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

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

I spent most of my career in the TV broadcast industry - starting when
studio cameras were 500# beasts and the recording methods of they day
were film and 2" videotape and ending when the industry had transitioned
to digital with hard drive/memory card storage and non-linear editing.

My wife's grandfather was an early TV experimenter and received some of
the early transatlantic *mechanical* TV (scanning disk) signals - I
even have letters he received from Baird and others of the time.

I would never think of "making TV" using my grandfather-in-law's
mechanical video equipment or even the old film/quadruplex video tape
just because it is "harder" than the modern tools.  Yes, it took more
skill but the results were inferior to modern technology.

It's the same with spark -> CW -> AM -> SSB -> RTTY -> JT65/JT9/FT8.
Still, there is nothing preventing any amateur from using any mode
except spark (perhaps AM should be treated the same as bandwidth wasting
spark) if that's his "thing".  I'll certainly keep up with DX on CW,
and SSB, and RTTY but I'm not going to miss out if the DX is there to
be worked on FT8 or JT65 or JT9 or any other new, more efficient mode.

I feel truly sorry for for those still driving a horse and buggy when
the world is whipping past in their electric powered automobiles.

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 4/1/2018 9:20 AM, Jeff Blaine wrote:
> There is good and bad with the FT8.
>