On being able to hear signals at -12 to -17 dB on FT8, I do broadly agree. A CW signal at those levels would be easily heard and copied by any decent CW operator.
I think a lot of the FT8 “processing gain” claims, assumes a really poor CW operator. A 0dB FT8 signal is not at noise level, it is way way above noise level. That said, this morning at my sunrise (noon in Europe) I was printing Italian stations on 40M FT8 and I was being decoded in Europe too, often at the -22 to -24 dB level. (I was barefoot and I’m assuming the italiAns too). Those are levels below what I can hear or copy on CW. I can work Europe midday on 40CW in winter but not so easy in spring or summer. Tim N3QE > On Apr 22, 2018, at 10:17 AM, David Olean <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have been playing around with FT8 on 160M and am a bit puzzled. I have made > plenty of contacts, but with many stations, it seems to require an inordinate > amount of power to get their attention, or they do not respond at all. I also > have noted that I can hear in a 2.8 kHz passband, signals that register from > -12 to -17 dB. About the weakest that I see is a bit more than -20 dB. Does > this mean that FT8 is only a few dB better than CW? I have my time set > accurately and I try to place my TX signal away from whomever I am calling on > a clear spot on my waterfall. > > Some stations are easy to work, and I have worked across the country (FN43 to > a CM grid) running just 1 watt. It just seems that there are many stations > that are not hearing much, but are making plenty of noise. Am I wrong? > > I am working on cleaning up my 160 setup and have 8 beverages running and > they are all pretty quiet now that I installed plenty of ferrite chokes > around on the RG-6 feed lines. I am looking forward to next fall and winter. > > 73 > > Dave K1WHS > > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
