[CQ-Contest] ARRL to allow self-spotting in contests

[David Gilbert]

The signal processing techniques utilized in FT8 could have been used to 
enhance the signal-to-noise of normal CW in a way that would have been 
virtually transparent to the operator.   It's truly a shame that WSJT-X 
has landlocked those techniques within FT8 in the minds of just about 
everyone in our hobby, as well as giving those techniques such a bad 
image that nobody seems willing to take up the mantle to fix it.

The signal processing technology behind FT8 is awesome, but it is 
neither unique nor proprietary.  It should have enhanced the hobby for 
all of us, especially for us contesters since almost all of our 
transmissions come from keypresses in a logging program anyway. Instead 
it is being held hostage to WSJT-X for no real reason other than inertia.

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 2/18/2022 8:13 AM, James Cain wrote:
> I agree with HA3LN that FT-8 is a terrible blow to what an ARRL director
> snidely referred to -- on this reflector -- as "our sandbox." Yes, I play
> only unassisted and you call it what you want.
>
> A neighbor guy dropped by and I had just set up my Superstation for this
> weekend -- a TS590 on a card table and a 11-foot wire dropped out the 2nd
> floor window. "I can talk to Europe, South America, maybe even Japan with
> this" said I.  "On Morse code."
>
> cain K1TN