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A NEW FT8 with QSO and Rag Chew capabilities called FT8CALL

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by NN2X, Aug 12, 2018.

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  1. N3MLB

    N3MLB XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Congrats on a job well done! I'm not a fan of FT8. In my household, and it's only my opinion, nothing more, FT8 does not constitute a QSO but is a great propagation tool. My argument has always been, if you can't exchange information, whether you do or don't, it's not a QSO. Your modification just blew that out of the water and I look forward to exploring FT8CALL.

    For those who want to argue what FT8 is, please don't. Opinions are nothing more than that..
     
    KB5UKT, KD0XL, WD4IGX and 1 other person like this.
  2. W7SUA

    W7SUA Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    With FSQCall I had to relay via East Coast station to talk to HB9AVK. Used a narrow filter around the FSQ channel. Today with FT8Call was talking direct to HB9AVK on 20 meters with my SSB filter in place. Later will try 40 meters for same W7SUA to HB9AVK path.

    73, tom w7sua
     
    LB9YH and KN4CRD like this.
  3. N1RVN

    N1RVN XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Best news I heard in a looong time! And I'm proud to be your neighbor Jordan...
     
    LB9YH and KN4CRD like this.
  4. KJ4YZI

    KJ4YZI Ham Member QRZ Page

    I consider myself THE pioneer of destroying the bands with FT8, based on my video on YouTube. If I made a video on this, it would indeed explode. But i'm hunting for people to work on DominoEx, Hellschrieber and Thor. Can't find them. So should I advertise this or not... I can't decide. I may never see a PSK signal ever again.. By the way, 6 meters has been open for 4 months at my QTH, and still going strong. You know how I know that? Because they are ALL on FT8, everyday. People tell me they haven't heard a 6 meter opening in years, That's because they don't go to 50.313 . FT8 is the new beacon.... All you have to do is call CQ on phone, and stations will hear you... Enough of my rant...
     
    KD4MOJ, KX1MAD, KP4SX and 2 others like this.
  5. KN4CRD

    KN4CRD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Your video on Olivia got me to have my first Olivia QSO. So there's that

    But then the band dropped out and nobody could hear me...so I went and made transatlantic contacts over FT8 instead.

    Give FT8Call a try and let me know how it works for you. Happy to help any way I can!

    Cheers!

    Jordan / KN4CRD
     
    K0XL and N9PBD like this.
  6. AK9S

    AK9S Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Awesome software! Made my first contact a minute ago. Love the ALLCALL? feature, all stations respond with an SNR.
     
    KN4CRD likes this.
  7. KN4CRD

    KN4CRD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Inspired by FSQ. All stations that can hear you, that have AUTO enabled, and that haven't responded in the past 5 minutes. Makes finding propagation paths really nice and easy :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2018
    W7SUA and K3KIC like this.
  8. N4SJK

    N4SJK Ham Member QRZ Page

    Just downloaded and gave it a try. Very easy to use. Similar interface to FT8. I like the special directed message commands. Made a contact in California within a few minutes. Had a nice QSO. I think this will be popular. When will the Mac version be available? Thanks!
     
  9. KN4CRD

    KN4CRD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Great to hear. Glad it was easy to pick up.

    Mac is TBD. Still need to figure out the build system for that. Many have successfully run the Windows version in Wineskin, though. Seems to be a fine workaround in the meantime.
     
  10. N4SJK

    N4SJK Ham Member QRZ Page

    Yes, I ran it in Parallels on my Mac without a problem but it would be nice to have a native app like WSJT-X.
     
  11. KN4CRD

    KN4CRD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Agreed. That's the goal ;)
     
  12. M3AWD

    M3AWD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Nice to see another mode encroaching into the "RTTY" Sub-band, wont be long till its completely covered. Already got FT8 Dxpedition mode in there and now FT8CALL. wonderful
     
    KN4CRD likes this.
  13. W4JSG

    W4JSG Ham Member QRZ Page

    Really looking forward to this! I run WSJT-X native on Mac, and I found that if running it on Windows 7 in VirtualBox, system resources slowed down just to the point that timing could not be kept. As you know, timing is crucial in FT8. Will that be an issue in FT8Call, if I use it on Virtualbox?
     
    W3CUB and KN4CRD like this.
  14. W1YW

    W1YW Ham Member QRZ Page

    My major concerns on FT8 centered on it being: 1) a machine 2 machine mode with extremely limited human interaction/participation; 2)it reduced a given ham band to just a few KHz of use. Thus it RESTRICTED ham radio to very low information content AND rendered a superfluous NEED for precious frequency allocations.

    On the plus side it gains up to roughly 20 dB detectability over other modes.


    FT8CALL has the ability to shoot down BOTH of those concerns while leveraging the brilliant benefits first brought to us through Joe, K1JT.

    I don't think Zed'ers fully understand what happened with FT8. It went from nothing to THE MOST USED MODE in a little over 6 months. In particular, 6 meters went from beacons and CW to virtually ALL FT8.

    Log of the world (LOTW) DOCUMENTS FT8 as the MOST used mode for awards at present. It has decimated phone, reduced CW. Contests are now a last vestige of these 'legacy' modes. Try calling CQ on CW on a typical day... you will see what I mean.

    Here's hoping we see additional innovation on these digital modes, and congrats to Jordan for this great hybrid.

    73
    Chip W1YW
     
    W7SUA, N9PBD and K3EY like this.
  15. KG5THG

    KG5THG Ham Member QRZ Page

    Very cool. Glad to see this being done. And as with any of the ft/jt or other digital modes, you can use your vfo to move anywhere within the band plan to have the qso of your choice.
     
    KN4CRD likes this.

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