Good morning,
I’m a parks on the air (POTA) Op and having “space”for any 4 digit numbers is a 
big deal!  We POTApark/wilderness operators run a bare bones minimalist 
operation.  Trying to run the full blown WSJT operation with JT-alert and color 
codingup the gazoo is ridiculous and not needed. In fact Idon’t use those 
functions at home for philosophical reasons, it forces me to think and be a 
better ham (something that seems forgotten by the new crop of hams.) 
Keep up the great weak signal development Joe andcompany!!  POTA operations are 
like mini field day deployments but with compromised antennas, anyWSJT mode is 
another tool in our toolbox.But to the GUI guys: don’t forget us minimalist 
operators; be it on SOTA or running a pileup in the cold we are there.  We 
actually need very little!
73/44’s - Dave - wb9own 



Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone


On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 7:18 PM, Bill Somerville <[email protected]> 
wrote:

On 12/12/2018 00:02, Mike Maynard wrote:
> Well, I shall start with the fact that when I started doing mobile and 
> asked around, it was said that I needed to update my grid square as I 
> moved from one square to another.  thus I concluded that many people 
> would take offense to me not even using one?  I thought that the grid 
> square was part of the 'accepted' protocol for FT8 and if I were not 
> to use one, that it may offend many people.
>
> I find it interesting that we have taken a mode that everyone seems to 
> love as a 'fun' mode as its primary use to a primary contest mode, and 
> oh yeah have fun with it if you can as well.
>
> I am all about progress, improvements and furthering the hobby.  I 
> dont have any issue with upgrades, etc.  I just dont see why we have 
> to sacrifice things that were once working fine to make it happen.
>
> I am starting to see why so many people are griping about the new 
> version, which up until I tried to use my mobile callsign I fully 
> supported.
>
Hi Mike,

that doesn't seem to address my question, but I will comment on what you 
say here also.

Firstly WSJT-X is all about weak signal communications, that constrains 
the implementation domain. There is a reason why minimal QSOs are part 
of the equation. To complete QSOs in an acceptable time without using 
excessive bandwidth either the amount of information transferred must be 
limited or the sensitivity must be reduced. Sensitivity is very high on 
the list of desirable characteristics. To allow more flexibility in 
possible QSOs the envelope of allowed messages has been given a shake 
up, it is now larger with respect to the overall potential user base and 
that has been done by pushing out in a few important places. By making 
room for new groups some existing edge cases have had to be discarded, 
they couldn't all fit in. Your preferred QSO style was in a previous 
group of cases that have been discarded for a new large group (much 
larger BTW) which still allows you to make QSOs but only within the 
limitation that you cannot call CQ with a grid square. You should note 
that this is nothing new, in the 75-bit message payload all type 2 
compound callsign holders have always had that same restriction.

Regarding exchanging a grid square in a QSO, it has never been a 
requirement, the normally accepted exchange of information for a QSO is 
to exchange and acknowledge receipt of each others callsigns and to 
exchange and acknowledge another piece of QSO specific information such 
as a signal report. A grid square is not a callsign, nor is it QSO 
specific (even it you are operating mobile). As far as the WSJT-X 
developers are concerned, a grid square is sent because it is an aid to 
establishing a QSO, i.e. for aerial pointing or Doppler correction 
calculations on EME paths. The WSJT-X QSO templates started with VHF and 
up as well as EME paths where grid squares are very useful, on HF they 
are much less so but there was little justification to change them. The 
grid is effectively exchanged for free while making a general call or 
answering a call and acknowledging the callers callsign.

You should note that LoTW which is used a great deal these days to 
confirm and validate QSOs does not require a match of copied grid square 
or any other location information, quite the opposite in that if the 
time, frequency, and call match then the QSO match will actually deliver 
the other operator's grid square. Just like an old fashioned QSL card, 
there has never been any requirement to exchange location information 
except in contests where that information is explicitly required in the 
exchange.

If you are operating in an unusual grid square then you still have the 
opportunity to state that to listeners, just not in your general calls. 
You can use the standard message form I suggested in a QSO, or in your 
case with a 1 by 2 callsign, send a free text message like "K2GC/M FN03".

73
Bill
G4WJS.



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