First off, I much prefer SSB phone to FT8, but with the current band conditions, I find FT8 a great stop gap measure and certainly glad it's available, otherwise my rigs would be collecting dust and cat fur. FT8 will probably be a cyclic operational mode as band conditions improve, but it's big draw is to the new ham just getting into the black hole spending of the Amateur Radio hobby.
As for time sync, overall, I saw very few stations that were over 1.0s out of sync. A couple drifted wildly from 1.0s to 2.4s (or more), but that was all. 99% of the stations I copied were closer to 0.5s or less, so folks overall seem to be getting the message on time syncing. But some of the most frequent offenders I saw, were probably the actual in-the-field FD operations, as to be expected, but easily this is easily corrected. But as long as they could score a contact, that was all that mattered. However for those that don't have a good time sync, a bright red DT column, of numbers, should give them a clue that something just might be wrong on their side. JTAlert already does this, but many don't use it and it takes a few seconds to display as it's appropriately a lower priority item. And for FD ops, it's just another piece in the hodge-podge of programs needed to run to make sure everything is scored properly, and that most consider as unnecessary. One problem I did have frequently was with "Call 1st" UNCHECKED, I was still getting connected to one of the stations in the queue of calls responding to my normal CQ call. This happened more times than I could count and it should not have happened at all. It would typically happen right after a completed contact and on the next CQ call. Most of the time it was OK, but occasionally it was another "1D" station. I had to halt the transmission and clear the information before starting to call CQ again. Another situation I had was with other "xD" stations calling me. As a "1D" myself, it was slightly annoying for me. If course my CQ does not give anybody a clue as to my class, so they respond. Many don't even know the "D to D" points rule anyway. Fortunately, I usually had other stations calling at the same time that were not a "D" to choose from. One guy that I ignored time after time sent "QSO IS A QSO", which is true if you just want a QSO. He can call me ANYTIME I'm not involved in an event and I'll gladly work him. However, it would be really informative to everyone involved if the grid square was replaced with the ARRL Class such as "1E WPA" or in my case "1D AR" for FD operations. I know it's too long and has a space, but something might be done to communicate this sort of information during a CQ call. Maybe "1DAR", "1EPA" or "3ADX" would work out since the grid info is not shown the the Log QSO window anyway. Just a thought. WB5JJJ - George
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