Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

[Peter Sundberg]

For those who have not yet seen how the future of 160m band 
harvesting - not DX'ing -  will be done, check this video out

<http://ae5x.blogspot.se/2018/01/video-fully-automated-ft8-qsos.html>http://ae5x.blogspot.se/2018/01/video-fully-automated-ft8-qsos.html 


Apparently SV5DKL made 13.000 QSO's on the bands in a few months, 
totally without operator intervention. I bet many hams were happy to 
put SV5 as a new DXCC in their log, Isn't it wonderful that his 
computer was so helpful with that while the operator was busy with 
other things.

As for the legal aspects of unattended operation of a ham radio 
station - who will be able to tell if the operator is there or not as 
it is fully automatic anyway..

In the near future - if we embrace this way of operating -   for 
Wednesday activity nights on 160m we just let our computer do the 
work and check in the morning how many contacts that were made and 
how many that are already credited via LotW. Simple as that.

In contrast to this digital automation it was very interesting to 
read Jeff K1ZM's report from the Spratly expedition on how the 
experienced and highly skilled crew put in a BIG effort to make real 
radio contacts. Way to go!  And I am glad that they did not leave an 
FT8 robot station behind, neatly tucked away in a corner of the 
conference room.. :-)

I do not want to take part in this modern Internet driven computer 
game. If people would disconnect their FT8 computers from the report 
services on the net there would be a lot less amazing contacts in the 
noise as the "a priori" advantage is lost. Then it would be more 
apparent what the radio channel is actually providing for them.

I think that the statement from Ken K4ZW in his recent posting is 
very appropriate:

"For those who think guys like me are dinosaurs, I would kindly 
suggest you don't understand what motives us. 73 Ken K4ZW"

We can't change/stop this new lazy way of automatic band harvesting. 
Many will even make huge amounts of money on the new way of operating.

But we can still do it the old fashion way, as it pleases us to make 
radio contacts. Therefore I will continue to populate the 160m band 
with my CW signal until there are no more stations to work.


73
Peter SM2CEW