The reported death of Amateur Radio due to FT8 is an exaggeration

I don't use FT8 and never will. But it doesn't bother me that other people do. I just think that it is an easy way to make a contact. Not a QSO . I never quite liked CW ether, but it did require you to work at it and there was some personal connection to the person you were in contact with. The main things in Ham radio that I pursue is building and operating what I build and talking to people on the things I build. There is nothing personal about FT8. It's nothing more than a paper generator of contacts. So be it. At my age I love doing it the hard way. I learned radio through talking to people and the Arrl hand books. I have almost every handbook sense 1947. I just feel it's wrong to have any contest or anything else where our calls are used as a quantity count for recognition and a certificate and the operators never have to do anything but type and exchange your call. It is surely going to take away from the guys that spend hours,days, years county hunting, working all states or island hunters. I think it could change all the ways we do contesting. But I'm thinking it is a short timer on popularity just like all the other digital modes of the past . If I want digital modes I will use my cell phone. 73 K8OF

 

I’ve done PSK31, etc but am setting up for FT8 for one reason only: folks are making QSOs on 6m when it is ‘closed’ and I loves me some 6m.

 

The thing that I like most about it was something I didn't realize until I had used FT8 for a few months. In looking at QRZ pages of many that are regularly active on that mode, many of them are in large metropolitan areas using short wires and magnetic loops, and using low power. It seems ideal as a way to either maintain a connection with the hobby or enter the hobby when you're living in such conditions with only a window or maybe, if you're lucky enough to have a balcony.

 

The reported death of Amateur Radio due to FT8 is an exaggeration
This could have been a headline from the 50s. Just replace "FT8" with "SSB."
Get over it already!

 

I have a friend who is on the DXCC honor roll. He wants to get 5 Band DXCC digital using FT8. He runs a kilowatt! he says its a weak signal mode doesn't mean you have to have a weak signal! I find that hilarious for some reason. I use FT 8 so I can say I use FT 8. I don't want to be accused of being an old guy who can't use modern technology but seriously it is a bit boring and doesn't take much skill. If you like it use it. Even with cell phones and the internet, ham radio won't die. My computer just made a qso while i was typing!
AF4RK

 

Have him forward the award wallpaper and plaques to Joe Taylor and Alpha.

 

FT8 is ok. But I found I missed the traditional phone method via SSB. Using a computer to do the "talking" may have some advantage but it can also feel rather isolating.

I type this while listening to my resurrected KW2000B, which is sitting next to a KWM-2 and an HRO.

 

How do hams fit into todays world wide RF spectrum? answer= they wont. What?..... Who gets to use the natural frequencies that are shared by the ham communities? According to 'truthful' information....'they with the mostest ($) gets the bestest. Face it fellow hams.... study the motivations of politicians ->$$$$$$$. How much will large corporations and special interest groups with unlimited $ budgets be willing to expend to gain profits from appropriated freqs as dictated by govt edicts? Historically is has become the norm to buy politicians and then get the desired item by thier edicts. $$$$. Sound like doom and gloom? Look around you who gets what freqs and why. Ham radio IS a hobby and serves the public interest occasionally in far away and remote areas where technology is lacking. The worldwide internet generates $$$$$ just like is has over the last 30 years. Ham radio probably (sadly) slowly disappear into the footnotes of history. look at the massive cellphone usage that we take forgranted, it has even blended into ham radio and is more or less immune from solar cycles and allows just about anyone anywhere to have instant voice, digital and video info with a finger slide on a screen.
Pls dont shoot the messenger.

 

Who wrote the above then? We want to 'shoot' him.

 

Shooting him? I think he deserves a medal for speaking out about where we in this hobby (yes, face it, it is a hobby) and THE hobby it self are heading. Let's enjoy as long as we can .. it will not happen over night though. As turning 62 later this year I might not be around when we go QRT permanetly, but can't be 100% sure Everything happens so fast today! So who knows where we are just 5 years from today?

 

Clairvoyants know.

 

Well that's one thing I'm not! There are same people that might think so based on the facts that I live up in the mountains, sorrunded by more of animals than humans, and been growing my winterbeard for some 3 months now But NO! will have to leave that clairvoyant stuff to others .. lol

Many such people here on the Zed though .. Pretty sure we soon will have an answer

 

People are confused. It isn't that FT8 is killing amateur radio. The story is an amateur radio operator was dead and his computer was making FT8 contacts for years after he died....

 

This FT8 business will become a lot less interesting when we get a lot of sunspots.

Right now, it's what's allowing people with compromised antennas to get a signal somewhere. What happens when bands open up enough to let everything else work around the globe on a whip?