[CQ-Contest] [PVRC] Contesters review: new FT8, WSJT 2.0.0

Sun Dec 16 15:52:41 EST 2018

Yes.  Set one radio on even and the other on odd cycles.

Ed W0YK

  _____  

From: Dan K2YWE [mailto:dan.k2ywe at gmail.com] 
Sent: 16 December, 2018 12:45
To: Tim Shoppa
Cc: Ed W0YK; PVRC; cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [PVRC] [CQ-Contest] Contesters review: new FT8, WSJT 2.0.0

Can one do SO2R, splitting the "phases" to double/increase rate?  Maybe I'm
way behind the curve.

I have too admit that the flood of wsjtgropup emails caused me to shut off
the stream a while ago.

Dan Zeitlin - K2YWE
South Shore ARC - K3AU
Annapolis, Maryland
dan z website <http://danzee.org> 

On Sun, Dec 16, 2018 at 9:41 AM Tim Shoppa <tshoppa at gmail.com> wrote:

Ed, in one of the single-hour "contest mode trials" of WSJT 2.0 release
candidates, I hit 36 FT8 Q's in an hour. The abbreviated contest exchange
and the fact that most of the guys on had some contest-leanings, really
helped me in that hour.

I did that by going almnost 100% S&P where I get the one-per-minute cycle
time. It also really helped, that the trial hour band segment was not
completely jam-packed with signals.

In the big FT8 test weekend two weeks ago, I did not hit that rate. Even
when I focused and tried hard, I was usually only in the 20's for rate over
a while hour. I attribute this to many of the participants being less
contest-oriented.

The 120-per-hour run rate with the "TU, NOW" feature you mention, I think
you might be able to exploit that from P4, with callers spreading themselves
nicely and being patient to work a rare mult, but my feeling is that us more
common mults will hardly ever use that.

Again, I do not plan to do any FT8 during RTTY RU. However, I do appreciate
that the WSJT developers are learning some things about contesting to
improve rates and that non-contest FT8 rates have improved noticeably as a
result of this learning.

Ed, what rates were you able to hit in the FT8 weekend two weeks ago? I
think when the logs are collected that AA5AU may be able to advise us as to
peak rates hit by participants.

I did a quick-looksee at 3830 comments for FT8 roundup and see two
experienced contesters talking about a best hour of 38Q's, and more typical
"good hour" rates in the 20-30Q per hour range.

Tim N3QE

On Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 6:53 PM Ed Muns <ed at w0yk.com> wrote:

The discussion below is based on the WSJT-X non-contest protocol.  Did you
achieve any higher rates using the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest protocol in the
FT8 Roundup two weeks ago?  If so, probably not by much.

That protocol will eventually have a "TU, NW" feature added which will get
instantaneous rate to 120/hour.  SO2R double that.  Of course, average rate
over a full hour will be less, but it will be much faster than then the
current WSJT-X contest version.

Ed W0YK

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tim
Shoppa
Sent: 14 December, 2018 11:49
To: PVRC; cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Contesters review: new FT8, WSJT 2.0.0

Keep in mind that I write the below from a "Contesters perspective" but
maybe toned down for lower FT8 expectations.

The official flag day for the new 77-bit FT8 messages was Monday Dec 14
with the release of WSJT 2.0.0. Within a day almost all the activity had
flipped over the the new version.

I spent many hours (20+ hours) trying it out, with "RR73" turned on to get
max rates, and it is an improvement. I had also been involved a little bit
with pre-release WSJT software in the mock-contest hours and the "FT8 mock
test" the first weekend of December.

With the new WSJT 2.0.0 FT8, my peak S&P rate approaches one QSO a minute,
my peak run rate approaches one QSO every 90 seconds, and my average rate
over an hour is s 20 or more. It is hard to achieve peak rates on a super
packed busy band like 20M FT8 but on a WARC band or "off peak" band it's
quite achievable.

Contrast that with the old WSJT where my typical FT8 rate in an hour was 8
to 12 QSO's an hour.

Now, in a real RTTY contest, 20 an hour is NOT something to write home
about. It's dullsville, like maybe I should be doing something more fun
like mopping the kitchen floor or raking leaves. But it is a real
improvement for FT8 rate.

I DO NOT PLAN to do ANY FT8 in RTTY Roundup. Again, 20 an hour is a bad
rate if you are trying to enter that competitively.

Tim N3QE
Hardcore RTTY contester
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