[NLRS] FT8 in the June contest

Thu Jun 14 02:36:42 EDT 2018

Need more activity week night to attract more people... I know life gets in the way but it used to be you could call CQ on 2m SSB and someone somewhere would be around and answer... contests only are not going to keep people and get them interested enough to invest in a beam etc...  

Mary
W0AAT

-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Paul Husby
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2018 1:25 AM
To: NRLS Reflector
Subject: [NLRS] FT8 in the June contest

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
______________________________________________________________
NLRS mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nlrs
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:NLRS at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus