Bill: I decided to review the mailing list for prior discussions of Winter Field Day (WFD) before writing this message.
I was wondering why WFD was not supported by WSJT-X and it appears from a message you apparently wrote on November 20, 2018 that: the field day class is packed into 3 bits so only eight different classes > are supported. We cannot support three new class letters on top of the > existing six. It could be possible by agreement to use, say 'a', 'B', and > 'C' to represent 'I', 'O', and 'H' since Winter FD does not use any of the > normal FD classes. Going to the Winter Field Day Rules, page 7, it says: FT8/FT4 Notes: WFD has always had an Ecomm emphasis, even back when SPAR > sponsored it.. We waited for FT8 2.0, and FT4 hoping they would be more > flexible, but were disappointed that the new release would NOT do the WFD > Exchange as it currently stands. That alone rules out using FT8/FT4 for > WFD. Also, its ability to carry any emergency message is near nil... try > sending "SOS - HMS TITANIC - HIT ICE - SINKING - 82.566N 34.713W". Almost > any other mode can send that (or the WFD Exchange). Getting a message > through bad conditions is great.. but getting only a grid square and a > signal report is hardly a message of value to Ecomms. *When FT8 can do > the WFD exchange verbatim, it'll become part of WFD. That has been the > consensus of the WFDA board for some time... We are not anti-FT8. The ARRL > did not change any rules in its contests to allow FT8... FT8 developers > changed what it could send to fit a few ARRL contest exchanges. * > (my emphasis added) So, have you and Joe given any further consideration to providing for Winter Field Day Exchanges in WSJT-X? It seems to me, that since WSJT-X already supports the following contests, then what is the harm / difficulty of adding one more? - ARRL Field Day - RTTY Roundup - NA VHF Contest - EU VHF Contest - WW Digi Contest I mean, FT4 was added as a new mode specifically to support contesting. Winter Field Day is certainly treated as a contest by many hams. Based upon your message from November, 2018, there are only three bits available. So is there any possibility of using a fourth bit, or are no more bits available? Based on what you said later in the same message thread, this doesn't seem like a possibility? Or as you mentioned before, is it possible to repurpose the existing bits for WFD? Michael Black, W9MDB, mentioned this very same solution on 11/20/2018 On the flip side, it seems to me that designing the 77? bit protocol with the above contests, but no WFD seems to me to be a failure of design (or a failure of imagination), rather than implementation. Or was it intentional to leave out WFD? I'm really not trying to "poke the bear" here, but at the very least, I'd like to urge support be added for WFD, whether it is repurposing the existing bits or (gasp), creating a 78-bit message exchange which of course would not be backward-compatible. Please advise and 73, -- Dave Slotter, W3DJS <https://www.qrz.com/db/W3DJS>
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