warning message might be needed.

  * the application does not recognize if other modes are already in use
    within the target spectrum, and the waterfall / spectrum display do
    not make it easy for the operator to do so.  one has to run fldigi
    or another digital modem program to view the spectrum and insure
    that one's transmissions are not interfering with other modes.

I have observed signal levels on 40 meters across the 7.0 to 7.2 MHz 
spectrum.  The wsjtx signals, especially FT8, are nearly always the 
strongest on the band.  WOW what a great mode.  It probably would not 
beat out RTTY during an RTTY contest.  Some operators either choose to 
ignore or are ignorant of the requirement to use the minimum power 
necessary to maintain communications!

Are you an FT8 operator?  Might you be contributing to disassisfation 
among your fellow hams?  Please take the time to download, read, and use 
this well written FT8 user guide 
<https://www.g4ifb.com/FT8_Hinson_tips_for_HF_DXers.pdf>.

Please don't call me on FT8 if  you see me on the air calling CQ on 
THOR-11 with an RsID.

73, David, W1HKJ