Topband: FT8

[Tree <tree@kkn.net>]

Great post Steve - you put into words a concern that I am sure many of us
share.

First off - as manager of this fine list - let's all be careful and not let
the discussion get out of hand.  Respect other people's opinion.  This is a
hot topic for sure and there is not going to be some kind of resolution
here.  It is kind of a social experiment happening in real time.

For me - the magic of radio happens between the headphones.  I can still
remember hearing my first echo off the moon - on six meters.  I nearly fell
out of my chair. Same thing when I found ZS8 CQing away on 160 meters when
no other signals were being heard.

>From my perspective - there are two areas where the "tones" have taken over
weak signal.  The first was mentioned already - 2 meter EME.  I have 80
elements out in the bone pile - hoping to put it up some day - but I have
to admit that the shift to using tones instead of CW has left me less
motivated.

The other area is the new 600 Meter band.  This small slice of noisy
spectrum is predicted to be populated with tones for serious DX work
instead of CW.  This might drive me to try it - or perhaps I will be there
on CW - being a dinosaur.

The comparison to RTTY is certainly a fair one - although the new tones are
much better with weak signals.  RTTY contesting is the biggest growing
segment by far.  It's only time now until the tones establish themselves
there as well.

However, any activity is good activity.  The fact we often can tune the
band and see nothing on the bandscope except some tones is better than not
seeing anything.  People who don't have good systems for 160 meters are now
able to make some QSOs and even work a little DX.

Probably the telling thing will be what the choices are by the major DX
peditions.   If the only way to work a new country is with tones - that
will either push me to adopt it - or go find something else to do with my
time and energy.

Tree N6TR
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