I am very much looking forward to the Mac release of WSJT-X that will include FT8. Following along closely in the Facebook group with the quirks and developments of it. With 15 second transmission windows it will be likely that I'll try that mode for SOTA & POTA activations!
...which means you should expect FT8 to ALSO be a DXpedition mode. This is KEY, because it means that 12 and 10M may be REVIVED for DXing , despite the dead conditions of this horrible sunspot minimum, which kicked in EARLY. NOW is the time to figure out how to implement a version of FT8 for DXpedition DXing...one that doesnt clog when 300 people are calling.... 73 Chip W1YW
Never mind - found the answer buried down in the Q & A's. Description is wrong and it is stereo inbput - The specs on Amazon indicate a mono stereo input for the card you linked to, am I missing something? Dave, AK7DB
Before I started operating the digital modes in 2003, those initially being PSK31, MFSK16 and RTTY, from here in Florida with my a little above average radio station equipment and antennas I was already seeing less SSB and CW operation on the HF bands. In my opinion it was/is due to the loss (SK) of many many very knowledgeable and experienced hamateurs, the march of time. It's glaringly obvious on 160 and 20 meters, bands that at one time saw wall to wall activity CW and SSB activity with QRM being a big problem. But now those bands are virtually totally empty as compared to 5-10 years ago. Ironically we have more licensed hamateurs than ever before but at the same time the bands are virtually void of HF SSB QSO's. And when I do tune around on HF I hear no one calling CQ and what QSO's I do hear are usually nets that accomplish little other than check folks in. I also hear CB lingo like 10-4, S10, my handle, double nickels and have very poor audio quality. And also hear total insanity on 7200 kHz and other bands. As a very active hamateur who has spent allot of $$$ for new gear recently, the only operating growth that I have personally observed is in the digital modes. So in my opinion the creation of the myriad of digital modes including the JT ones may be actually saving hamateur radio from oblivion. Interestingly I've actually been seeing less rag chewing on PSK31 and RTTY as the JT modes have been discovered. You can literally work the world with the JT modes using low power and simple antennas. And the new FT8 mode may eventually compete with RTTY for contesting.
Hi Dave, ah yes: forgot about that, sorry. For the record, the Amazon description is WRONG! Trust me, the card is stereo line in, not mono. de OE6FEG / M0FEU Matt
Jeff I sure appreciate all of your very nice camouflaged loop antenna projects in your apartment setting. I did similar things from apartments in California and Colorado in the 1990's and had fantastic results. In Colorado I lived in a really nice townhouse and had a 160 meter 1/4 wave inverted L set up inside. It worked really well and I was able to work both the west and east coasts with it. When I lived in League City, TX in the 1980's I had a house with a backyard but with the CC&R/HOA issues. The yard was full of camouflaged antennas and were never discovered by the busy body driving around looking for violators. I also had a beverage antenna going out into the woods behind my house right up to Clear Creek. If there is a will there is a way.
Thank you, Thomas; your comments are appreciated and your observations about the dearth of experienced SSB/CW ops on HF and other bands is spot on, I'm afraid. I grew up as a SWL listening to many 20/80m ssb qsos among hams like Otto, W5YU (SK) and "the Leader of the Long Path," Seymour W6CCY (SK). Decades later I made my first ssb contact on 6M with K6QXY, another very skilled and professional op who helped inspire me to chase dx on the Magic Band. I observed all of these FB ops work the world with skills and manners that I respected as they set great examples for me and other newcomers to emulate. While your belief that the digital modes are keeping ham radio going may well be true I shudder at the consequences of this somewhat "artificial life support" foisted upon us by the cyber crowd. If the trend continues the art of the rag chew or even brief conversational qsos might soon be lost for good. We could become a majority community of screen-watching mindless "hambots" with a handful of CB-ish phone operators tagging along in the empty bands unless the thrill of "working" a silent blip on the waterfall eventually becomes passé. That is my only hope but come what may... I enjoy the pursuit occasional dx phone contacts with my small loops and camouflaged home-brewed antennas carefully placed around my condo and thank goodness I am still not alone in that regard---yet. Despite the gold rush to the latest JT-whatever, the miserable sunspot decline (and the aforementioned skilled operator decline) I invariably enjoy the hunt for distant voices popping into my headphones. I shall continue. Sometimes my efforts pay off in unexpected ways, too. During a recent VHF contest I tried out my first H-double bay suspended from a pole off my upstairs balcony. During the test I re-connected with an old friend from W6 (where I started out) and had a very long rag chew to catch up on the last twenty years---via six meter sporadic E (!) As you said above, [where] "there is a will there is a way." 73, Jeff
Thanks for the software release alert. Just made my first trial FT8 QSO's, on 80 and 60 meters. Whoa! Breathtaking compared to JT65. Note the latter band, 60m, has been deleted off the WSJT default list. I wonder if that omission in response to complaints. Tomorrow will give it a spin on 50 MHz. A new FT8 calling freq is on the list. But there still needs to be lots more thought about band(s) planning. 73 de John - WØPV
Since FT8 mode is now generally released in WSJT-X v 1.8 it is just in time for the CQWW VHF event this coming weekend. It will be very interesting to see how much effect it and/or the previously included MSK144 mode for meteor scatter has in that competition. Although it will present a bit of an awkward logging dilemma until the crew at N1MM etc catch up. 73 de John - WØPV
Jeff what a shame to hear that W6CCP has become an SK. I heard him almost daily working LP stations on 20 meters. He had very big signal here in Florida and had fantastic operating skills. Way back in the day while I was still an SWL only I learned much about the hobby by listening to him operate.
Yeah, Thomas; Seymour passed just a few months ago, maybe a week or so after I heard his unmistakable voice calling dx long-path for the last time. I also found out via another post in the antenna forum here, coincidentally. I first heard him as a SWL sometime around 1965 and he was also my "Elmer via my receiver," too. 73, Jeff
Jeff, Not a rat nor a ferret, no animal at all, rather a operational BLACK HOLE that is sucking more and more amateur radio OTA activity into less and less spectrum. More like a form of the so called "technological singularity" hypothesis, that has recently hit a tipping point. See description here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity "According to this hypothesis, an upgradable intelligent agent (such as a computer running software-based artificial general intelligence) would enter a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, ... John von Neumann first uses the term "singularity" (c. 1950), in the context of technological progress causing accelerating change: "The accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, give the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue". Gloom and doom for the future of HR? Will a rebel modified Skynet T1 time-travel back to eliminate JT / FT op's and development? Naaa, I'm still optimistic a better plan for using JT / FT modes within our allocated spectrum can be worked out. I wish the ARRL would take a stronger leadership position on this issue. Perhaps a regular column in QST dedicated to it for awhile. It would be a better use of the publications space then summer book reports thrown in as Second Century editorials. 73 de John WØPV
Are the cables used to connect the radio and the USB external sound card basic 3.5mm audio cables? Asked another way is a different cable required for the mic and headphones connections.? I ask because you note that one cable has a green band and the other cable has a red band as supplied by Elecraft. I have several 3.5mm cables and would like to use them, if I can. This is an excellent video! Good information and well-presented. Thanks for taking the time to make the video and post it. Good job.
