The Sig report in FT8 takes into account the total received bandwidth. Put a narrow filter over a signal on the bandscope and see the results.
Most of my friends on FT8 are running 1500 watts with good antennas And that's exactly why I don't work use FT8 at anymore.
Steve, please let's not go down the "weak signal versus low power debate" on FT8. I would much rather hear more details about your rhombic farm and listen to some recordings of what you hear with all that wire. One of the Ham Radio commandments is "Thou shalt not covet thy fellow ham's antenna farm" Well, I have sinned because I am green with envy!
ok I'd like to thank KM9G, you have showed how a bunch of antennas can get about the same results! It is a useful result. I disagree about the significance of the "areas" in your results since the occurrence of data is doubtless much influenced by propagation, random reception, etc. I love it that we can see from your experiments that different antennas give similar results, it says to us "put up an antenna, any type, and have fun!"
I haven't read all 13 pages of comments but some suggest using a Flex radio with a slice connected to each antenna and the output going to two instances of WSJT-X running simultaneously on the same computer. I've used this approach for a couple years and it's been very helpful. You can model your antennas all you want but there's nothing like quantitative measurements of your actual antennas, with all the surrounding hillsides, trees, buildings, etc. WSPR would be ideal for this but there is a lot more data available on FT8. If you're interested here's my setup: I have an SDRPlay Duo, two identical receivers. I connect one antenna to each receiver, run two instances of SDRUno software (SDRPlay's receiver) and run the outputs of each through virtual audio cables to two instances of FT8. In 24 hours on 20 or 40 meters I'll have 20K data points from 2000-3000 stations. I copy off the ALL.TXT files from the WSJT-X instances and run the data through some Python software that I wrote, which breaks the results down by distance and azimuth (since I know the station's grid). I also plot the results on an azimuthal map (downloaded from NS6T).
Admittedly, I did not read any of this thread, but I am going to comment anyway. I have a dipole, sloper, and vertical. The performance of each of these antennas depends on many variables that change constantly. What one antenna does or does not do changes constantly, as well as which antenna is "best" and "worst". IMO whatever information gathered in these "experiments" will be irrelevant in a couple days, if not a couple hours. -Brad
Correct. The problem,IMO, is that if you point this out, you get attacked and 'cancel cultured'. Oh--and pegged as a 'sociopath' and told not to post until careful self-reflection. Oh--and pegged as a 'delusional narcissist' to boot. Pretty words with no factual basis. We used to use 4 letter words in ad hominem attacks, now we use psychology gobbledy gook. It's still an ad hominem attack. Frankly, it comes off as an effort to delete the many in ham radio who value the technical aspect of the service in favor of 'I can do whatever I want AND make amateur science the way I want'. The phrase 'you do ham your way' is an invitation to radio based chaos that is diametrically opposed to Part 97, and indeed, the opposite of what we learn and are supposed to implement via the testing for licensing. There is a LOT of play in ham radio. But reinventing reality based on ignorance is not part of that. Thus not only suppression, but an alternate reality predicated on ignorance. Not a great day for ham radio.
Why not? Do you not want corroboration on your approach? No one said you had to agree with fact or opinion; but there is a reasonable expectation that you will be civil in your objection. I expressed an opinion and labelled it as such. Please read the radio amateur's code to understand the magnitude of your offense my friend. Wishing you the best. 73 Chip W1YW
SImultaneous RX is a great appra Simultaneous RX 's on all antennas is a great approach, as long as you flip the RX/antennas to get them all calibrated to each other Good stuff
