Topband: FT8 on 160 - how you can make a difference

[Marco Cogoni]

Hi all,
FT8 has the advantage of being located in a single frequency.
So if one arrives on a totally empty band he'll be attracted to
that single "watering hole" just like insects around a lonely
light at night.
It happens frequently to find a desert 10m band except for some
weak beacons and the FT8 segment is S7-8: I can recognize the Costas
arrays by hear ;)
FT8 has some theoretical SNR advantage over CW and other
digimodes, but its strength comes from the single gathering point
and its extremely low access effort.
Personally I deem operating FT8 just a tad more rewarding than
keeping a beacon active or having a KiwiSDR doing WSPR...

What I hate about FT8 is its "closeness" regardless of WSJTX being
open source: if your code is obfuscated, too complex to understand
and you don't even publish a scientific paper to describe the details,
I think the ham community should revolt against this status quo.
Imagine using SSB/CW receivers without knowing the technical details
and produced by a single guy in the whole world... that's crazy.
Even GSM/UMTS/LTE is more documented.

Personally I don't want to be an appliance operator.

73,
marco / IS0KYB

Il giorno dom 4 ago 2019 alle ore 15:36 George Taft via Topband <
topband at contesting.com> ha scritto:

>  Mark etal
>
> Using CW, I've worked DXCC on Topband for at least the past ten "seasons"
> including 2018/2019. But last year was the most skimpy with just 105 in the
> log. Peak was several years ago at 155. I use July 1 - June 30 as a
> "season".
>
> Mebbe when the new mode fad settles, CW on 160 may agn be worthy.
>
> 73 George
> W8UVZ     On Sunday, August 4, 2019, 12:02:58 AM EDT, Mark K3MSB <
> mark.k3msb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Jerry
>
> You said " Yes DX last year on 160 CW was pretty scarce" and other have
> made a similar comment.
>
> Are you referring to new ones, or just DX in general?    I worked 16 new
> ones on CW last season and understand that "scarce" can be different
> depending upon how many DXCC one already has worked.
>
> 73 Mark K3MSB
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 3, 2019 at 8:51 PM K4SAV <RadioXX at charter.net> wrote:
>
> > NR2DX asked: "If read your post correctly you are saying that you are
> > working against an ambient noise level of 20-30 db over S9 is that
> > correct.? "
> >
> > No.  The S9+20 to 30 dB is the S meter reading when all the FT8 stations
> > are transmitting after the band opens a little.  Receiver bandwidth was
> > 1.5 kHz.  Tuning to a clear frequency my noise level was about S1 with
> > 200 Hz bandwidth when I made these tests.  I usually used 100 Hz
> > bandwidth when measuring the signal level of the FT8 signal for
> > determining his actual strength. Sometimes less if there were multiple
> > signals in the passband.
> >
> >
> > W0MU asked:  "Have you attempted to open a conversation with the
> > creators of the mode and discuss what you are seeing?"
> >
> > No I have not.  I have also not seen any published data from anyone
> > showing actual performance.  All I see are claims based on calculations.
> > Theory is good but it has to agree reasonably well with actual
> > measurements.  If not, one of the two is in error.
> >
> > Yes DX last year on 160 CW was pretty scarce.  Even when I was hearing
> > S6 FT8 signals from Europe I would tune down to the CW portion of the
> > band and usually there were no CW signals there.
> >
> > When I was doing these tests I was using WSJT-X in FT8 mode on 160
> > meters.  I was using version 2.0.0, which was the latest version at the
> > time.
> >
> > Jerry, K4SAV
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> >
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-- 
marco cogoni
CRS4
http://sibamanna DOT duckdns DOT org