[wsjt-devel] QRM avoidance: KN bit, Aloha, Dictatorship

2017-10-16 Thread Iztok Saje 

Hello!

In order to lower QRM, increase QSO rate and speed up user education, there are 
several proposals, all
efectivelly blocking QRM transmission in different conditions.


1. one spare FT8 bit is used as KN bit (Do not transmit unless invited)

2. When there are several responses to CQ, implement Aloha principle (repeated 
retransmissions are randomly blocked)

3. Do not transmit if time left is too short for good decode.

For all three cases where TX is automatically disabled,  normally red "Enable 
TX" shall go yellow
for duration of blocked TX period. There should be manual override with 
keyboard, in case operator knows he has to transmit.


KN bit (one of spare bits):


For a century KN on the end of CW transmission means "only invited station 
shall transmit, others stand by).
In FT8, quite often we see unwanted transmissions. People call in the middle of 
the QSO etc, probably
overlooking when to press "stop TX".
With FT8 HF dominance, it makes sense to use one of three spare bits to 
indicate KN.

WSJTX-X shall add KN bit on all frames but CQ/QRZ (when everyone is invited) 
and final 73 (where KN omitting is effectively
meaning CQ/QRZ).
When KN is received, station shall check:
- if my call is in the frame, I can transmit.
- if I am in the QSO, and about to send final TX lines, I can transmit (messgae without 
calls, like "TU 73 LOTW")
- if originator of KN bit is not in my qso, ignore KN, I can transmit (some 
other QSO)
but:
do not send to originator if I am not in the QSO. This shall work even if TX/RX 
tones are not same, there is no need to
call DX in the middle of QSO. Wait till she is listening for another QSO 
partner.

Usage of KN bit is not needed so much in other modes, so it is justified to be "FT8 
specific".

By checking both calls, we can avoid KN bit misuse to get faster response 
(sending fake KN message to stop legitimate callers).

This is to be considered for wsjtx-1.90, probably. But in some time, most of 
clients would resoect KN bit
(even on CW some stations do not)

Aloha
-

Sometimes even S52D calling CQ receives several answers, similar strength, so 
no response is decoded.
All calling stations just repeat calling. Classic action is: stop calling CQ 
and wait till somebody stops calling,
until one station is decoded. Or send "PSE SPLIT".

This can be done automatically: when answering CQ, transmit twice. On third 
call, use 50% probability to transmit or not
(so, it makes it more likely for one answer to get decoded).
On fourth and next repetitions, use 33% probability to transmit.

Of course, regardless of frequency: there is often congestion on other tones as 
well.
Combined with split, this can help even rare DX to make more QSOs.

This is not hard to implement, but can help a lot. Maybe too late for 1.80.

Short transmissions
---

Very often, I am too late to select next QSO partner, so I start transmitting 
late. Thus, I generate only QRM, as
my transmission can not be decoded. SO, no FT8 transmission starts more then 5 
seconds after period starts.

This can go to 1.80, it is easy to implement and test.
It is mode specific, and again, mostly needed on FT8.





Best regards, mni DX, 73 es GL
Iztok, S52D

s52d FT8 status: 165 DXCC, over 5000 QSOs, K1JT on three bands


















[http://psn.sdn.si/ts/katalog_jesen_2017_email_podpis.png]

Pravni pogoji / Legal disclaimer
Telekom Slovenije, d.d., Ljubljana 

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[wsjt-devel] WSJTX RC3 for Ubuntu via Launchpad PPA

2017-10-16 Thread Greg Beam 
Hello All,

Following Joe's WSJT-X RC3 message yesterday, I've updated my Lauchpad PPA
(WSJTX-NEXT) to RC3 as released by the WSJT Development Team.

Supported Distributions: 
* Trusty, Xenial, Zesty
* Supported Arch: amd64, i386, arm64, armhf, ppc64el

Installation / Upgrade Information:
https://launchpad.net/~ki7mt/+archive/ubuntu/wsjtx-next

73's
Greg, KI7MT







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Re: [wsjt-devel] JT9 AP request

2017-10-16 Thread Eric NO3M 

Joe

Thanks for the information and consideration.  A few more dB would 
certainly go a long way, whatever that may end up being.  I've already 
attempted a QSO with W7IUV in WA that was just past the edge of JT9's 
current capabilities.  We'll eventually make it with some patience on 
the right morning.  There has probably been an equal amount of FT8 and 
JT9 activity on the band to date.


Hope to hear and work you on the band soon.  GL DX.

73 Eric NO3M

On 10/16/2017 05:04 PM, Joe Taylor wrote:
AP decoding capability is not likely to be added to JT9.  The whole 
concept is not well matched to convolutional codes like the one used 
in JT9.  A much better prospect for use at MF and LF would be a "slow 
FT8" mode with longer transmissions -- say one minute, like JT9.  This 
is eminently feasible and might be implemented at some point.


Such a mode could be interesting for EME, as well -- where people need 
every possible dB of sensitivity but are not always in such a hurry.


We have not forgotten about WSPR-LF, either.  Or, maybe, a QSO mode 
that uses OQPSK and coherent demodulation.


I hope to have a signal of my own on 472 kHz, before too long!

-- Joe, K1JT





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Re: [wsjt-devel] My Grid in documentation

2017-10-16 Thread Joe Taylor 

Hi Dave,

On 10/16/2017 7:08 PM, David Fisher wrote:
I’m proof reading the 1.8 RC 3 document.  Here’s something I’ve noticed 
before that might be helpful.


As I understand it (and I’m probably wrong), the “Settings, General, My 
Grid” field accepts 6 character grid information such as CM97bq (my 
grid).  I discovered this accidentally when I was trying to figure out 
how to send the full grid information in WSPR messages.  In my view, 
it’s not obvious that all six characters can or should be input, given 
that only four are usually used in FT8, JT64, JT9 etc.  Perhaps a short 
paragraph detailing this would be helpful.


Dave / NX6D


Near its beginning, Section 4.1 of the WSJT-X User Guide includes these 
sentences:


"Select the General tab on the Settings window. Under Station Details 
enter your callsign, grid locator (preferably the 6-character locator) 
and IARU Region number."


As you say, only the leading four characters are used in standard 
JT-style messages.  But when they are available, the full 6-digit 
locators are used (for example) in computing distances, bearings, EME 
Doppler shifts, and the like.


-- 73, Joe, K1JT

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[wsjt-devel] My Grid in documentation

2017-10-16 Thread David Fisher 
I’m proof reading the 1.8 RC 3 document.  Here’s something I’ve noticed before 
that might be helpful.

As I understand it (and I’m probably wrong), the “Settings, General, My Grid” 
field accepts 6 character grid information such as CM97bq (my grid).  I 
discovered this accidentally when I was trying to figure out how to send the 
full grid information in WSPR messages.  In my view, it’s not obvious that all 
six characters can or should be input, given that only four are usually used in 
FT8, JT64, JT9 etc.  Perhaps a short paragraph detailing this would be helpful.

Dave / NX6D



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Re: [wsjt-devel] Gravitational waves

2017-10-16 Thread Gary McDuffie 


> On Oct 16, 2017, at 3:40 PM, Joe Taylor  wrote:
> 
> A press conference was held this morning at the National Press Club in 
> Washington, D.C.

A really big congratulations to you and the various teams, both related to the 
press conference, and the RC3 release.  You are, indeed, a very busy person.

Thank you for the huge contribution you and the various teams make to science 
and ham radio in general.

73, Gary - AG0N
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[wsjt-devel] Gravitational waves

2017-10-16 Thread Joe Taylor 

Hi all,

This is my last post here for today, and it has little to do with 
WSJT-related software development.  But its topic has occupied much of 
my time for the past ten days -- and it has made me feel as excited as a 
youngster with a new scientific toy!  A few have asked offline if I 
would share some insider details, so here goes...


A press conference was held this morning at the National Press Club in 
Washington, D.C., to announce the LIGO/Virgo collaboration's detection 
of gravitational waves from a binary neutron-star coalescence event. 
The event occurred some 130 million years ago, in a distant galaxy 
called NGC 4993.  The gravitational waves traveled here at the speed of 
light, arriving at Earth on August 17, 2017.  Best of all, the collision 
event event was also detected in gamma rays, X-rays, ultra-violet, 
visible light, infra-red, and radio waves: nearly the whole 
electromagnetic spectrum!  You can watch the recorded press conference 
and get some idea of the scientific excitement here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPIwEJmZyE

You'll find a few more scientific details on the American Physical 
Society's web site: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v10/114 .


You might be interested in a sidelight relevant to ham radio: the 
"Hulse-Taylor" team mentioned in the APS article could equally well be 
called the "WB2LAV-K1JT" team.  In 1974, when Hulse and I did the work 
described in the APS piece, he was my graduate student.  Both of us were 
working in radio astronomy in part as a result of our boyhood interest 
in Amateur Radio.


-- 73, Joe, K1JT

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Re: [wsjt-devel] JT9 AP request

2017-10-16 Thread Joe Taylor 

Hi Eric, Jay, and all,

On 10/16/2017 8:27 AM, Eric NO3M wrote:
630M opened up to some US Amateurs this past weekend.  FT8 may have 
killed JT65 / JT9 for the most part on HF, but down on 630 JT9 is still 
king.  We need to dig deep for weak (5W EIRP) signals amidst harsh 
noise, etc.  I'd like to request that AP ("a priori") be integrated into 
JT9 for additional sensitivity.


Thanks for considering.

73 Eric NO3M


On 10/16/2017 9:00 AM, Jay KA9CFD wrote:
I remember seeing last spring before the FT8 craze some development 
work on a new mode called WSPR-LF. Are there any plans to start 
development again?


73 Jay KA9CFD


AP decoding capability is not likely to be added to JT9.  The whole 
concept is not well matched to convolutional codes like the one used in 
JT9.  A much better prospect for use at MF and LF would be a "slow FT8" 
mode with longer transmissions -- say one minute, like JT9.  This is 
eminently feasible and might be implemented at some point.


Such a mode could be interesting for EME, as well -- where people need 
every possible dB of sensitivity but are not always in such a hurry.


We have not forgotten about WSPR-LF, either.  Or, maybe, a QSO mode that 
uses OQPSK and coherent demodulation.


I hope to have a signal of my own on 472 kHz, before too long!

-- Joe, K1JT

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[wsjt-devel] WSJT-X usage by platform

2017-10-16 Thread Joe Taylor 

Hi all,

Some interesting statistics on downloads of wsjtx-1.8.0-rc2, derived 
from the SourceForge web page

https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt/files/wsjtx-1.8.0-rc2/

Platform Downloads   Pct
-
Windows11,369   91.6
Linux 6965.6
Macintosh 3562.9

I haven't implemented an easy way to extract similar statistics for 
downloads from the WSJT Home Page.  Indeed, I don't offhand know how the 
total number of WSJT-X downloads divides between the SourceForge and 
WSJT Home Page sites.  Whatever this split may be... and whatever number 
of additional users may be building the program for themselves, from our 
source code -- it's clear that WSJT-X has become a *very* popular ham 
radio software package.


Thanks to all who have contributed so much to its success!

-- 73, Joe, K1JT

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[wsjt-devel] WSJT-X Version 1.8.0, Release Candidate 3

2017-10-16 Thread Joe Taylor 
The WSJT Development Group is pleased to announce a third candidate 
release of WSJT-X Version 1.8.0.  We believe this is the all-but-final 
beta release; we expect very soon -- perhaps next week -- to make 
Version 1.8.0 the full general availability (GA) release of WSJT-X.


Changes since "Release Candidate 2" (wsjtx-1.8.0-rc2) are outlined in 
the Release Notes posted here:

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes_1.8.0.txt

Installation packages for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Raspian Jessie 
have been posted on the WSJT web site here:

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a link to the installation 
package for your system.


You can also download the packages from our SourceForge site:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt/files/wsjtx-1.8.0-rc3/

If you are upgrading from -rc1, you will need to do a one-time reset of 
the default list of suggested operating frequencies.  Go to 
*File->Settings->Frequencies*, right click on the table and select *Reset*.


Please report any problems as soon as possible to email list 
wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net.  You will must be a subscriber in 
order to post there.


-- 73, Joe, K1JT, for the WSJT Development Group

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Re: [wsjt-devel] possible NEW BUG in RC2 FT-8 automatic mode

2017-10-16 Thread Claude Frantz 
On 10/15/2017 02:29 AM, m&b wrote:

Hi Bob and all,

> I would like to report a possible new bug in what I call the WSJT-X
> "autopilot" which can be used for FT-8 mode for automatic QSO reponses,
> and I will try to provide enough information below so that you can try
> to reproduce it.

I have pointed to this problem previously here, in this list.

I suggest to analyze more seriously the received message before to
decide about its classification as an "73" message. The number of words
should be considered and a supposed callsign should be checked for
plausibility. Such a more serious analysis is probably recommended to
the other messages too.

For now, I suggest to use only the standard "73" message form.

Best wishes,
Claude (DJ0OT)

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Re: [wsjt-devel] JT9 AP request

2017-10-16 Thread Jay Hainline 
I remember seeing last spring before the FT8 craze some development work on a 
new mode called WSPR-LF. Are there any plans to start development again?
73 Jay KA9CFD


Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Smartphone
 Original message From: Eric NO3M  Date: 
10/16/17  07:27  (GMT-06:00) To: wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: 
[wsjt-devel] JT9 AP request 
630M opened up to some US Amateurs this past weekend.  FT8 may have 
killed JT65 / JT9 for the most part on HF, but down on 630 JT9 is still 
king.  We need to dig deep for weak (5W EIRP) signals amidst harsh 
noise, etc.  I'd like to request that AP ("a priori") be integrated into 
JT9 for additional sensitivity.

Thanks for considering.

73 Eric NO3M

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[wsjt-devel] JT9 AP request

2017-10-16 Thread Eric NO3M 
630M opened up to some US Amateurs this past weekend.  FT8 may have 
killed JT65 / JT9 for the most part on HF, but down on 630 JT9 is still 
king.  We need to dig deep for weak (5W EIRP) signals amidst harsh 
noise, etc.  I'd like to request that AP ("a priori") be integrated into 
JT9 for additional sensitivity.


Thanks for considering.

73 Eric NO3M

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