[NLRS] FT8 in the June contest

[Paul Husby]

I was one of JK's TCs (True Contesters), spending time on FT8 when the 
E-skip was gone, or slow, or just for a break from running 100+ per hour 
for several hours on SSB & CW.  I would go and cherry-pick new grids on 
digital.

First, in regard to John's query about QRM on 50.313, I was surprised 
that it didn't seem to be a serious problem.  It was hard for me to get 
a sense of what I might be missing, but there always seemed to be plenty 
of stations that I could decode and work.  N0AKC was also running FT8, 
most of the afternoon, and Charlie generally pins the meter on my rig at 
the Farm.  (I have an FT-991 that I was using just for digital, and when 
I was on SSB/CW, it had no antenna connected, yet it still continuously 
decoded Charlie as I worked SSB.)  I presume he was lower power on FT8 
than SSB, as was I, but I was amazed that it didn't really seem to 
matter if we were transmitting on the same sequence or opposite 
sequences when we were both on FT8.  Charlie may have a different take 
on this?

Marshall, K5QE, had good comments on the VHF reflector.  I kind of 
noticed, but didn't really think about the fact that your computer is 
looking for people calling you across all of the 20-some ~100Hz audio 
"channels" on 50.313.  If you simply double-click on a CQ to answer 
them, you will go to their "channel" to call them - along with any 
others that don't use any forethought.  If others are stronger than you, 
you'll probably wait.  The smart thing to do is to observe the audio 
spectrum that WSJT is showing you, and pick out a slice that appears 
quiet.  Set your transmitting audio to that frequency, and click the box 
to make it hold there.  There may still be others with a better shot at 
the target station, but at least you aren't in the crowd on his audio 
frequency.  You will need to check your calling audio freq regularly, 
during the periods you normally transmit, to make sure you haven't 
picked up some competition there.

Again, to JK's concern, there certainly has to be a point where things 
break down, but the mode seems much more robust than I had expected.

To Gregg, and regarding rover use of FT8...  On Saturday I began to 
think like Gregg, wow, everyone is on FT8.  But of course by Sunday 
afternoon, when the band opened up for us, it was business as usual on 
SSB & CW, with as good runs as I ever have to the East Coast.  When the 
band is poor, I think a good operator who has a less well-equipped 
station can use FT8 to make up quite a bit of the advantage of a big 
station.  My sense Saturday was that it is way easier to work stations 
200-300 miles out on FT8 than on SSB.  The advantage that I have always 
had with my antennas and relatively quiet location  seemed to be made up 
by others on FT8.  This could be a real boon for rovers, who struggle 
the most working groundwave on 6M.

FT8 is certainly a bit of a fad right now.  It's easy and kind of fun, 
especially compared to sitting on 50.125 when the band is poor.  Now 
that a bunch more people are on FT8, it will be interesting to see what 
can be done in typically poor September VHF Contest conditions.  FT8 is 
way too slow when the band is hot, but on the other hand you can watch 
grid squares scroll by and try to grab the ones you need.  The Contest 
Mode problem will be worked out.  Hopefully, there will also be a better 
way to deal with Rover and portable callsigns.

FT8 is also a hot way to attract new blood from the HF bands, and we can 
use all of that we can get!

73
Paul W0UC