Joe, first, thanks for the intense amount of work you and the
others have put into this project! The results keep getting better and
better!
You may recall years back a program named "Lan-Link. It was
designed for HF/VHF packet and was fairly widespread using PK-232 and
other TNCs. That application allowed the user to carry on up to TEN QSOs
at the same time, as well as having a "robot" mode that would decode and
respond to key words in the incoming signals.
For example, you would call CQ and AB1CDE would respond. You could
give AB1CDE his signal report and the "usual" info. When AB1CDE
returned, if he were to say "rig here is...." the program could respond
with the canned message "rig here is...........". If he said "I work
at..." the program could access the specific macro that included your
employment information.
As far as I recall this was perhaps the first software that allowed
a completely robotic QSO based on input received from the other
station. It worked, to a limited degree, as long as the QSO station used
the right words/phrases!
That said, it was fun setting it up and watching it run, but I have
no desire to see it again! Macros have their place in the world, and
I've used them for years. They can and do make tedious contest exchanges
MUCH easier. They also make it much easier to have a rag-chew. You can
send the "rig" macro while you type ahead free text to follow it.
My personal desire is that the current state of the program remain
as it is, or perhaps a "Contest Edition" or option be added. My main
reason for this is that when QSOs become too easy, it diminishes the
value of the QSO. The program now terminates transmission after each
"automatic" QSO. Adding functionality that would allow the program to
run completely on its' own would remove any challenge left in this mode.
My opinion only. YMMV
Tnx es 73
Dave - KB3MOW
On 7/11/2017 11:42 AM, Joe Taylor wrote:
Hi all,
WSJT-X v1.8.0-rc1 includes an optional feature that is a significant
departure from all previous WSJT-related software.
When you call CQ in FT8 mode with both "Auto Seq" and "Call 1st"
checked, the program automatically selects the first decoded response
to your CQ and starts a QSO with the selected station. The effect is
the same as if you had double-clicked on the caller's message.
Subsequent transmissions will then continue automatically through the
standard QSO sequence.
When the contact is complete the CQ message (Tx6 on Tab 1) is selected
but "Tx Enable" is turned OFF. This choice is intentional. We want
WSJT-X to be a tool for assisting contacts between human operators,
not an "Automatic QSO Machine".
For a mode with 15-second T/R sequences and very little time for
selecting reply messages, there are obvious merits of the approach we
have tentatively adopted. However, there are also some obvious
consequences that might not be considered desirable. Do we want a
computer algorithm to take part in choosing our QSO partners?
It seems like a good idea to have some public discussion on whether
"Call 1st" already goes too far in the direction of QSO automation.
Some of you noticed that a "Weak" box appeared briefly beside "Call
1st" (but was not yet implemented). The idea was that when two or
more replies were received to one's CQ, this option would select the
one with lower S/N -- potentially encouraging people to keep their
power turned down, as appropriate for conditions.
We are interested in feedback from users on the question of partial
QSO automation. Should "Call 1st" be changed or removed?
One more point: FT8 signals occupy the frequency/time plane more
"densely" than JT65. For this reason, even when we have implemented
signal subtraction and multi-pass decoding, overlapping signals will
be less likely to decode than is the case with JT65. You may soon
discover that it often pays to respond to a CQ "off frequency" by 60
Hz or more. We might consider offering a tool to make this easier to do.
-- Joe, K1JT
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