[CQ-Contest] Contesting and the FT8 Revolution

[David Gilbert]

As best I can tell, the Barrett 4050 uses digital signal processing only 
on the receive end.  Instead, modes like FT8 and FT4 use various forward 
error correction techniques to pre-encode the transmitted signal.  The 
receive side then knows what to look for, and processes the received 
signal using other techniques to get the superior signal to noise ratio 
performance.

You need to have the processing on both ends of the path in order to 
maximize the benefits, but that could be done mostly transparently to 
the user if done properly.

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 7/3/2021 2:25 PM, Henry Pollock - K4TMC wrote:
> As a 69-year-old phone contester with limited time to devote to researching
> all of the other aspects of the ever-changing ham radio hobby, I was
> intrigued by the possibility of using the weak signal capabilities of FT8
> to convert data to audible CW and voice.
>
> About the same time this subject was being discussed here, I came across
> another tidbit on a totally non-contest group about the Barrett 4050 which
> uses a digital system to enhance HF weak signal voice communications.  The
> YouTube video example was very impressive.  I now wonder if the Barrett
> digital system is using something like FT8.
>
> So, I am happy that this discussion has continued here.
>
> 73,
> Henry -  K4TMC