I wax and wane on how much I like (or don't like) FT8, but other than
the obvious SNR benefits for both sides, FT8 can offer two other
advantages for a DXpedition:
1. From the caller side, as long as you have ENOUGH power to crack the
SNR threshhold, more power doesn't buy you much. That makes more
limited stations have a better chance against the big guns.
2. From the DX side, pileup management is simpler ... maybe to the
point of being boring.
And it's not like FT8 during a contest or DXpedition is any less
personal than it would be on SSB or CW.
Those percentages you quote are actually less dramatic than the case
during normal every day operation. We're barely over the hump on a
decent solar flux peak and yet when I tune across 15m CW on an average
day I'd swear the band was completely dead --- until I fire up WSJT-X
and see a couple hundred stations in action (although unfortunately some
of them are clearly bots). One or two POTA operations on SSB might be
the only real exception.
It is what it is.
73,
Dave AB7E
On 1/9/2026 11:11 AM, Edward Sawyer wrote:
The comment was made that "it's a dieing hobby". Actually - its not.
Contesting is on a steady 10 year growth curve which is great to see. Hopefully it holds
this new level as the sunspots start dropping.
DXpeditions are producing incredible QSO numbers. Far more than most
Dxpeditions in the old days. Unfortunately, in most (almost all) cases the FT8
content is 70 - 90% of those numbers. Its probably growing in QSO
participation but severely going down in SSB side and not going up in the CW
side. If you happen to need a Q on 6, 80 or 160 that isn't FT8, you can pretty
much forget about it. Computer to computer DXing is thriving. Human modes are
in fact dieing.
I personally have all but walked away from DXing and it has been very sad for
me. But the Contesting is thriving and I am enjoying that focus even more.
Ed N1UR
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