On 2/15/2023 9:05 AM, Fred Carvalho via wsjt-devel wrote:
However I would like to stick on why and how things happened that caused so much confusion:
I suspect the fundamental problem with FT8 was like the problem with the trip as a whole -- poor planning. I I couldn't see radials in relative close-ups of the verticals, they were on rocks (lousy ground) rather than by the water (great ground), had anyone involved with operation or planning run much (any?) FT8?
The logistics of the island cried out for at least some of the concepts AA7JV used for his "radio in a box." For example, smaller generators charging LiFePO4 batteries could have allowed higher power with much less weight dragged up to the operating site. I RIB to 6M grid warrior AE6EE, who adapted them to his activations, one of which was dragging a complete station up a primitive 3 mile trail that gains 1,000 ft, where no pack animals are permitted. He built water-cooled amps, and to minimize dragging water, used his urine.
FT8 was viewed as an inferior mode, emphasis was given to "real" modes like SSB and CW. Leadership had to be pushed by pilots to elevate its priority. Starlink (if there's coverage there) or a GPS puck would have gotten them accurate time. Not clear whether WWV or other HF time beacons cover where they were. Success of the FT8 operation was greatly hampered by all the lids calling blind, AND on the wrong sequence because 3Y0J was on the wrong sequence, AND those who didn't RTFM about F/H even calling on top of the DX.
Those few of us (900 or so) who worked them on FT8 did a LOT more listening than calling to figure out what was going on, never called blind, waited until what we heard and decoded something that made sense based on propagation, and assumed something about F/H was SNAFU on their end. Once I realized it was SNAFU, I switched to JTDX, which still regularly decodes a few of the weakest signals that WSJT-X misses. Today, we learned that the SNAFU was 14 sec clock error.
Someday, high energy DXpeditioners will realize that it's a lot more about engineering, antennas, and experience, and a lot less about brute force. I'm a VERY OF (age 81, hamming 67 years) all my life a CW op, but I recognized the value of, and adopted, WSJT modes in a big way 15 years ago!
Has anyone noticed that FT8WW was VERY easy to work with very limited antennas and running barefoot during his initial period of operation? He had a much better signal, and I worked him easily on 2 bands running FT8, and Crovet is 2,000 miles farther from me that Bouvet! (I'm in NorCal, near SF).
73, Jim K9YC _______________________________________________ wsjt-devel mailing list wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
