I have to agree with Steve's assessment. I guess that having been licensed for
54 years makes me a "geezer" of sorts and we aren't supposed to like anything
"new".
I think that the new technology is great to a point. I'm on the internet all
the time and the radios are all tied to the computers for logging, spotting,
etc. I enjoy that and would not want to go totally back to the "old days".
When it comes to actually making a QSOs, I really don't know what you get out
of the process where two computers communicate with each other using signals
that are not audible. I remember my first JA QSO on 160 (CW) during the morning
gray line from my QTH in SE PA. Just before my sunrise, I could hear others
calling a JA station that was still mostly in the noise. A few minutes later,
his signal started to increase and just at my SR was nearly S9 on my receiver.
I made the contact easily and as I continues to listen, his signal began to
fall and was then quickly gone. The total elapse time was maybe 2 - 3 minutes.
I still remember the thrill of that (and many other) QSOs on 80 & 160.
I'm not knocking the guys using the digital modes. It's obviously a new and
interesting technology and they are having fun, which is the reason we do this,
right? I just have ZERO interest in it all and still get my fun actually
hearing and working another station.
73, Stew K3ND
From: Steve Ireland <vk6vz@arach.net.au>
To: Topband reflector <topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 4:50 AM
Subject: Topband: FT8 - the end of 160m old school DXing? (long)
G’day
As a committed (yeah, that’s probably the right word - complete with white
jacket that laces up at the back) topbander since 1970, I’ve never been so
intrigued and disturbed by anything on the band as the emergence of the
Franke-Taylor FT-8 digital mode.
For me, radio has always been all about what I audibly hear. I love all the
sounds that radio signals make - and even miss the comforting sound of Loran
that I grew up with around 1930kHz as a teenager in south-east England. Yeah, I
am one sick puppy.
With the emergence of high resolution bandscopes through SDR technology over
the last decade, I embraced that as it meant that I could find what DX stations
I wanted to hear and contact quicker and more easily (and, in particular,
before those stations who didn’t have the same technology).
It was really exciting and enhanced the sensual experience of radio by being
able to see what I could hear (and no dinosaur me, I was an SDR fan boy!).
During this period, there has also been an extraordinary development in digital
radio modes, in particular by Joe Taylor K1JT.
As a topbander I could see that these modes in which you ‘saw’ signals through
the medium of computer screen or window as being a remarkable technical
achievement, but had relatively little to do what I and the vast majority of
active radio amateurs practiced as radio on 160m, as it had nothing to do with
the audible.
The good thing was that I could see that good old CW and Silly Slop Bucket (you
can see where my prejudices lie) that I like to use were still the modes of
choice for weak signal DX topband radio contact as these fancy digital modes
were either very slow or, if they weren’t, were not good at dealing with
signals that faded up and down or were covered in varying amounts of noise.
While some amateurs seemed to have lost the pleasure of actually hearing
signals in favour of viewing them on their computer screens, I felt secure that
these digital modes were just a minor annoyance and any serious DXer or
DXpedition was never going to seriously going to use them, particularly on my
first and all-time love topband, for other than experimentation.
Then, out of the blue, along comes FT-8. Joe and Steve Franke K9AN have quietly
created the holy grail of digital operation with a mode that can have QSOs
almost as fast as CW and SSB and over the last eight weeks 160m DXing has
changed, perhaps for ever.
Where once there were a few weak CW and SSB signals (I am in VK6, which is a
looong way from anywhere with a population so we only ever hear a few), I can
see that the busiest part of the band is 1840 kHz – FT-8 central. On some
nights I can see FT-8 signals on the band but no CW or SSB.
There are countries I’ve dreamed for 20 years of hearing on 160m SSB/CW (for
example, KG4) regularly appearing on DX clusters and I can see the heap of FT-8
activity on my band scope.
Frustration sets in and I even downloaded the FT-8 software but, when it comes
down to it, I just can’t use it. My heart isn’t in it.
My computer will be talking to someone else’s computer and there will be no
sense of either a particular person’s way of sending CW or the tone of their
voice (even the way some my SSB mates overdrive their transceivers is actually
creating nostalgia in me). The human in radio has somehow been lost.
I think back to my best-ever 160m SSB contact with Pedro NP4A and I can still
hear the sound of his voice, his accent, when he came up out of the noise and
to my amazement answered me on my second call, with real excitement in his
voice. Pure radio magic!
So I am sitting here, feeling depressed and wondering if overnight I have
become a dinosaur and this is the beginning of the end of topband radio as I’ve
always enjoyed it.
Now, over to you other topbanders, especially those who have dabbled with FT-8
and live in more populous areas. Has the world really turned upside down and
what do you think the future holds?
Vy 73
Steve, VK6VZ/G3ZZD
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