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

[David Gilbert]

I wax and wane on how much I like (or don't like) FT8, but other than 
the obvious SNR benefits for both sides, FT8 can offer two other 
advantages for a DXpedition:

1.  From the caller side, as long as you have ENOUGH power to crack the 
SNR threshhold, more power doesn't buy you much.  That makes more 
limited stations have a better chance against the big guns.

2.  From the DX side, pileup management is simpler ... maybe to the 
point of being boring.

And it's not like FT8 during a contest or DXpedition is any less 
personal than it would be on SSB or CW.

Those percentages you quote are actually less dramatic than the case 
during normal every day operation.  We're barely over the hump on a 
decent solar flux peak and yet when I tune across 15m CW on an average 
day I'd swear the band was completely dead --- until I fire up WSJT-X 
and see a couple hundred stations in action (although unfortunately some 
of them are clearly bots).  One or two POTA operations on SSB might be 
the only real exception.

It is what it is.

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 1/9/2026 11:11 AM, Edward Sawyer wrote:
> The comment was made that "it's a dieing hobby".  Actually - its not.  Contesting is on a steady 10 year growth curve which is great to see.  Hopefully it holds this new level as the sunspots start dropping.
>
> DXpeditions are producing incredible QSO numbers.  Far more than most Dxpeditions in the old days.  Unfortunately, in most (almost all) cases the FT8 content is 70 - 90% of those numbers.   Its probably growing in QSO participation but severely going down in SSB side and not going up in the CW side.  If you happen to need a Q on 6, 80 or 160 that isn't FT8, you can pretty much forget about it.  Computer to computer DXing is thriving.  Human modes are in fact dieing.
>
> I personally have all but walked away from DXing  and it has been very sad for me.  But the Contesting is thriving and I am enjoying that focus even more.
>
> Ed  N1UR
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