[CQ-Contest] Fwd: Expeditions remote (John Geiger)

[Jim Brown]

On 1/9/2026 10:11 AM, Edward Sawyer wrote:
>   Computer to computer DXing is thriving.

Hi Ed,

Just as CW provides a 10 dB signal to noise advantage over SSB, FT8 
provides an additional 10 dB over CW with great ops on both ends.

Noise levels on both ends of the QSO have grown exponentially in the 
past 20 years. When I moved to NorCal in 2006, with legal limit, a 100 
ft Tee with a lot of radials, and full wave Beverages in four 
directions, I could work the bigger EU stations on 160M a few nights a 
year during the winter. With those same antennas, I haven't heard a CW 
signal from EU in at least 4 years in the six years before that, I heard 
seven, and two heard me.

During the last solar minima, I added about 25 EU countries using FT8. 
And I damn sure am going to count them. I built my station with help 
from neighbors with towers and antennas on towers, studied propagation. 
I also do a lot of weak signal work on VHF using WSJT modes for E-skip, 
F2, TE, meteor scatter, and tropospheric propagation.

73, Jim K9YC