Topband: Straws in the wind, continued or, "Where's the DX?"

[Jeff Blaine]

There is good and bad with the FT8.

The good is that it is bringing guys into the HF DX realm who never got 
active in DX because for whatever reason they felt they did not have a 
good DX station.  The bad is that the focus on RTTY (my favorite mode) 
has become less especially for DXpeditions in favor of the idea of FT8.  
The logic behind these varies with the guy - but I think after the 
excitement and shine of FT8 wears off, the net will be still more total 
participants in HF.  That's got to be a good thing.

I don't feel bad for the dxpedition community especially wanting to 
promote FT8 over RTTY.  Working a RTTY pileup on the dxpedition end can 
result in pathetic rates and there has been no effort to promote a 
multi-slot skimmer type of software package that would make RTTY pileup 
into the high rate that is possible.  Along comes FT8 with the promise 
to do just that in an upcoming package so I view the dxpedition guys 
moving to FT8 as a logical choice over RTTY simply because it will end 
up having a higher rate than what most RTTY runs end up being.  I don't 
run FT8 at the moment but if a dxpedition is only running FT8 for the 
digital slot, I guess I will run it.  The genie is out of the bottle there.

It would certainly help if the ARRL especially had not homogenize the 
RTTY and all other digital modes into one for the purpose of the DXCC.  
Why not issue separate certificates for each popular mode and benefit 
from the fees that would bring to the ARRL?  That would also make a lot 
of guys who have worked their life's for the RTTY DXCC count not feel as 
if the accomplishment is being diluted by FT8 and the other 
ether-modes.  But the ARRL's decisions more and more defy logic so I 
suppose that's a topic for another day.

But for contesting and rag chewing and DX, I'm in the camp as the other 
traditionalists are - the op on the end talking into the mic, slapping 
the paddle or typing to try to keep up with the RTTY feed is what a real 
QSO is about.  FT8 does result in a technical QSO but I'm not sure where 
the sustained enjoyment in that mode is beyond making the contact.

73/jeff/ac0c
alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
www.ac0c.com

On 01-Apr-18 7:49 PM, Stan Stockton wrote:
> Some questions in my mind.
>
> How important is RF in the evolution of amateur radio? Would those who operate using FT8 be a lot less interested if it were just computers linking them with others without transmitted RF?  How about operator involvement or skill?
>
> How important is it that hams retain 4 MHz of spectrum on 6m or other bands if most everyone has abandoned CW and SSB?
>
> Is there some sense of achievement when there is so much headroom in power alone that another 3 dB or even another 20 dB is so easy to achieve?
>
> About 50% of my enjoyment of the hobby is thinking, many hours of every day, about how to somehow achieve another dB on some band or another with a better antenna.  After about 50 hours of modeling I am now drilling tubing to make what I hope will be a great pair of tribanders to take to ZF9CW location.  One person's total waste of time is another's passion.
>
> To each his own, but for the long term future of what has provided so many of us with a lifetime of enjoyment, woe is me.
>
> 73... Stan, K5GO
> _________________
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