On 6/2/2025 8:41 PM, Tsutsumi Takehiko via wsjt-devel wrote:
Allow me to make comment on bandwidth topic as I was involved and actually decided FT8 bandwidth as "2kHz" (as I did not know such popularity for FT8) on 40m/80m, wondering the proper spectrum allocation methodology in 2017.
The major error that developers made way back when, and CONTINUE to make, is to chew up way too much spectrum by spacing watering holes with excessive spacing, and by failing to reuse/share watering holes by operating modes that have either gone obsolete or are rarely used. It's CRAZY for there to be 10 kHz between dial frequencies!
This is especially true on HF, where the bands can get VERY full on weekends with major contests, and users of digital modes often start calling CQ on top of contesters who are using what digital users believe is THEIR frequency.
This wastefulness was also a major contributor to the demise of CW on 6M with FT8. The chosen frequency was too far from the CW part of the band for users with spectrum display to be able to monitor both modes. A few years earlier, I was able to make QSOs into SA during a 6M TE opening with different stations using CW and JT65, BECAUSE the JT65 frequency was low enough I could watch both parts of the band.
I think the cause of what was really a massive failure on the part of developers is that they lived in their own world, failing to consult with other users of the spectrum. This was certainly true of those who developed the excellent Flex radios. A local contester who like me is a serious engineer had one early on, told me that his 6500 was the best radio he'd ever owned, but that the user interface was unusable, because the developers weren't active hams, and had no clue about on-the-air operating. That all changed when some great operators who saw the radio's potential were able to get the developers to work with them on that UI, and their radios have become very popular with contesters.
73, Jim K9YC _______________________________________________ wsjt-devel mailing list wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
