A NEW FT8 with QSO and Rag Chew capabilities called FT8CALL

Here is another use of FT8Call , besides easy slow conversations its also FT8 With Text Messaging !

Some folks text on their phones in QSO mode. I rarely do that on my phone unless its a Gal I'm texting. Most times I get a text, reply mins later, get another reply a while later etc..... Some FT8Calls I've worked are like this.

Someone calls your SNR, you ask a few mins later ? your SNR. Then the Op sends a few words, a few mins later you ask a new question. Yes slow texting while you do other things in life is another option with this mode.

Good for a few situations in a Semi or full Grid down situation where folks off the grid ask a few things and later see what answers are and reply to questions from the other side that picks them up from their station when they revisit off watch.

Art

 

Great Great News for FT8CALL!!!!

I just came from a Trade show, for National Guard in New Orleans. I had a booth there, I met with many decision makers in National Guard (Top brass) and even Mad Dog Mattis, ( United States Secretary of Defense) was there!

One of the decision makers is a Ham operator (High ranking National Guard Officer) and might I had very active in Ham radio and uses FT8 constantly. .He was so impressed with FT8CALL, he will be using this for there overall solution for their emergency solution in the USA. I am selling some satellite solution as well, but it was the FT8CALL, that made all the noise (SO to speak).

How about that! FT8CALL, moved right into a solution for the National Guard!

Ham operators can agree or disagree about FT8CALL, but the US government not only embraced, but will use FT8CALL..It has to be really something special to make it at this level in such a short time.

Wow...I saw the details, of the overall design and what application it supports..Amazing!

Congrats to Jordan ( KN4CRD), creating this technology, not only for Ham operators but supporting the National Guard! To cool!

 

I'm interested, but waiting for the full release when it doesn't require me to join another group. One I'll just leave as soon as I download anyway. :/

Good job and good luck Thomas!

 

Will give it a coat of looking at once the Mac OS version becomes available.

 

I worked all over the world with 2w output from an Argonaut 509 and a folded dipole using CW. It's pretty remarkable in its own right. I'm not at all surprised he heard you with the 2 el yagi. In fact, assuming you were hearing him well, I'd be more surprised if he had NOT. Granted I did that when band conditions were better and with 6db more power, but also with just a dipole, and propagation (usually) works both ways so if the opening was there...

I also had many conversations that would at least come close to being called a rag chew at 10 wpm on CW, or even less. Part of the key is learning to use reasonable abbreviations that others will understand. I'm not sure if modern "text speak" will help or hurt that. Plus I think doing it in your head and by ear will make the time far less tedious than typing it out rapidly and waiting while the computer sends it. Seems to me the real problem isn't so much the slow speed as the amount of time while the operator is uninvolved. Type it - then wait for it to all go. I can see that as far less engaging than working through the CW yourself even if the actual time required was the same.

OTOH, as others have said, you can be doing other things at the same time. So there's that.

 

Maybe now. I do seem to hear people largely blazing away. But in my many CW contacts of the 70s through 90s the average speed was probably closer to 15 wpm. DX was typically faster. Even when I got up to maybe 25 wpm at my very peak, I far more often was slowing down at that point than struggling to keep up with someone.

I realize that was then and this is now. But the point is that it's very workable.

I think some of y'all are just too blamed impatient!

 

I would personally like to thank Jordan for being on top of the Hurricane Lane situation and changing the FT8CALL frequency for 40-meters during the Skywarn activation here in Hawaii. Unfortunately, 7.080 is the backup frequency that we use for NWS activations here whenever we have to set up relay stations to run the Skywarn Net.

At the beginning of the activation I did hear a little bit of FT8CALL as we were trying to communicate with stations to get weather reports from other islands but thankfully it did not last long and the frequency was cleared for our operations for the remainder of the situation.

Again, thank you Jordan for all that you do.

 

i'll just wait until the program comes out and then download it.

 

you-know-where? WHERE?

 

I went on FT8Call, 40MM and didn't see anything on the water fall after watching for a while. Checked all my equipment to make sure I didn't have a problem. Then checked groups.io and saw the notice about keeping 7.080 clear. Yes, great that Jordan worked quickly to help clear the band but the experience tells me more could be done to get the work out to keep certain frequencies clear during emergency situations. This applies to all modes. Maybe I missed it but I'm on this site most days and wasn't aware until I tried to use the band/mode/freq. Only my curiosity that something didn't look right kept me from sending potentially interfering CQs and beacons.

I'm a big believer in after action assessments even with close calls. (Some day I' go into the stories behind this lesson.)
I'd suggest as a community we still need to do more to get the word out in such situations.

Glad you guys dodged a bullet.

 

FT8Call 0.5 released this AM. New recommended frequencies included.

 

New FT8CALL has just came out (Today / Sept 2), and look at the popularity, 2nd place, with + 10,0000

FT8 1153500
FT8CALL 10296
CW 4757
PSK31 931
JT9 376
JT65 347
PSK63 302
SIM31 229
PSK 80
MSK144 61
ROS 34
PI4 23
RTTY 23
OPERA 20
OLIVIA 10
PSK125 7
JT65B 4
HELL 3
CONTESTI 2
SSTV 2
THOR 1
THOR11 1
THRB 1
MFSK16 1
OLIVIA-8 1

 

Good. Thanks to the developer. JT9 isn't even remotely as popular as PSK31, so if it should be "sharing" with any mode, it should be sharing with JT9 instead of more popular non-JT modes.

I will give it a try soon. I can't see personally really using it that much because of the 10 wpm... PSK31, RTTY and Olivia are all around 3 times faster than that. But, for people in more compromise situations, I can see it having a lot of appeal. I care more about the exchange than where the person is when I'm rag chewing.... but I know some people are really hankering for the possibilty of DX ragchews....especially in compromise situations. So, it's a good addition to the hobby

 

It is crazy now, FT8CALL, over 12,000 That is a milestone, 2nd place, and I bet in due time, it will catching up to FT8

Mode Count
FT8 1202031
FT8CALL 12068
CW 4624
JT65 639
JT9 595
SIM31 548
PSK31 523
PSK63 261
RTTY 113
MSK144 50
OPERA 45
ROS 23
PI4 19
SSB 10
OLIVIA 9
OLIVIA-3 1
PSK 1
HELL 1
JT65B 1

 

Cheers! Let me know what you think when you try it out!