>"Soon it may be computers working computers with minimal operator
supervision."
Already happening with Windows macro commands. Anyone who works me in the
sparse instances I'm on FT8 is making a fully-automated contact. When one
FT8 contact is complete, macros start another. I may be in the next room,
or I might be running an errand down the street while establishing required
control from my iPhone to satisfy FCC control rules. If you're on the other
side of my FT8 QSO, you don't know it. I can stroll back in the shack and
see if any rare DX stations were just logged by automation. As stations are
logged, I participate in...nothing. I'm a late observer to the contact.
Or, I may just look at the log file as entries are also fully automated.
So, did I just push the ethics envelope into a dark place by taking it a
"teency" step further?
WSJT-X is now *nearly* fully automatic. If semi-automatic FT8 operation is
ethical, why not fully automatic? The only difference is mouse clicks. How
much effort was put into looking at a screen and clicking a mouse? In a
short period of time, I could teach my 5-year old granddaughter how to make
FT8 contacts -- it's even easier than controlling her toy gaming devices.
What's next for FT8? I envision a meshed global network of regional servers
managing WSJT-X Tx frequencies as an intelligent frequency-hopping network.
It takes the existing FT8 Fox/Hound mode to a new, automated level. The
server controls the Tx frequency on both ends of the link as a means to
efficiently manage QSOs to avoid QRM and of course other QSOs. Here's how:
An op logs in to a regional FT8 server through a new WSJT-X connection menu
(akin to Yaesu System Fusion Wires-X). The log-in is optional only to take
advantage of intelligent frequency hopping. WSJT-X already deciphers all
activity within our FT8 Rx passband. If it knows what's active within the
passband, it also knows what parts of the passband are *not* active. If the
other station is also logged in, the server looks for unused Rx areas on
*both* ends of our WSJT-X software and analyses the passband while doing
this for a predetermined number of Tx/Rx cycles. Let's say that after two
or three 15-sec. cycles of inactivity on a particular frequency the server
gives an "all clear" to hop to a new Tx frequency. It's waiting for an all
clear to ensure there's no activity on either end before the hop occurs. We
don't want to move to another FT8 frequency if it's already occupied on
either end. The server is managing frequencies on both sides of the FT8
QSO. We can still monitor what the server is doing by looking at the Tx and
Rx "goal posts" and override when necessary.
What I'm describing is not new. Automated frequency hopping has been viable
at least since WWII and used by DoD. What is new is the potential
implementation into FT8 transmissions. The hooks are already there. It's
just a matter of time before the two main developers do it -- or <gulp> if
ethics get in the way, others will.
Paul, W9AC
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