[VHFcontesting] FT8 contest mode incompatibly

[George Sintchak]

Hi Jay.
What version were you running, and/or is it a clone? I was using the v2.0.1 
in contest mode and also saw CQ's without the test and wked many without a 
problem or the funny numbers, actually never saw any funny numbers.
Sometimes the sequence got messed up either by the other station not in CM 
or me or needing repeats due to QRM or fading, etc.
Some other odd things I noticed when trying to work a strong station +5 or 
higher, and having a tough time, I guess due to QRM and possibly bad timing 
and/or other local strong stations transmitting while ur in decode sequence. 
Otherwise it worked OK for me running Win XP.
I use Dimension4 auto time correct every 20 min so I know my timing is good. 
Just strange things with heavy activity in a contest. YMMV.
73's George WA2VNV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay RM" <w9rm at calmesapartners.com>
To: <nmvhf at groups.io>; "vhfcontesting at contesting.com" 
<VHFcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2019 11:35 AM
Subject: [VHFcontesting] FT8 contest mode incompatibly


> Anyone seriously operating this weekends contest and using FT8 probably 
> had
> this happen.
>
> You're cruising .313 looking for those new mults or whatever, you see
> someone CQing WITHOUT the word TEST in the CQ message and you 
> instinctively
> know they're not in contest mode.  No worries, you think.  The WSJTX
> boffins have tuned the program to compensate for the difference in 
> exchange
> and you know autosequence will seamlessly pull you through.  You call and,
> sure enough, back comes the 'funny little number' exchange.  You reply 
> with
> a NA contest mode exchange (because you're contesting, right ?) and....
> back comes a repeat - no autosequence.  What ??  OK, maybe I got QRMed.
> Try again, and same thing.  You can't progress to the finish.
>
> What you do now is left to the individual.  What I did was terminate the Q
> and moved on.  You might have fiddled with the setup to switch out of
> contest mode.  Whatever... the Q was either made or not.
>
> What this did, other then temporarily piss me off and cause name calling
> that nobody heard but me and the shack spiders, was confused me.  HOW 
> could
> this happen....the boffins....they fixed this.  Was the other guy manually
> interfering with autosequence ?  Was the other guy that insistent on his
> funny number ?  I started ignoring those obviously not in contest mode.
>
> This morning, after reading a soapbox comment on 3830, it finally hit
> me.... (I'm pretty focused on operating during the 'test).  It's.....The
> Clones !!  Those knock-offs of WSJT - JTDX, MHSV !  THEY don't have 
> contest
> mode !   They can't autosequence past TX2.  So, what to do about this
> incompatibly ?  It's pretty obvious the clones aren't going to add CM if
> they haven't already and there are those contest haters that wouldn't use
> it anyway, but still insist on trying to WORK contesters.
>
> I'm thinking maybe the solution is to add some kind of 'quick button'
> behavior to WSJTX that drops the program out of contest mode for just one 
> Q
> and resets back into CM after the 73 (or something).  Does anyone have
> another idea ?  If a number of high level contesters presented such a
> request maybe the WSJT powers would respond.  Or, maybe you think it's a
> non-issue....or maybe a quick work around all ready exists that doesn't
> require a guy to drop in and change his setup and I'm just clueless ?
>
> -W9RM
>
>
>
> Keith Morehouse
> via MotoG
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