I must say that I'm getting awfully tired of the bashing of a fine
operating mode that requires a lot more operator sophistication than
those who have never used it assume. I'm a pretty good CW op (starting
in 1955), but I also concentrate on station building, understanding
propagation, and the other aspects that contribute to a successful QSO.
Ragchewing bores me to tears.
There are good reasons for the degree of automation that WSJT-X provides
for modes with short turnaround times. But a successful QSO includes
knowing where to point the antenna, when to be working what distant QTH,
knowing when propagation can make it possible, picking an operating
frequency within the waterfall. My computer didn't make the QSO -- me,
my radio, and my antennas made the QSO!
I mostly use WSJT modes for QSOs I can't make another way -- mostly 6M
and 160M, mostly E-skip, meteor scatter, and some tropo. About two
months ago, I managed a QSO with 5A1AL in Libya running barefoot with a
compromise antenna; my neighbor W6GJB and I had been chasing him for
three years. Libya is TOUGH from the west coast of the US. I think we
worked him on 17M or 20M.
I chase grids on 6M (only), and have found both JT65 and FT8 a huge
help. There are thousands of SSB ops living in rare grids who never
learned CW, but they can run FT8 and give me a QSO with 20 dB better
noise immunity than SSB!
And there's another HUGE issue -- most of us are surrounded by homes,
each of which, including our own, are filled with noise sources that
cover all but the strongest signals. K1JT's modes have given hams with
these limitations a chance to do ham radio.
I'm a genuine old fart, first licensed in 1955. I try to learn something
new every day, and in the spirit of ham radio, try to share what I've
learned with others. I suggest that the bashers adopt these objectives.
73, Jim K9YC
On 6/14/2018 12:53 AM, Tom M0LTE wrote:
> There would be no challenge for you as an OPERATOR!
There’s no real challenge in double clicking callsigns.
> Robot FT8 is not Ham Radio
Arguably, from the operator’s perspective, experimentation in software
is more in the spirit of ham radio than double clicking callsigns.
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