FT8 used for record-breaking 432 MHz contacts

Funny you say anything against a mode and suddenly you are some old curmudgeon tied to the past. Well its not so! I am new to the hobby, Just got licensed in May. Actually hooked my old ten tec omni d up to my computer and tried FT8 for a day. No wonder all the millennials love it. No effort, no interaction, just sit back and let the QSO's come in. I want a new award for worked all states via email, how about by cell phone? So why the headline? Can i call cape verde on my phone and post it as some kind of achievement. Embracing FT8 has nothing to do with the hobby dying and anyone who uses that argument is just trying to justify their participation trophy and will be on to the next hobby in a month. every year there are those who want a real challenge and will ride the entire route of the tour de france course on their bicycle. effort, dedication, challenge one pedal stoke at a time, so now if you ride it on your motorcycle you want some kind of trophy? charter a limo and just get driven around the course what no trophy i am not in the same league? how dare you! your the reason the sport of bicycle racing is dying! Just because a bunch of people are on ft8 also doesn't defend it anymore than your 1980 mullet haircut, just because everyone had them doesn't mean they were good! Actual contacts???? I have talked with people yes people from all over the world on equipment most of you would turn your nose up at a yard sale and had real interesting conversations, those letters popping up on the computer screen are a contact? Funny this summer a guy in his pickup truck was talking with Hawaii, west coast and east coast in a rag chew session. I also have a friend who uses his car antenna strung into his house during the night to make contacts so if you just want it easy come out and say you want it easy and lay off the excuses, theres no shortage of people who want the easy road these days and you sound like the man who dunked on a third grader on the 8 foot rim at the elementary school but you still want it to count for two points!

 

You're wrong.

A person can still make WAS and/or DXCC "the old fashioned way" if they so desire. Nothing stopping anyone.

Some time back, I finally got around to getting the WAS certificate. All QSOs for it were made from my present QTH, all on 80/40/20 CW using my 100% homebrew setup. Last time I checked, I was up to 49 states confirmed on 40 CW.

No remotes, no spotting network, no RBNs, no borrowed rig, no guest operator, no using a borrowed station under my own call, etc. Just me and my radio, here at home.....and LOTW, because it's fast, free, and more secure than paper cards.

Such an accomplishment may mean nothing to you, Carl, but to those of us who are actually on the air making QSOs, from locations that are not perfect, despite the lack of sunspots, it's a different game.

btw, WAS has the "50 mile rule"...all QSOs for WAS must be made from locations no two of which are more than 50 miles apart.

The old restart-DXCC-if-you-move-across-call-district-lines-except-for-moves-under-150-miles went away many decades ago, Carl. Get over yourself and accept it. And even before remotes, one could guest operate, have multiple station locations, etc.

 

YAWN, same old noise from those with no ambition to excel at any award.

There is also nothing stopping anyone from making any of the WAS awards from remotes or from other locations. Ham Integrity? What is that?
Now if someone was to make 5BWAS from one location and 100W, even on FT8, that would be an accomplishment. How about trying for it?

DXCC is a minimal skills and equipment award these days, especially with FT8. The days when it was done from one location using just operator skills is long gone. Do you even have DXCC or just posting to stir the pot as usual ?? Also called Trolling.

How about one of the WAZ awards? Is your station even capable of the basic version?

There is no need for you to keep bragging about some old home brew station. Many do the same and with less power or with gear as far back as the 1930's they have rebuilt themselves. Even WW2 surplus gear is alive and well and heard often on AM.

 

Since computers can be used to "cheat" radio awards, I propose that LOTW be banned. Contacts should be verified the old fashioned way, by QSL cards.

 

Carl, if your hobby is a way to prove your ambition. By all mean, go for it. My hobby is what I do when I have free time and what is giving me the pleasure.

So, let just say it took you 6 years to get SSB 5BWAS with your Dipole and a 100W rig. A Ham moving in next door, erected 135 foot tower top with the multi bands yagi money can buy and took him/her only 2 yeasr to get SSB 5BWAS instead of 6 years.

Are you going to call him/her out busting his/her chops for not doing it the hard way and have no ambition to excel, like the way you did it?

FT8 or any mode, still subject to the same conditions. If you radio and antenna can't hear them, you can't work them. Still subject to the same pile up, still subject to the same guy that like to tune up on the DX calling frequency.

Why would you need a 100W on FT8, even one have completed 5BWAS - there will be some people "FT8 5BWAS ? , shhhh - you have accomplish nothing".

Time has changed, Technologies has changed.... but some people never changed.

73,

 

THIS IS THE BEST YET. ONE WHO ACTUALLY BELIEVES THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FULLY AUTOMATED COMPUTER CONTACT THE LIKE OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN WITH ANY OTHER MODE EVER AND A NORMAL CONTACT IS THE SAME AS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE ANTENNA SETUP AND ANOTHER?

TOTAL DENIAL.

SO MUCH CLASS, RESPECT, SENSITIVITY, ETC. AMONGST THE FT-8ERS. HAVE YOU EVER ACTUALLY LOOKED UP TO, RESPECTED, VALUED ANYONE WITH A BIRTHDAY PRIOR TO YOURS? KIND OF HARD WHEN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM BRAINWASHES STUDENTS TO BELIEVE THAT ANYTHING OLD IS BAD AND ANYTHING NEW IS AUTOMATICALLY GOOD. ARE YOUR PARENTS,GRANDPARENTS, AND THE FOUNDERS OF OUR COUNTRY UNDER THE BUS WITH THE REST OF US?

HERE'S A SIMPLE CHALLENGE TO THE DEVELOPERS OF FT-8:

COMPLETELY DISABLE AUTOMATION AND REQUIRE THAT EACH CONTACT BE TUNED, INITIATED, SIGNAL STRENGTH-ED, AND TERMINATED BY THE HUMAN STANDING BY THE COMPUTER.

WATCH THE MILLENNIALS FLEE.

 

All CAPS, are you mad or upset?

At any rate, may be it was only me. I never saw a fully automated FT8 software. Does one exist?

May be I am behind, I still have to be in the front moving TX frequencies around so I won't interfere with others or others TXing on top of me. Manually to respond to the calling stations and from time to time have to adjust my audio level and watch my ALC level to make sure I am not running wide or causing interfere with others.

You made it sound like, you get home from work flip the switch on, go mow the yard, feed the kids and entertain the wife, come back to the shack before bed time and there you are a log file full of worked stations.

If there is such program exist, I want one.

I too, love and enjoying ragchew on 10m FM across the Atlantic from parking lot but such condition does not exist at the moment.

Get over it, mode(s) and the way the mode(s) is use will continue to developed and worked whether people like it or not as long as it legal.

73,

 

AND THEN THERE'S THIS...

WHY PARTICIPATE IN THIS AT ALL? THE ENTIRE FT-8 BREW-HA-HA IS ABOUT EXACTLY THIS. ACTUALLY LESS, JUST THEIR OWN AWARD STRUCTURE.

IT'S NEVER BEEN ABOUT THE OTHER RIDICULOUS INFERENCES TO AN ALLEGED DESIRE TO STIFLE PROGRESS ETC. (AS IF IT WERE EVEN POSSIBLE TO STIFLE)

 

GET OVER THAT.

 

Have you actually used FT-8?

I have to "tune" by selecting who's CQ I want to answer, or if I want to call after a RR. I initiate by making this selection and enabling TX to call the station I want. IF i get a reply, the next transmission reports the signal strength is an SNR value reported by the decoder, and it ends when I finish the structured cadence (RR/73). I then save this to my logbook. There may be many retries to any of these steps (except logging - that only happens at the end of a successful QSO. The easy, loud, stateside stations are simple. The DX isn't.

When I work a DX station on CW, I tune to hear the station. I wait till I hear "TU", or "QRZ" or the call, then I send my call. If I hear the DX station call me back, it's usually with "5NN", so I send him back "DE KV6O 5NN" and log it. This has been going on for longer than I have been alive. Very similar cadence, it might take a while to work the station, and I use my computer to key most of the time, and to log. The easy, loud, stateside stations are simple. The DX isn't.

 

You're joking, right? Cheating LOTW, while probably not impossible, is not easy. It would be much easier to use the computer to print out fake paper QSLs - or fake award certificates.....

 

Oh, got it. It all about award

Not, yet. I am still working on DMR, D-Start and C4FM DXCC. Almost there. I love this hobby and the privileges and the opportunity to "contact" people around the world using the equipment I have.

Be right back, I see West Virginia on FT8 calling CQ on 17m. 49 states on 17m, I need WV on 17m.

It is not all bad if you don't like a certain thing.

I bet if a pre-fix P5 came on the air using only FT8, I bet there will be people scrambling try to get WSJT-X or JTDX installed

73,

 

Luxury.

Let's see, I passed the following tests to get MY US Extra:

5 wpm code sending
5 wpm code receiving
13 wpm code sending
13 wpm code receiving
20 wpm code sending
20 wpm code receiving

All sending with a straight key. All receiving had to be 1 minute solid legible copy. with a pencil the FCC gave you, on a yellow pad the FCC gave you.

Also:

Novice written
General written
Advanced written
Extra written

Plus 2 years experience before I could even try the Extra, even though I was ready at age 15. And time as a Novice or Technician didn't count. And I didn't have any formal electrical, radio or electronics training then. All self-taught.

All tests except Novice at the FCC office, which wasn't exactly convenient....

When I became a ham, the only way to the FCC license test sessions was to cross a lake. We had to wait for summer when the lake wasn't frozen; but even then the water was REALLY cold. And there were bears that could swim - fast. Walking around the lake was not an option because of the distance, the sheer cliffs, the mountain lions and gully cats, plus the rabid raccoons and psychotic foxes.

There were also lake sharks who had mutated because of all the pollutants in the water, so they could live in fresh water AND they lost their dorsal fins, making it harder to see them coming.

We had to put a second set of clothes in a waterproof bag and tow it behind us as we swam the lake, because if you didn't change clothes when you got out of the water, you'd freeze to death, even in the summer. Plus they wouldn't let you into the exam session in wet clothes, and your papers and such had to be dry too.

We also had to wait for a clear night with a full moon, so we could see our way. The exam sessions were held at the crack of dawn and you had to leave at about midnight in order to be there on time. You couldn't use a flashlight because the bears and the lake sharks would be attracted by them.

You couldn't eat or drink for two hours before leaving home for the exam session because of the danger of cramping while swimming the lake. And you couldn't bring food with you because the bears would smell it no matter how well you wrapped it.

At the exam session, besides having to present three approved forms of photo ID, fingerprints, blood sample and a retinal scan, there was an early form of DNA analysis and a full cavity search before they'd let you enter the building that connected to the building that connected to the building where the exams were held. I'm not allowed to tell you of the additional security measures used inside those buildings.....even now.

The return trip was somewhat easier, because it was daylight by then, and the bears and lake sharks usually weren't as hungry. However, the wind was in your face the whole way home.

All that just to get to the FCC office. Piece of cake, really.

But you tell the new hams today that, and they won't believe you.

Some of us did. Not all. It was much easier before "incentive licensing".....

 

Please explain how my hobby use is any different than yours.

So what? As long as we can coexist on the bands as neighbors is the only thing that counts in that scenario of yours. I spent several decades as the "little guy".

Apparently you are clueless. It is all about degrees of effort that each puts into it. Effort sometimes costs money, physical effort, or whatever else is needed to reach an individual goal. Each has his own goal, some have none except to troll others and toss insults and complaints.

Wrong again. On traditional modes the human operator is at the end of the chain. Some have exceptional ability to copy stations out of the noise on CW and SSB while others have none. In between is the huge majority. I have trained myself to have better than average ability. There is no free lunch as it took decades.
A few on here want to marginalize that. Those are spiteful, jealous, mean spirited, and not even worth talking to. They are mostly keyboard clackers that are seldom heard on the air.

Have you actually tried that or are you just a talker?

I have WAS from 160 to 6M minus 60M. Many were completed in one weekend including 160.

I have DXCC from 160-6M minus 60M with most well over 300 DXCC (except 6) entities. There are separate awards for CW, Phone, and Mixed.

I have 9BDXCC with a CW QRP 5W. It took over 30 years for 160. And Im up to 18 with 100 milliwatts on 160.

I confirmed 80M CW DXCC with a homebrew 1920's era PP 211 oscillator that was well stabilized.

I am one zone shy on 160 for 9B WAZ. minus 60M.

Why on earth would I even consider FT8 which is about as useless as a self driving car IMO?

Are you claiming that people should be forced into using the latest no brain software? Hams as a whole are already being dumbed down unless they have some education/training from the past when hams were still considered an asset in industry.

I stopped chasing the technology nonsense when a computer did all the work; any ham capable of breathing can probably do that.; no intelligence required.

Carl

 

My guess is.....insecurity.

Some are. But that doesn't make it OK.

----

I think what ticks some folks off is their perceived loss of status. The classic "well, in MY day....." rant.

Trouble is, they don't realize how easy they had it "in their day".....