Hi,
I understand the concern about so many different speeds, but as a very
active 2200m operator let me offer a few words.
These modes were created with LF and MF bands in mind. LF and MF are not
HF. There is no "one size fits all" for these bands. On HF you may be
able to work the whole world with one relatively fast speed. It is not
so down here. We are limited to 5 watts EIRP on 630m and 1 watt on
2200m. Real DX takes some very special modes and a lot of determination
and patience. One would probably not want to use anything slower than
120 seconds for QSOs with well equipped stations at 1000 km distance. It
would be very boring and waste a lot of time. But for some DX paths on
2200m only 1800 or 900 second periods would offer any hope for success.
It's not so boring when you are about to set a new world record or make
a personal best DX QSO. We need this flexibility.
I think over time, some conventions will emerge. For example on 630m,
900 and 1800 second periods might not see much use, while most of the
faster choices probably will. On 2200m I think all four FST4W speeds
will be quite useful. It may be that the fastest FST4 options won't see
a lot of use on 2200m but it may be too early to know for sure.
It has long been common practice to monitor multiple modes at the same
time at least on 2200m. It is part of the culture on that band. I
currently monitor WSPR2, WSPR15, FST4W-120, FST4W-300, FST4W-900,
FST4W-1800, Opera32 and two QRSS windows every night. Usually I have one
or two FST4 monitors going too, but it varies. There is never enough
monitor space but I won't complain because monitoring all activity one
of the things I really like about LF operating.
I am extremely grateful to the developers for giving us not only new
modes but also the flexibility needed to exploit a wide range of
opportunities on LF and MF. This flexibility gives us choices we did not
previously have but wished for. This opens the door to new opportunities.
That said, it would seem really nice if a single instance could decode
all four FST4W speeds. :) But there is a down side to that too. Since
WSPRnet does not provide any means to show the mode and speed, some of
us are using call sign suffixes to indicate this. For some it is
important to know that information. I do not know how different suffixes
could be used for each speed if they were all decoded by a single
instance. Even with these wonderful game changing new modes and speeds,
there is no perfect world.
73,
Paul N1BUG
On 9/29/2020 5:11 AM, Christoph Berg wrote:
Re: Pino Zollo
Hi,
I wonder if the program can decode at the same time all the different
tone spacing ...
Having to chose between 7 T/R periods every one with different tone
spacing, which is the probability of having chosen the right one ?
I had similar thoughts. IMHO the reason FT8 has been so successful on
the HF bands is that is just FT8, you tune to some frequency and get
going because everyone there is using the same mode.
With PSK there's PSK31, 63, 125 (which are still easy to tell apart
visually, fortunately), but then there's Olivia with about 30
sub-modes, and all the other funky digimodes that next to no-one is
using because the chances of finding someone tuned to the same submode
are close to 0.
How is this supposed to work with FST4+FST4W in practice? Couldn't the
7 submodes reduced to some smaller number? Or maybe wsjt-x could at
least mark some of the submodes as "recommended [for use on band X]"
in the GUI?
Christoph
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