[SCCC] digital modes during FD

[Dennis Younker NE6I]

Couple comments.

Check FT4 as well. QSOs are much faster on FT4 as that mode is designed for
contests (albeit many are using it for day-to-day contacts today as well).
The tradeoff is that FT4 is slightly less sensitive than FT8 but the QSOs
are quicker. Whether FT8 or FT4, be sure to set WSJT-X to Contest mode to
avoid exchange issues. If one station is in contest mode and the other is
not, there will be an exchange sequence issue. Be sure the exchange itself
is set up properly on the Advanced tab of WSJT-X as well.

As for FT8 frequencies on HF, if the standard freqs are busy (jammed) during
contests, it is not uncommon to use frequencies 2 and 4 kHz up. IE, instead
of 14.074, try 14.076 and 14.078. You may have to add these for FT8 to the
Frequencies configuration in Settings as these are two frequencies come
preconfigured for JT65 and JT9 respectively. Those two modes are rarely used
on HF anymore. Do not try to use 14.080 for FT8 as that is the standard FT4
frequency. You can extrapolate for other bands. 

Digital modes on 6 meters: I will second what Jim says. Very fun. On a Field
Day weekend, I'm not sure we have had the band open on 6 meters yet (FT8 and
FT4 are relatively new modes) but I would think we might have a lot of
stations misconfigured on that band if that were to happen. Not to say there
aren't contesters on 6 meters because there definitely are, and the ones
that are there every day are savvy enough to go into contest mode. Those new
to 6 meters and not contesters may not realize what is going on and stay in
what I will call regular mode, which will be messy as noted above. Just an
fyi.

--Dennis NE6I

-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC <sccc-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Jim Price
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2021 2:46 PM
To: 'Drew Arnett' <arnett.drew at gmail.com>; 'Southern Cal Contest Club'
<sccc at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [SCCC] digital modes during FD

Drew - For better or worse, FT8 is "where it's at" these days - especially
in FD.  While there's certainly plenty of activity on SSB and CW, and
probably some on RTTY, you'll find that the FT8 frequency (would be nice if
there were more than one per band!) is solid, wall-to-wall signals.  

Working FT8 on 6 meters during FD can be really fun if the band opens.  I
find that FT8 on 6m is like having 100 beacons on the air all at once, all
on the same frequency.  You can tell at a glance where the band is open to.
Of course you can see that info graphically on PSK Reporter.  But you need
to be able to hear it to work it, regardless of what lines are on the map!

My personal preference is CW, and I can run stations for hours on 20, then
40, etc.  But we found the last couple of years that when 6 meters was open,
FT8 was ''happening!"

73 - Jim K6ZH, part of the W6RDF Pt Loma ARC group




-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC [mailto:sccc-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Drew Arnett
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2021 8:37 AM
To: Southern Cal Contest Club <sccc at contesting.com>
Subject: [SCCC] digital modes during FD

Anyone know of a breakdown of digital modes used during Field Day?
Email me if you do!

I was wondering if it was worth taking one for the team and volunteering to
work digital during FD to help our multi-multi score.
I'll RTTY contest all day long no complaints.  PSK31?  If not too many folks
run their brag tape macros during FD.  FT.  Well, yeah, maybe I'm not that
dedicated to the team.  :-)

Next best thing I took the last 20 years of FD summary data from the results
articles.  Here's a PDF with some fun plots:

 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19K_6t-HKbo8f984qUUe4q3NKYO7sgsQ8/view?usp=s
haring

Fun to see trends prior to FT, the FT phenomenon, as well as the COVID-19
bump.

Some extra data from the last few years that is interesting to think about,
too:

2019 -- entries:  3,113, participants:  36,420, total Qs:  1,095,969
2020 -- entries:  10213, participants:  18,886, total Qs:  1,862,985

Entries up 3X and but only 1/2 the participants.

3X stations on the air gave us 1.7X QSOs.

% of entries that are D, E, F class -- 2019:  46%, 2020:  82% % of QSOs
phone 2018 (baseline):  52%, 2019:  45%, 2020:  35% Down 7% 2019 versus
baseline and down 17% 2020 versus baseline.

There's interesting stuff in this data including if and how much effort to
spend on digital.  Will be interesting to see 2022 FD data (a normal,
non-COVID-19 bump  year I presume).

I'd encourage contest organizers to let folks send in logs with the digital
modes not all lumped into one category.  (For VHF+ events, same for SSB
versus FM, too.)  Their contest log analysis can do the lumping instead of
the entrants easily enough.  And that would be a treasure trove of data to
have to look at trends.

Best regards,

Drew
n7da
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