A NEW FT8 with QSO and Rag Chew capabilities called FT8CALL

Pretty good density for RTTY. 8 signals in 1000Hz.

 

You will see FT8CALL grow exponentially in the next few weeks.

People want to be part of the action, beyond the machine

 

There is certainly plenty of activity, as witnessed by the PSKReporter record. However it seems that most of the activity is people transmitting beacons, calling CQ with no replies, and sending ALLCALL? to get a bunch of automated SNR reports. There are very few actual QSOs taking place!
In the past 24 hours I have managed to complete 12 QSOs (all on 20m or 40m), but PSKReporter indicates that I have been heard by at least 60 different stations. A lot of guys seem to just leave their receivers running in FT8CALL mode, but never respond to CQ calls. If I send ALLCALL? I often get half a dozen automated reports back, but none of the stations are available to have a QSO.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

 

Perhaps there should be some new 2 letter abbreviation in the cq message, to indicate the operator is present and its not like a refrigerator running by itself

I suggest something like: W1YW: cqcqcq OP K

OP: 'operator present'

 

LW: LiveWare

 

3 letter OMA Old man alive/awake

 

In HRD Logbook I just defined FT8CALL as a new mode, and will be using that to log the correct mode.

When ADIF and ARRL/LoTW get their acts together and define an "offical" FT8CALL mode, I will instantly upload to LoTW with the correct mode. Assuming that my QSO partners will do the same, our QSOs will match in LoTW, while I guess FT8CALL QSOs logged as FT8 will not be matched with FT8CALL.

This looks like last year, when FT8 was officially released mid-July. I think ADIF had the new mode defined about mid-August, while LoTW took about a week longer. I guess they will be able to repeat that, however, they may want to delay the start of the approval process until there is a general release of FT8CALL.

73 Frode LA6VQ

 

FT8 is now, by far, the most inputted QSO mode in LOTW.

 

Speaking of popularity for FT8CALL....Not even commissioned...And take a look at today's stats! (From PSK Reporter)!


Mode Count

FT8 599984
FT8CALL 3125 (2nd Place)
CW 1947
PSK31 432
PSK63 279
JT65 234
RTTY 159
SIM31 92
ROS 76
JT9 52
MSK144 41
OPERA 28
OLIVIA 11
PSK125 9
MFSK16 3
SSB 3
PI4 2
FSK441 1
JT65B 1
SIM63 1
OLIVIA-8 1

I can't wait until this is fully commissioned..

 

Whu uses PSK63? I don't think I've ever seen it here. WHERE do they use it?

 

Wish TSQL would recognize FT8Call as a mode so I can upload to LOTW directly and sync to QRZ as I've been doing with FT8.

 

There is NO directed query that will produce a CQCQCQ from an unattended station.........so if you see someone calling CQ you can be 99.99% sure they are manning their station.

 

Yes, of course.... but the attention span can be that of a 4 year old. The machine does the little work needed, in FT8.

'OP' means that someone will be present for a chat. Not just the 3 second monitoring of a two minute link.

 

Just tab on this URL

https://pskreporter.info/cgi-bin/pskstats.pl

Scroll down some on the page and you see the stats.

Cheers