[CQ-Contest] 9L5A

[Jim Brown]

It's great that they're doing this, but the importance of FT8 is that it 
allows us to work 10 dB deeper into the noise that CW with great ops on 
both ends. On this planet, where the electronic noise has increased by a 
lot more than that over the last 20 years, that's a VERY BIG DEAL. And 
it's why AA7JV, a great DXpeditioner, great CW op, and great engineer, 
and realizing that on multi-week expeditions, 160M opening tended to 
occur on only one or two nights, developed his system to allow 
simultaneous operation CW and FT8 operation on 160M.

While I've always been primarily a CW op, and have been avoiding SSB for 
several years, I've been using WSJT modes for nearly 15 years for small 
signal work, mostly on 6M, but also on 160M to work EU from my QTH in 
NorCal, and on 60M, where the allocation is for a half-dozen SSB 
channels and power is limited to 100W EIRP. I just worked DX entity #102 
on that band, loading an 80M dipole.

73, Jim K9YC

On 12/4/2024 7:57 AM, Doug Renwick wrote:
> The following was posted on the 9L5A Web page at:
>             https://9l5a.wordpress.com/
> 
> Apart from that, the days follow one another with more than 10,000 QSOs
> per day with an almost perfect balance between CW, SSB and FT8. It looks
> so surprising compared to other expeditions that some criticize us for
> doing too much CW and SSB; this is a shame! We had announced for a long
> time that we would prioritize “human” modes, otherwise we would not have
> planned 15 operators. It would for sure be much easier to leave 6 stations
> running in FT8 and enjoy long nights of sleep, the beach and 31° water,
> we would already have exceeded 100,000 QSOs. But this is not the vision
> we have of radio in general and especially an expedition. Given the size
> of the pileups, there is obviously (and fortunately) a large majority
> who must think like us.
> 
> 
> Doug
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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