[VHFcontesting] FT8, digital, and VHF contesting....

Zack Widup w9sz.zack at gmail.com
Thu Jan 21 08:48:33 EST 2021


Here is a question I have had, lacking experience in this, How does AU
affect digital QSO's? I have worked LOTS of AU with CW. It has spread CW
signals out over as much as a kHz and made SSB unintelligible. It just
seems to me that, under those conditions, a digital mode wouldn't work over
AU.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 10:03 PM Marshall-K5QE <k5qe at k5qe.com> wrote:

> Hello all....I have read all the comments carefully.  Some I like and
> some I hate.  I think that is pretty normal for all of us.
>
> However, I want to make a point that has only been touched on by one
> other poster.  There is a BIG difference between FT8(for tropo
> contacts), MSK144(for meteor scatter), and JT65(for EME). Yes, they all
> are "digital".  And as Jay pointed out, "Rate is King".
>
> MSK144 is normally used when the band is dead to any other method of
> making a QSO.  MSK is usually a very slow mode, quite often taking 15-20
> min to make a contact.  I cannot imagine someone using meteor scatter if
> the band were open to any other mode, just because the rate is so slow.
> Meteor scatter can and often does provide several "rare" grids that are
> usually way out there and not possible via FT8.  Meteor scatter is
> normally run in the dead of night when even FT8 is a "no go".  The
> bottom line is that you can pick up some multipliers late at night, but
> you will never set the contesting world on fire with MSK144.
>
> JT65 is used for EME.  EME is also a very slow mode.  IF everything is
> perfect, it takes 4 minutes to make a contact. Hence, it is
> theoretically possible to make 15 contacts in an hour.  In practice, you
> will not even get close to that.  So, the bottom line here is that the
> rate for EME is really poor, even though you can pick up a few grids
> that you could never get any other way.
>
> Now let's turn our attention to FT8.  Compared to Es, FT8 is a rate
> killer, big time.  Any decent contester knows that on Es, you can make a
> QSO every 10 seconds or so.  Hence, you can make 6 contacts in a
> minute--hour after hour assuming that you have the stations on the other
> end to work.  Theoretically, FT8 requires 1 minute to make a contact.
> In practice, if you get half that as an average, you are really doing well.
>
> So why has FT8 swept everything else away?  This is the BIG question
> that needs considering.  My Take:  VHF Rookies have discovered that they
> can make "DX" contacts on 6M via FT8. Rookies don't care about rate or
> serious contesting, they just want to work DX easily.  They get a few
> new grids and maybe a new state or two and they are ecstatic!  They are
> not interested in building up a big station with big antennas and big
> power. They get to work a few "difficult" contacts easily and cheaply.
> This point of view is probably correct for them as long as they remain
> casual operators.  Since everyone needs to work the casual operators, we
> are stuck operating the way that they operate, just to get them in the
> logs.  All this is a shame, because in the "good old days", the casual
> operators would get down on the low end of 6M and when the band opened,
> everyone worked everyone(just not on the same frequency).  Rate was high
> and the little pistols were able to work the big guns as well as the
> other little pistols.  Now, you cannot pry their cold dead fingers off
> the FT8 button.
>
> Well reasoned comments welcome.  Flames go directly to the bit bucket,
> will not pass GO, and will not collect $200.
>
> I hope that everyone had a good contest this time.  For us it was a hard
> slog through the mud.  But, January is always a hard slog.
>
> 73 to all...Marshall K5QE
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> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
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>

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