Reino - OH3MA,
 The radio is an Elecraft K3 with audio fed via USB cable from its internal
CODEC. I received a call from Sam, W2JDB, creator of the QLog program for
blind Hams to use FT8/FT4. Sam suggested that the problem may be that
Windows, for some reason, stops handling the time correction data. My PC
clock, if not updated with a time sync program, my PC clock will be off by
2 seconds in a day. That might explain the low number of decoded stations,
with clock settings that probably are also close to the +/- 2 second mark.

One thing that I should have done was to check the WSJT-X time compared to
my WWVB sync'd atomic clock , even though the "TIME.IS"  website said that
my time was "Exact".

73,
Rich - K1HTV
= = =

To: "'WSJT software development'" <[email protected]>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2021 21:07:34 +0200
Subject: Re: [wsjt-devel] FT8 poor decoding problem solved

I'm passing along this info for others who might be experiencing low
numbers of FT8 decodes.

In the past month on 3 occasions the number of FT8 decodes on very busy
bands didn’t match the activity noted on the Wide Graph. Although many
dozens of stations were seen, fewer than 10 were being decoded on the odd
cycles and only 1 or 2 stations were decoded during the even cycles. This
same pattern was noted on all 3 times that this problem was observed. The
problem occurred while using WSJT-X V2.3.0 GA as well as 2.4.0-rc1 & 3
versions.

I verified that D4.EXE had recently updated the time and the “Time.IS”
website said the computer clock was “Exact”, so it wasn’t a time issue.
Using the Windows Task Manager, the maximum CPU usage with the dual core
I5-2500 CPU running at 3.3 GHz never exceeded 40% on peaks. There was
plenty of the 16GB of memory available, so it didn’t appear to be a memory
issue either. The audio receive level was between 50 and 60 dB on the
WSJT-X bar meter.

I shut down all other apps but the poor decode performance continued with
only WSJT-X running. Shutting down and restarting WSJT-X didn’t correct the
problem.

The fix?  I rebooted the computer and during subsequent decode cycles,
between 40 and 60+ stations were decoded each cycle. The reboot fixed the
poor decoding each time the problem was observed.

Any thoughts as to why this was happening?

Thanks Rich of your positive report. Could you remind us which rig are
using and how it is connected to your PC, please?
73, Reino OH3mA
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