>"Soon it may be computers working computers with minimal operator supervision."
Already happening with Windows macro commands. Anyone who works me in the sparse instances I'm on FT8 is making a fully-automated contact. When one FT8 contact is complete, macros start another. I may be in the next room, or I might be running an errand down the street while establishing required control from my iPhone to satisfy FCC control rules. If you're on the other side of my FT8 QSO, you don't know it. I can stroll back in the shack and see if any rare DX stations were just logged by automation. As stations are logged, I participate in...nothing. I'm a late observer to the contact. Or, I may just look at the log file as entries are also fully automated. So, did I just push the ethics envelope into a dark place by taking it a "teency" step further? WSJT-X is now *nearly* fully automatic. If semi-automatic FT8 operation is ethical, why not fully automatic? The only difference is mouse clicks. How much effort was put into looking at a screen and clicking a mouse? In a short period of time, I could teach my 5-year old granddaughter how to make FT8 contacts -- it's even easier than controlling her toy gaming devices. What's next for FT8? I envision a meshed global network of regional servers managing WSJT-X Tx frequencies as an intelligent frequency-hopping network. It takes the existing FT8 Fox/Hound mode to a new, automated level. The server controls the Tx frequency on both ends of the link as a means to efficiently manage QSOs to avoid QRM and of course other QSOs. Here's how: An op logs in to a regional FT8 server through a new WSJT-X connection menu (akin to Yaesu System Fusion Wires-X). The log-in is optional only to take advantage of intelligent frequency hopping. WSJT-X already deciphers all activity within our FT8 Rx passband. If it knows what's active within the passband, it also knows what parts of the passband are *not* active. If the other station is also logged in, the server looks for unused Rx areas on *both* ends of our WSJT-X software and analyses the passband while doing this for a predetermined number of Tx/Rx cycles. Let's say that after two or three 15-sec. cycles of inactivity on a particular frequency the server gives an "all clear" to hop to a new Tx frequency. It's waiting for an all clear to ensure there's no activity on either end before the hop occurs. We don't want to move to another FT8 frequency if it's already occupied on either end. The server is managing frequencies on both sides of the FT8 QSO. We can still monitor what the server is doing by looking at the Tx and Rx "goal posts" and override when necessary. What I'm describing is not new. Automated frequency hopping has been viable at least since WWII and used by DoD. What is new is the potential implementation into FT8 transmissions. The hooks are already there. It's just a matter of time before the two main developers do it -- or <gulp> if ethics get in the way, others will. Paul, W9AC _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector