Topband: FT8 Observations

[David Olean]

I have been playing around with FT8 on 160M and am a bit puzzled. I have 
made plenty of contacts, but with many stations, it seems to require an 
inordinate amount of power to get their attention, or they do not 
respond at all. I also have noted that I can hear in a 2.8 kHz passband, 
signals that register from -12 to -17 dB. About the weakest that I see 
is a bit more than -20 dB. Does this mean that FT8 is only a few dB 
better than CW?  I have my time set accurately and I try to place my TX 
signal away from whomever I am calling on a clear spot on my waterfall.

Some stations are easy to work, and I have worked across the country 
(FN43 to a CM grid) running just 1 watt. It just seems that there are 
many stations that are not hearing much, but are making plenty of 
noise.  Am I wrong?

I am working on cleaning up my 160 setup and have 8 beverages running 
and they are all pretty quiet now that I installed plenty of ferrite 
chokes around on the RG-6 feed lines.  I am looking forward to next fall 
and winter.

73

Dave K1WHS