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Re: [CQ-Contest] RBN Announcement on FT8 Spotting

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RBN Announcement on FT8 Spotting
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: k9yc@arrl.net
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 02:12:30 -0700
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
On 6/13/2018 10:53 AM, Peter Sundberg wrote:
Who cares any more as FT8 is about computers talking to computers while the operator is doing - or has his mind - on other things. Ham Heaven is here according to the masses and apparently statistics. RBN is all about computers anyway. And we must make decisions based on statistics - right?

To be able to make use of the FT8 "Deep" functionality the computer needs the info to decode unknown callsigns that are "22 dB below the noise level".

The above quotes are deceptive half-truths. I must say that I'm getting awfully tired of the bashing of fine operating modes developed by K1JT and his team that requires a lot more operator sophistication than those who have never used it assume. I'm a pretty good CW op (starting in 1955), but I also concentrate on station building, understanding propagation, and the other aspects that contribute to a successful QSO. In the recent WPX CW contest, I was in the top 4 high power single-op scores from the west coast (signing KU6W). Ragchewing bores me to tears.

There are good reasons for the degree of automation that WSJT-X provides for modes with short turnaround times. But a successful QSO over a difficult path includes good antennas, good stations with good radios, good feedlines, good switching, knowing where to point the antenna, when to be working what distant QTH, knowing when propagation can make it possible, picking an operating frequency within the waterfall. My computer didn't make the QSO -- me, my radio, my station, including my antennas made the QSO!

I mostly use WSJT modes for QSOs I can't make another way -- mostly 6M and 160M, mostly E-skip, meteor scatter, and some tropo. About two months ago, I managed a QSO with 5A1AL in Libya, who running barefoot with a compromise antenna; my neighbor W6GJB and I had been chasing him for three years. Libya is TOUGH from the west coast of the US. I think we worked him on 17M or 20M.

I chase grids on 6M (only), and have found both JT65 and FT8 a huge help. There are thousands of SSB ops living in rare grids who never learned CW, but they can run FT8 and give me a QSO with 20 dB better noise immunity than SSB!

And there's another HUGE issue -- most of us are surrounded by homes, each of which, including our own, are filled with noise sources that cover all but the strongest signals. K1JT's modes have given hams with these limitations a chance to do ham radio.

I'm a genuine old fart, first licensed in 1955. I try to learn something new every day, and in the spirit of ham radio, try to share what I've learned with others. I suggest that the bashers adopt these objectives.

73, Jim K9YC
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