[TMRA] New WSJT-X Digital Mode - FT8

[Joel Retholtz]

Rob....

I got a chance to play with FT8 today at about 2:30pm. FT8 feels like a 
cross between HF Digital and a video game. It is definitely quick. I 
made nine contacts in a very short period of time ranging from 
Washington State, Florida, New York and even one in Ireland. Answering 
or sending a CQ is a bit of a chore. By the time you respond it is 
already 1/3 of the way through the next transmission.... after that the 
video game portion kicks in. Position your mouse over db or R-db, wait 
for the red colored response and click.... then do the same for the RRR 
or 73. Just make certain you receive a RRR before you click the 73. If 
not just wait and the program will send their signal report a second 
time and proceed from there. Surprisingly there appear to be a great 
many Hams with the required eye/hand coordination as most of the QSO's 
went back and forth on the first try.

I am using WSJT-X 1.80 rc1, JTAlert (need version 2.9.10) and Log4OM. 
JTAlert logs to Log4OM correctly indicating a FT8 contact. Log4OM then 
attempts to log to a number of online sources. QRZ is showing all of the 
contacts as FT8 and so far I have received 3 confirmations. eQSL does 
not yet handle the new mode. HRDLog is logging correctly. Club log is 
simply showing it as another digital mode (the same way they log all of 
the other digital modes). When I attempted to upload my QRZ log to LOTW 
it would not upload any of the FT8 entries.

I am not certain the frequencies have been finalized yet. There were 
some complaints that on 20m they should have gone above the JT9 
frequency where it is less crowded rather than below JT65 when Hams 
using Oliver, etc like to hang out.

All in all, where I have been known to doze off waiting for a JT65 
exchange, there is no chance of that happening on FT8.

My goal is to achieve WAS with FT8 in one hour.... what are the chances 
of that?  ;)

73 - Joel AC8WS