[Skimmertalk] Trends in RBN Activity

[N4ZR]

Recently a friend suggested that FT8 was probably making a dent in 
activity on the RBN and taking away from CW in general.  Out of 
curiosity, I compared last week on the RBN (weekdays only, to avoid 
contest activity) with the corresponding week in 2016, and was pleased 
to see that the volume of RBN spots in 2017 was up about 8.4 percent 
compared to the corresponding week in 2016.

Maybe growth would have been stronger if FT8 and WSPR had not been 
introduced, but for amature system near the bottom of the sunspot cycle 
I think the continued upward trend is encouraging. The same week in 2016 
was down 12.1 percent compared to 2015, which looks more like what I 
would have expected this year.

Looking ahead to the big DX contest weekends, Felipe made a change in 
the data flow at our server this week to sharply reduce the number of 
operations that need to take place after spots are received from RBN 
nodes and before each individual spot is sent out. We are hopeful this 
will improve the server's reliability and handling of large volumes of 
spots, as well as reducing the delay in their being posted on retail 
servers around the world.

Feedback would be appreciated. ARRL CW Sweepstakes will probably be the 
first major test.

-- 

73, Pete N4ZR
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