Hi all, FT8 has the advantage of being located in a single frequency. So if one arrives on a totally empty band he'll be attracted to that single "watering hole" just like insects around a lonely light at night. It happens frequently to find a desert 10m band except for some weak beacons and the FT8 segment is S7-8: I can recognize the Costas arrays by hear ;) FT8 has some theoretical SNR advantage over CW and other digimodes, but its strength comes from the single gathering point and its extremely low access effort. Personally I deem operating FT8 just a tad more rewarding than keeping a beacon active or having a KiwiSDR doing WSPR...
What I hate about FT8 is its "closeness" regardless of WSJTX being open source: if your code is obfuscated, too complex to understand and you don't even publish a scientific paper to describe the details, I think the ham community should revolt against this status quo. Imagine using SSB/CW receivers without knowing the technical details and produced by a single guy in the whole world... that's crazy. Even GSM/UMTS/LTE is more documented. Personally I don't want to be an appliance operator. 73, marco / IS0KYB Il giorno dom 4 ago 2019 alle ore 15:36 George Taft via Topband < [email protected]> ha scritto: > Mark etal > > Using CW, I've worked DXCC on Topband for at least the past ten "seasons" > including 2018/2019. But last year was the most skimpy with just 105 in the > log. Peak was several years ago at 155. I use July 1 - June 30 as a > "season". > > Mebbe when the new mode fad settles, CW on 160 may agn be worthy. > > 73 George > W8UVZ On Sunday, August 4, 2019, 12:02:58 AM EDT, Mark K3MSB < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Jerry > > You said " Yes DX last year on 160 CW was pretty scarce" and other have > made a similar comment. > > Are you referring to new ones, or just DX in general? I worked 16 new > ones on CW last season and understand that "scarce" can be different > depending upon how many DXCC one already has worked. > > 73 Mark K3MSB > > > > > On Sat, Aug 3, 2019 at 8:51 PM K4SAV <[email protected]> wrote: > > > NR2DX asked: "If read your post correctly you are saying that you are > > working against an ambient noise level of 20-30 db over S9 is that > > correct.? " > > > > No. The S9+20 to 30 dB is the S meter reading when all the FT8 stations > > are transmitting after the band opens a little. Receiver bandwidth was > > 1.5 kHz. Tuning to a clear frequency my noise level was about S1 with > > 200 Hz bandwidth when I made these tests. I usually used 100 Hz > > bandwidth when measuring the signal level of the FT8 signal for > > determining his actual strength. Sometimes less if there were multiple > > signals in the passband. > > > > > > W0MU asked: "Have you attempted to open a conversation with the > > creators of the mode and discuss what you are seeing?" > > > > No I have not. I have also not seen any published data from anyone > > showing actual performance. All I see are claims based on calculations. > > Theory is good but it has to agree reasonably well with actual > > measurements. If not, one of the two is in error. > > > > Yes DX last year on 160 CW was pretty scarce. Even when I was hearing > > S6 FT8 signals from Europe I would tune down to the CW portion of the > > band and usually there were no CW signals there. > > > > When I was doing these tests I was using WSJT-X in FT8 mode on 160 > > meters. I was using version 2.0.0, which was the latest version at the > > time. > > > > Jerry, K4SAV > > _________________ > > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > > Reflector > > > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > -- marco cogoni CRS4 http://sibamanna DOT duckdns DOT org _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
