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

[Dave AA6YQ]

>>>AA6YQ comments below

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Peter Sundberg
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 1:50 PM
To: JAYB1943 at OPTONLINE.NET; topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: FT8 - the end of 160m old school DXing?

Jay, please don't compare the new digi protocols with RTTY, a character based protocol.

What you see on the screen or paper in RTTY has actually been sent, and is received as it was sent. Or it is garbled because the
link is not good enough.

With some of the new popular digi protocols most of what is written on the screen, some call it "received", has never been received
as a complete message. It is reproduced from other sources than the radio path.

>>>If you are referring to callbook lookups as the "other sources", ops have been logging information from callbooks since the
beginning of amateur radio:

<http://w0is.com/oldcallsigns/oldcalls.html>

>>>What's the difference between you thumbing through a hardcopy callbook to find an operator's QTH, or having a computer look it up
for you in an online database?

As a well known 6m op said after summing up his Zero to DXCC journey this last summer - "without entering already known information
(calls) to the software I wouldn't have been even close to where I am now.."

>>>Yes, it takes much longer to lookup QSL routes in a hardcopy callbook and write them by hand on an envelope than it does to use a
logging application that does all that automatically. The benefit of this automation is that ops can spend more time on the radio
rather than doing paperwork.

>>>Yes, new technologies have made it "easier" to work DX. CW is more effective than spark, and FT8 is more effective than RTTY. A
analog-to-digital converter connected to an antenna and driving a digital signal processor is more effective than a superhet.  The
RX 4-square I use on 160m could not have been implemented without semiconductors, and probably not without integrated circuits.
Internet-based DX clusters are easier than one-ringers or 2m repeaters. But all DXers have access to these improvements, so the
playing field remains level.

>>>One of the justifications for assigning precious spectrum to the amateur radio service is to drive technical advancement. What
Joe K1JT et al have accomplished with FT8 is exactly what we as a community of amateur operators are expected to be doing. No one is
forcing you to use new technologies; there's no excuse for whining.

>>>And yes, I'll stay off you damn lawn.

           73,

                Dave, AA6YQ