FT8 for 2018 Field Day
Regarding the use of FT8 on Field Day, you can do what I did during the recent
VA QSO Party, that is, use the Tx5 (73) message to send contest data. The VQP
exchange sent was number, county & State, "nnn CUL VA 73", where 'nnn' was my
QSO number and 'CUL' was the abbreviation for Culpeper county. The 'VA' for
Virginia was not a contest exchange requirement. The Tx5 message met the 13
character maximum and ended with '73', which trigger the '73' message of the
station being worked. I created a Tx5 macro message "000 CUL VA 73". When a QSO
started, I simply pulled down that macro message and manually changed the 000
to the next number in the sequence.
Unfortunately almost no FT8 stations worked in the VA QSO Party knew how to
send the required data. As a result I focused mainly on working DX on FT8,
where the only a number (dB report) was required. 285 of the 287 VA QSO Party
QSOs were with DX stations.
If a future WSJT-X release could have a check box for ""Lock Tx5 message", that
would allow the easier use of FT8 in various contests, such as Field Day and
State QSO parties. Once the 'Lock' box was checked, the user would type in the
fixed contest exchange text into the Tx5 message box. It would remain there
until the contest was over and not be overwritten when a new station was being
worked.
Sponsors would have to explain, in their rules, how to use FT8 in their
contest. The Field day exchange wouldn't present any problem. However, those
State QSO parties that presently requiring sequential QSO number exchanges
could switch to using the dB report as the numbers exchanged.
73,
Rich - K1HTV
= = =
Jordan Sherer, KN4CRD wrote:
At that very least you can use a free text message for the exchange, Don:
"KN4CRD 1B GA"
You just won't be able to use auto sequencing when operating FT8 during field
day.
Best,
Jordan
KN4CRD
On Mar 27, 2018, 7:40 AM -0400, Don Goldston <[email protected]>, wrote:
Any chance that an FT8 mode that performs the required exchange of information
for the 2018 Field Day could be
created?
I know y'all are wrapped up in DXP mode, but thought it was worth asking.
Thanks,
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