On 17/11/2020 13:32, alawler mudhawk.com wrote:
HI Folks,
I'm a bit late to the release candidate party. In addition to
FT-8, I have several SDR's that run wspr fulltime, and am anxious to
devote some of my receivers to fst4w.
Looking at the UI, there are many now different possible TR
intervals for FST4w, and it exists alongside wspr as a separate mode.
My concern is that all these new permutations will fragment the user
base somewhat, and as a newcomer, I'd like to be listening where
there is most chance of success.
I have 2 questions around operational conventions:
1) What is the most common TR time interval for the folks on the list
who are currently actively transmitting via fst4w?
2) From the release notes, it seems as if this new mode is intended
mostly for MF and LF users, but is the ultimate vision for this mode
to replace wspr on the upper HF bands as well?
Lastly, returning to the fragmentation issue, for users like me
who passively listen, it would be really cool if the software were
able to record a .wav file for the longest interval, then parse it
for all possible shorter TR intervals, as well as 'classic' wspr
(possibly as a post-processing activity, rather than in real time.)
Thanks for any consideration!
--al
WB1BQE
Hi Al,
yes the LF and MF bands are best suited to FST4(W) and users are
reporting many trans-Atlantic spots as well as QSOs with FST4 despite
conditions only just starting to improve for the Northern Hemisphere
Winter season. Trans-Pacific spots and QSOs are certainly possible for
well equipped stations on 2200m and 630m. A lot of coordination is done
on the low-bands Slack channel, you can also monitor the chat and forums
on WSPRnet.org.
The latest WSJT-X v2.3.0 RC2 includes improved spotting to WSPRnet.org
and the mode used should now show, also a restriction of only spotting
in the traditional WSPR sub-bands has been removed so stations operating
outside of them can now be spotted.
The benefits of FST4 and FST4W reduce with increasing frequency,
particularly with the very narrow tone spacings of the longer T/R period
variants. This is because typical propagation frequency spreading, which
increases with frequency, will defeat the decoders on higher bands.
FST4W, unlike WSPR, has no tolerance of frequency drift greater than the
tone spacing, so Tx and Rx frequency stability has to be good. The
higher frequency bands are more likely challenge the stability of
equipment unless both ends are GPS disciplined or have good TXCOs.
73
Bill
G4WJS.
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