Topband: FT8 - the end of 160m old school DXing? (long)

[Don Kirk]

I hope everyone in the US (except for me) switches to FT-8 on 160 meters
which will give me a much better chance to work the dx-peditions and other
rare ones on 160 meters CW:-)

I downloaded the software to check out what FT-8 was all about, and after
30 minutes I had seen enough and decided it was boring (cool from a
technological standpoint, but otherwise boring and certainly not
challenging).  We need to keep our bands active, and FT-8 is another mode
to help with that objective.

CW is certainly not dead, but we must figure out how to get the youth of
tomorrow interested in CW and I have witnessed a decline in available CW
operators at events such as Field Day, etc.

73,
Don (wd8dsb)

On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 4:25 AM, Steve Ireland <vk6vz at arach.net.au> wrote:

> G’day
>
> As a committed (yeah, that’s probably the right word - complete with white
> jacket that laces up at the back) topbander since 1970, I’ve never been so
> intrigued and disturbed by anything on the band as the emergence of the
> Franke-Taylor FT-8 digital mode.
>
> For me, radio has always been all about what I audibly hear. I love all
> the sounds that radio signals make - and even miss the comforting sound of
> Loran that I grew up with around 1930kHz as a teenager in south-east
> England. Yeah, I am one sick puppy.
>
> With the emergence of high resolution bandscopes through SDR technology
> over the last decade, I embraced that as it meant that I could find what DX
> stations I wanted to hear and contact quicker and more easily (and, in
> particular, before those stations who didn’t have the same technology).
>
> It was really exciting and enhanced the sensual experience of radio by
> being able to see what I could hear (and no dinosaur me, I was an SDR fan
> boy!).
>
> During this period, there has also been an extraordinary development in
> digital radio modes, in particular by Joe Taylor K1JT.
>
> As a topbander I could see that these modes in which you ‘saw’ signals
> through the medium of computer screen or window as being a remarkable
> technical achievement, but had relatively little to do what I and the vast
> majority of active radio amateurs practiced as radio on 160m, as it had
> nothing to do with the audible.
>
> The good thing was that I could see that good old CW and Silly Slop Bucket
> (you can see where my prejudices lie) that I like to use were still the
> modes of choice for weak signal DX topband radio contact as these fancy
> digital modes were either very slow or, if they weren’t, were not good at
> dealing with signals that faded up and down or were covered in varying
> amounts of noise.
>
> While some amateurs seemed to have lost the pleasure of actually hearing
> signals in favour of viewing them on their computer screens, I felt secure
> that these digital modes were just a minor annoyance and any serious DXer
> or DXpedition was never going to seriously going to use them, particularly
> on my first and all-time love topband, for other than experimentation.
>
> Then, out of the blue, along comes FT-8. Joe and Steve Franke K9AN have
> quietly created the holy grail of digital operation with a mode that can
> have QSOs almost as fast as CW and SSB and over the last eight weeks 160m
> DXing has changed, perhaps for ever.
>
> Where once there were a few weak CW and SSB signals (I am in VK6, which is
> a looong way from anywhere with a population so we only ever hear a few), I
> can see that the busiest part of the band is 1840 kHz – FT-8 central.  On
> some nights I can see FT-8 signals on the band but no CW or SSB.
>
> There are countries I’ve dreamed for 20 years of hearing on 160m SSB/CW
> (for example, KG4) regularly appearing on DX clusters and I can see the
> heap of FT-8 activity on my band scope.
>
> Frustration sets in and I even downloaded the FT-8 software but, when it
> comes down to it,  I just can’t use it. My heart isn’t in it.
>
> My computer will be talking to someone else’s computer and there will be
> no sense of either a particular person’s way of sending CW or the tone of
> their voice (even the way some my SSB mates overdrive their transceivers is
> actually creating nostalgia in me). The human in radio has somehow been
> lost.
>
> I think back to my best-ever 160m SSB contact with Pedro NP4A and I can
> still hear the sound of his voice, his accent, when he came up out of the
> noise and to my amazement answered me on my second call, with real
> excitement in his voice. Pure radio magic!
>
> So I am sitting here, feeling depressed and wondering if overnight I have
> become a dinosaur and this is the beginning of the end of topband radio as
> I’ve always enjoyed it.
>
> Now, over to you other topbanders, especially those who have dabbled with
> FT-8 and live in more populous areas. Has the world really turned upside
> down and what do you think the future holds?
>
> Vy 73
>
> Steve, VK6VZ/G3ZZD
>
>
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