Nice opening to VK this morning from Atlanta after SR.
Luke was equally strong on Hi Z 8 and Waller Flag at 95 ft.
73,
John, W4NU
Sent from my iPhone
> On Apr 1, 2018, at 11:21 AM, Brian Pease <bpease2@myfairpoint.net> wrote:
>
> In my experience (sine 1957) casual CW DX contacts have nearly always been
> RST, QTH, Name, and for a long QSO maybe Rig. A memory keyer can do most of
> TX, and nowadays there are fairly good CW decoders. Not much different from
> other digital modes.
> It seems to me that most of the thrill of DX is when the DX first returns
> your call. Soon you are ready to move on to another conquest.
> Contacts between friends are an entirely different matter.
>
>> On 4/1/2018 9:20 AM, Jeff Blaine wrote:
>> There is good and bad with the FT8.
>>
>> The good is that it is bringing guys into the HF DX realm who never got
>> active in DX because for whatever reason they felt they did not have a good
>> DX station. The bad is that the focus on RTTY (my favorite mode) has become
>> less especially for DXpeditions in favor of the idea of FT8. The logic
>> behind these varies with the guy - but I think after the excitement and
>> shine of FT8 wears off, the net will be still more total participants in HF.
>> That's got to be a good thing.
>>
>> I don't feel bad for the dxpedition community especially wanting to promote
>> FT8 over RTTY. Working a RTTY pileup on the dxpedition end can result in
>> pathetic rates and there has been no effort to promote a multi-slot skimmer
>> type of software package that would make RTTY pileup into the high rate that
>> is possible. Along comes FT8 with the promise to do just that in an
>> upcoming package so I view the dxpedition guys moving to FT8 as a logical
>> choice over RTTY simply because it will end up having a higher rate than
>> what most RTTY runs end up being. I don't run FT8 at the moment but if a
>> dxpedition is only running FT8 for the digital slot, I guess I will run it.
>> The genie is out of the bottle there.
>>
>> It would certainly help if the ARRL especially had not homogenize the RTTY
>> and all other digital modes into one for the purpose of the DXCC. Why not
>> issue separate certificates for each popular mode and benefit from the fees
>> that would bring to the ARRL? That would also make a lot of guys who have
>> worked their life's for the RTTY DXCC count not feel as if the
>> accomplishment is being diluted by FT8 and the other ether-modes. But the
>> ARRL's decisions more and more defy logic so I suppose that's a topic for
>> another day.
>>
>> But for contesting and rag chewing and DX, I'm in the camp as the other
>> traditionalists are - the op on the end talking into the mic, slapping the
>> paddle or typing to try to keep up with the RTTY feed is what a real QSO is
>> about. FT8 does result in a technical QSO but I'm not sure where the
>> sustained enjoyment in that mode is beyond making the contact.
>>
>> 73/jeff/ac0c
>> alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
>> www.ac0c.com
>>
>>> On 01-Apr-18 7:49 PM, Stan Stockton wrote:
>>> Some questions in my mind.
>>>
>>> How important is RF in the evolution of amateur radio? Would those who
>>> operate using FT8 be a lot less interested if it were just computers
>>> linking them with others without transmitted RF? How about operator
>>> involvement or skill?
>>>
>>> How important is it that hams retain 4 MHz of spectrum on 6m or other bands
>>> if most everyone has abandoned CW and SSB?
>>>
>>> Is there some sense of achievement when there is so much headroom in power
>>> alone that another 3 dB or even another 20 dB is so easy to achieve?
>>>
>>> About 50% of my enjoyment of the hobby is thinking, many hours of every
>>> day, about how to somehow achieve another dB on some band or another with a
>>> better antenna. After about 50 hours of modeling I am now drilling tubing
>>> to make what I hope will be a great pair of tribanders to take to ZF9CW
>>> location. One person's total waste of time is another's passion.
>>>
>>> To each his own, but for the long term future of what has provided so many
>>> of us with a lifetime of enjoyment, woe is me.
>>>
>>> 73... Stan, K5GO
>>> _________________
>>> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>>>
>>
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