Sunday, August 20, 2017

The Rage About The New Mode FT8 by Joe Taylor

There has been a lot of talk and activity around the JT mode FT8 by Joe Taylor.  This mode improves throughput in the JT modes by 4X over the various permutations of JT65 (JT9, JT65-A).   The QSO;s go fast.  Transmit times are only 15 seconds where only 12 seconds or so are in key down - similarly for receive times.

Some tips however:

Remember to download the latest version of TQSL version 2.3.1

This is not enough:  update this latest version with the latest Configuration file version 11 which just got released by the ARRL on August 14.  This allows an ADIF file written by the logging program as FT8 to be recognized by LOTW.   ACLog does not have a Pull Down for FT8 and you must enter it manually in the field for mode.

Unfortunately,although there is a lot of activity, I still have a hard time getting any new DXCC entities since all my QSOs seem to be with entities I have digital QSOs before.   I guess patience until more of the rarer entities adopt it.

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