[CQ-Contest] FT4 - Robotic Contesting
Jim Brown
k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com
Tue Apr 30 17:22:03 EDT 2019
On 4/30/2019 10:03 AM, rjairam at gmail.com wrote:
> I’ve used FT8 in VHF contesting and it’s a mixed bag. I doubt that it will
> take the place of SSB or CW.
I'm primarily a CW op, and have been for 55 years. I'm also quite active
in the grid chase on 6M, and until two years ago, found CW best by far
for picking up multi-hop E-skip. I picked up 80 new grids last season,
all but a few using FT8. A handful used MSK144 (meteor scatter). I made
no CW or SSB contacts on 6M last season, and very few the season before.
FT8 has been a game-changer for grid-chasing on 6M and DXing on 160M.
Two reasons: 1) ops who don't know CW can activate a grid with a mode
that can work 6-10 dB deeper into the noise than CW with great ops on
both ends, and 20 dB better than SSB; 2) the mode concentrates all
activity into a 2.5kHz window with a multi-decoder. No need for
waterfall displays or constantly tuning the band.
Before JT65 and FT8, it took me eight years to work four JAs on 6M CW.
This season I worked more than 60 JA in 23 grids, plus JT and DU.
In the four years prior to the 160M season just finished, I heard no EU
at all. This season I worked one of the four CW stations I heard. Using
FT8, I worked more than 20 EU stations, 11 of them new countries.
Things may be different east of W9, but that's life from W6.
That said, I have no interest in WSJT modes for HF contesting.
AD6E put it quite well on the NCCC reflector, saying that he loves
contesting both for the station-building and the operating. I feel the
same way, and have the greatest respect for those contesters, like NCCC
members K6XX, W2SC, and N6KT, who do both.
73, Jim K9YC
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