The FT4GL operation has been a trying one to say the least.  I worked him (or thought I did) a week ago.  The reply was suspicious since I got a +06 and he was -21 when the rest of the stations were getting -12 to -16 and he was about -10.  Having been a veteran of many spoofs on CW, I trashed it.  A few days later, I had another response to my call from FT4GL\R where he was about 30 hz below the actual FT4GL.  No log once again.

Finally, I got a legit report followed immediately by a "RR73" on Monday after almost two hours of calling.  I think more than one operator is working FT8 since I see a difference in the completed QSO rate.  When the station is running several streams and he is stronger than -10, I have seen him call a number of stations 4 or 5 times, whether they are strong or not, and he gives up. My take is that he is trying to dig stations out of "flood of red" on his waterfall.  Just like CW pileups, signals are getting trampled.  Veteran CW ops usually work the edges if the pileup is extensive plus an occasional big gun signal to get a good rhythm going.  The same should apply here, i.e. look for a weaker red spot to decode the guy. MTCW.

FWIW, I kept calling without success using the non-F/H mode assuming he was running MSHV.  When I finally switched to F/H I got him after about 5 minutes.

On Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 4:50 PM John Morris <w4gd@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Don, my experience with FT4GL has been pretty much the same as yours.  I had 4 contacts with them, but only got RR73 on one of the contacts.  Yet, Clublog shows me as having 3 contacts.

To me there is something "not right" about this operation.  We are talking about a single operator who was supposedly going to Glorioso for work purposes, but would squeeze in some hamming whenever work allowed.  But, we see that the man is racking up thousands of contacts a day and, in fact, is on the air 24/7.

You can get an interesting overview of this at:

n0un.net

As we say, WFWL.

73,

John
W4GD



From: tvarc-bounces@mailman.qth.net <tvarc-bounces@mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Don Black <donblack@outlook.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 6, 2024 11:48 AM
To: villages reflector <tvarc@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [TVARC] FT4GL and Club Log
 

Hello Friends,

 

I want to share my QSO experience with FT4GL – Glorioso Island.  I was able to work FT4GL Monday and did receive a RR73 which makes this a valid QSO.  Prior to this I did receive a signal report on 2 occasions from FT4GL and replied, but no confirmation,

 

When I check Club Log, I find 4 QSO’s logged with FT4GL which is more occasions than I have received a signal report from them.

 

Their latest update states more than 34,000 QSOs in the log with 32% unique.  The unique logs seems a little low to me, but in line with my experience being in Club Log,

 

FT4GL states the following “Concerning the FT8, its traffic is done only with WSJT, following feedback indicating a problem with validating contacts with the RR73, despite resets of PCs, software, settings… and numerous regular power outages also at origin of some of the problems.”  They had been using MSHV.

 

The Rebel group has been the worst about not returning a RR73 using MSHV.

 

Bottom line, I question whether using Club Log can be an indicator of a successful QSO.

 

I am interested in your thoughts and experiences.

 

73,

Don WB4CKI

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