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Old June 20th 18, 10:35 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.dx
[email protected] calthomas3@gmail.com is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jun 2018
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Default [N6PSE] Fun with FT8!

On Monday, June 18, 2018 at 3:23:40 PM UTC-4, N6PSE via rec.radio.amateur.moderated Admin wrote:
N6PSE's Blog

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Fun with FT8!

Posted: 18 Jun 2018 08:54 AM PDT
https://n6pse.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/fun-with-ft8/






FT8 has been a really fun new mode for me. One of the many aspects that I
enjoy about FT8 is that it seems to work really well with very little
propagation or otherwise poor conditions.

This past week, there has been a pipeline of propagation to India just
about an hour after our sunrise, on 20 meters. I would not expect this in
late June. This morning, I had a lot of fun as both AP2MQ and JT1BV were
calling CQ via FT8.

FT8 is the great equalizer. It seems to level the playing field where big
or small stations can all participate and make the contacts. Some naysayers
will scoff and say that the computer does all the work but I dont agree
with that. You need to chase the difficult/hard to work stations on FT8
just as you would with CW/SSB. You need to understand and follow the
propagation. You need to have your station configured perfectly to complete
the contact. You need to understand split operation in FT8 and how to
listen off frequency from the DX. If you fail in any one of these areas,
you wont make the contact.

And FT8 is not immune to the other problems that plague SSB/CW. There are
many out of turn callers who continue to call the DX even though he is
replying to you. As it was this morning, I was not able to complete my QSO
with AP2MQ even though he replied to me 7-8 times with a signal report as
others moved onto his frequency to call him. There are continuous callers
who just seem to call a station over and over even as he is replying to and
working others. And what seems more unique to FT8 callers is when you are
calling a rare DX station and then 4-5 guys start calling you on the
frequency you are telling the rare DX station that you are listening on.

Even with these issues, FT8 is still a very fun and productive mode.

What do you think?


Well stated from K4BEW - I am relatively new (about a month and only about 15 hours or so of playing with FT8 - with a new ruggedied IAC 40M bazooka that can take the high sun high winds and high heat here in florida and survive better than a home made one but I will stil expect to make a few other bazookas to try on 20 15 and or 10. My 40M bazooka is temporarily up on 3 10' 2" pvc pipes that are over sturdy garden fence stakes and sufficient slack in the antenna to keep it from an unexpected snapping in a T-storm..... even with the swr darn good at 2:1 at 7.074 Mhz for ft8 it gets down to nearly 1:1 at just past the high end of the band - it is gong to go to field day with the club so I am not going to bother with a real install until after field day - and even so I worked Hungary and germany and 8 other countries - like belize and well cuba is close to me here in east central florida..... but belgium and spain and france already with 49 wats and the bulk of the antenna like 6-8 feet above ground.... perfect NVIS prolly :-)

this will be fun until the sunspot cycle starts turning upbut that is a few years away an according to the prez of our local club there is some scuttlebutt that NASA doesnt think there will be a new cycle for a long long time - I researched that since 1700 the sunspot cycle can be as littleas 9 years or up to into 14 years. so 11 is an average of some sort and the last one was the weakest one in recorded history.

wow -

40 m with ft8 is the real solution for some fun with weak signal propogation...

cheers and 73

cal K4bew