FT-8, The New HF/6m Digital Mode, Introduction For Beginners

I've been having fun with it. Been jumping from band to band as conditions change. 6M sure comes and goes. That band has been having lots of openings. We will see how it does when sporadic E season ends.

It's very revealing using different antennas and antenna orientation on the various bands and seeing their effectiveness in (near) real time on Google Earth on PSK Reporter.

More fun than two lesbians with an electric eel.

 

Don't take me wrong, I am optimistic. Balancing any doom-and-gloom with what else could be.

Sure, the digi-modes are new and novel, and many hams tend to be early-adopters just for the status. And certainly JT and FT8 have and will especially impact award accomplishments especially for VHF and QRP or small footprint stations. That is a major benefit.

Preppers and Makers, mostly Tech class, seem to make up the bulk of licensed hams now. Unfortunately there is a lot of dormancy within those ranks; they're inactive. They get the ticket, try it out, mostly on VHF FM repeaters, and think ho-hum.

Perhaps digi modes like FT8 etc can be further developed, positioned and promoted as a more attractive alternative to lure Noobs back and/or into HF, where hopefully they discover the legacy and other benefits of the more traditional wireless modes that use Morse code or telephony.

 

Just 3 weeks into the release of FT8 and JT-Alert shows more users than JT65 on most HF bands, including 6M!

FT8 traffic on 20M this past weekend was explosive...at times impossible to find an open slot to transmit a CQ. Amazing considering the Solar Flux Index was in the high 60's - everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. That said, a 2 KHz slot to contain FT8 will quickly become insufficient due to its immense popularity. It is only a matter time before more users start invading the existing 2 KHz slot designated for JT65 (and yes, I have seen the invasion starting already.)

The new mode may displace JT65 sooner than anticipated, probably making FT8 the most popular digital mode of all time (except for CW, of course.)

I really like the new mode, 4x faster than JT65 - and with the auto sequence feature ON, it enforces proper reporting procedures and is fully automatic. Just call CQ and watch it complete an entire contact without touching a key!

The only obvious shortcoming appears to be overmodulated signals - they do not decode well in the current beta version of FT8. I free texted a couple of stations with ALC DOWN and both reduced their audio input levels, thereby allowing my decoder to quickly lock-on. I never had this problem previously with JT9 or 65. Looking forward to refinements and improvements to FT8 in the coming months.

 

I was talking about an actual FT8 contest.

 

I think at least one quite high scoring station in the last CQ VHF ran FT8 almost exclusively.

All "data" modes are valid in Field Day. They even count for 2 QSO points each, same as CW, and as a separate band-mode; you can work the same station THREE times for 5 pts, ie, CW, Fone, Data! I've made both RTTY and PSK FD Q's, more so this year then ever.

The ARRL should consider modifying the 10 Meter and IARU contests. Like FD they already run those with multiple modes simultaneously, albeit right now only SSB and CW. Both events have single and multi-mode entry categories. Why not at least add DATA-equivalent-to-CW option to the multi-mode category for those too?

Again, lump all digi-modes into that category; RTTY, PSK31 & 63, JTn, FT8, watever. That would be a way of crowd-sourcing research to find out which of those works out best and/or is preferred by the contest community.

 

This may sound off but could this new mode (FT8) be used on 2M ssb. i have been watching it over the passed 2 weeks and was just wondering. I honestly do not know and have not seen anything about it. Any thoughts. Please do not slam me i really do not know.

Steve Wendt USN (Ret)
KB9RDS
Indianapolis, IN

 

Steve! Nobody ever gets slammed on Zed forums, do they?

Sure, FT8 AFSK via SSB may have an application on 2m under certain prop conditions; like marginal tropo ducting or rare E-skip. But right now it seems like other digi-modes for faster fading transient weak signals are more popular up there like JT65 for EME and MSK144 for meteor or other scatter.

73 de John WØPV

 

Apparently it is just as much work for ARRL to mess with LoTW as it is for users.

 

<sarcasm>Oh, I can't wait to see a JT-mode contest.</sarcasm>

Since all transmissions start at the same time, the pile-ups will be epic. The data either decodes or it doesn't, so as long as the pile-up persists, the running station will just be stuck with a "?" on his/her face. A JT/FT contest would be the end of any last remainder of "check the frequency before transmitting."

By all means, let's do JT contesting on HF. It will be the ham radio version of a bar brawl.

 

'Twice as fast'? Seems like 15 seconds is more than twice as fast as almost a minute per over, 47 seconds plus decode.

 

Thanks John, I thought it might but all the talk was 6 thrugh 80 so i thought i may have missed something. thanks again

Steve Wendt USN (Ret)
KB9RDS

 

I too saw the 20m FT8 channel with ALL SLOTS OCCUPIED this weekend and couldn't believe my eyes!

Just wait until the SDR guys incorporate a WSJTX-like decoder into their IF - detector stage so that it works across a bigger spectrum slice, like 10, 25, 50 khz?!

 

I get the sarcasm. But it doesn't seem to work out like that.

There are already huge pileups on FT8 DX stations. Sure, all the "chasers" are calling synchronously. Except for the possibility of partial call sign "tail-enders" its not much different from any conventional pile-up. Just like in any pile up, the biggest signal usually gets through first.

However, WSJT-X software decodes ALL the signals in the pass band. Clever "chasers" have figured out calling SPLIT from the CQ often results in a quicker reply. And the split doesn't have to be far off the "run" stations freq, just a few hundred Hz (like CW) not a full slot.

So there is plenty of "wiggle room" to game the pile up and beat out even a big gun. Instead of a time-shifted deke, its more freq hop spin move.

After just one CQ a good FT8 op should be able to easily line up a queue of stations that have all replied at the same time but in slightly different freq slots across the channel, and with all their call signs then kept on the runners display, they can proceed to just crank them all out! (as more line up behind in the vacated holes)

Actually, the real-time clock synchronous call-respond method provides more orderliness over the random timing of an all analog pile up. (Something anti-contesters should admire ;-) Even with 15 secs per xmsn, done right this steadiness results in a pretty good through-put rate for CQ'ers doing short exchange QSO's.

Not as fast as peaks seen operating in the Old School way on a wide open band (which I still highly prefer) but still pretty impressive under difficult prop condx.

 

Thanks for the video Eric! Always good to see your positive videos on different ideas and equipment. In this case, a different mode of operation. I will be putting this together to use with my KX3 and more so the FT817 ND. I really love both of these qrp rigs and this mode will be fun to try out. Already doing PSK31 so this should be more fun to test. May not be for everybody, but I am one of them that will do it! Hope to catch you in the mix. Thanks again for the field day video you did as you were receiving our club call KE4FD doing PSK31 mode. 73 de N4UVR