[SFDXA] K1JT Advises WSJT-X Users Not to Use “Unauthorized” Builds of His Software

[Bill]

 From Tony N2MFT:


    K1JT Advises WSJT-X Users Not to Use “Unauthorized” Builds of His
    Software

*TAGS:* Laureate Joe Taylor 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:Laureate%20Joe%20Taylor>, new 
mode <http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:new%20mode>, WSJT 
software suite 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:WSJT%20software%20suite>
09/11/2015

Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, the developer of the popular /WSJT/ 
“weak-signal communication” software suite is advising users to avoid 
what he called “unauthorized” versions of his software. He said problems 
could result by using these builds on the air, and any results that 
might be shared with the broader user community would be unhelpful.

“Third-party individuals — ie, others not part of the /WSJT/ development 
team — have been compiling /WSJT-X/ from the open-source code and making 
unauthorized ‘releases’ of their builds,” Taylor said September 8 in a 
*discussion* <http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/Fast_JT9.txt>of 
*/WSJT-X/* <http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html> “fast 
modes” on his website. “I do /not/ recommend use of these builds on the 
air. If you operate with one of these unauthorized ‘rXXXX’ code 
revisions in our experimental code branch, you have no idea what you've 
got.”

Taylor said that such programs “quite possibly” have been built from an 
intermediate, temporary “save” of various files that were not intended 
to produce a usable program. Subsequent observations regarding what does 
or does not work, he said, then become “worse than useless. [T]hey waste 
your time and ours.”

/WSJT-X /implements /JT9/, which Taylor has described as “a new mode 
optimized for weak-signal communication on the LF, MF, and HF bands.” 
Taylor said /JT9/ is about 2 dB more sensitive than /JT65/ while using 
less than 10 percent of the bandwidth. /WSJT-X/ is an “experimental” or 
“extended” package. Plans call for the eventual inclusion of other 
popular modes now supported in /WSJT/.

A new *alpha release* 
<http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-1.6.1-r5865-win32.exe> 
of experimental /WSJT-X/ v1.6.1, r5865, includes major improvements to 
the /JTMSK/ decoder.

Taylor also recently posted *information* 
<http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/Fast_JT9.txt> about new “Fast 
/JT9/” submodes for meteor-scatter communication on 28 and 50 MHz. The 
post includes a brief development history and instructions.

“Since its origin in the dark ages (ca 2001) /WSJT/ has supported ‘fast’ 
modes (designed for meteor scatter, etc) and ‘slow’ modes (optimized for 
EME and other weak-signal propagation types),” he said. “The most recent 
new mode, /JT9/, now has /both/ fast and slow submodes.”

He said the new, experimental /JT9/ submodes use the same message 
structure, encoding, and modulation type as /JT9A/ (the original 
version), but wider tone spacing and optional faster keying rates. Among 
other improvements, it features a 5× speed increase for the fast /JT9/ 
decoder.

*More information* <http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/> on the 
/WSJT/ software suite is available on Taylor’s website.

http://www.arrl.org/news/k1jt-advises-wsjt-x-users-not-to-use-unauthorized-builds-of-his-software