FT8 in State QSO Parties?
This year there will be QSO parties for all States except Alaska. Most are run by individual States, but there are two regional ones (New England QSO Party and the 7th Call Area QSO Party). At present in WSJT-X V2.0.0 there isn’t a FT8 ‘Special Operating Activity’ module for these very popular operating events. My son Andy, K1RA & I have been discussing how we might implement the use of FT8 in the upcoming VA QSO Party, scheduled for March 16 & 17 this year. The various QSO Parties around the USA require stations in the *host* State to send one of these 5 exchange formats: · RST+County (total 6 or 7 characters) · or Serial number+County (up to 4 digit SN) +( 3 or 4 char. for County) · or State+County (5 or 6 characters) · or County+State (5 or 6 characters) · or the ops Name+County (limit the name length?) + (3 or 4 for County) One idea considered for the VQP, using the presently available V2.0.0, was to have all participants use the RTTY RU module and set the callsign to, for example, K1HTV/CUL (Culpeper County). But that format doesn’t fit the present FT8 format for compound calls. Sending a sequential QSO number could be achieved if Stateside stations were able to flag themselves as ‘DX’….but there isn’t any way at present to do so in V2.0.0 . So what, if anything, can be done to incorporate FT8 into future State QSO Parties? If an FT8 “State QSO Party” module were to be added to the present WSJT-X code, it should: 1) Allow for 3 or 4 character county abbreviations to be sent. In the case of the 7 land and New England QSO parties, allow for a 5 character combined State and County code to be sent by stations in New England & W7 land States. 2) Allow all to send either an RST, or a sequential number, or their name. 3) As required by the QSO Party rules, allow out-of-State participants to send their State, or VE province abbreviation, or in the case of DX stations, to send ““DX”. 4) Allow for a special QSO Party CQ message to stick, such as “CQ VQP K1HTV” or “CQ 7QP W7XX ”. In the VQP, K1RA in Fauquier County might send “K1JT 002 FAU” and Joe would respond with “K1RA 599 NJ”. If possible, both calls should be sent. In the 7 land QSO Party, W7CT in Davis County, UT , would send, for example, “JA4BUA 599 UTDAV” and JA4BUA would respond with “W7CT 599 DX”. Again, send both calls if possible. There would be no requirement to send a real signal report. Who ever does in contests? Its 59 or 599, right? I wouldn’t worry about WSJT-X having to proof the State or County info. I’d leave it up to the op to verify that the data received is in the proper format for submission to the QSO Party administrators. What is needed are boxes in the WSJT-X “Advanced Settings” for participants to check off to properly format the QSO Party exchange that they will be sending to stations being worked in that QSO Party. Of course, exchanges sent would have to meet line length limits. What say WSJT-X Development team? Can do ? Comments by others? 73, Rich – K1HTV
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