larry banks, w1dyj for web.pdf · 2019. 9. 12. · 33 blueberry hill road woburn ma [fn42kl] ft8...

W1DYJ / Larry Banks www.qsl.net/w1dyj 7B-DXCC WAS VUCC WPX

Larry Banks, W1DYJ

First licensed: 1962 (KN1VFX)

W1DYJ since 1966 – Amateur Extra

10 Matthews Way Harpswell ME [FN43xs]

33 Blueberry Hill Road Woburn MA [FN42kl]

FT8


Larry Banks, W1DYJ





FT8 Not a Prefix:

FT/E,J Juan de Nova & Europa Is

FT/G Glorioso Is

FT/T Tromelin Is*

FT5W Crozet Is

FT5X Kerguelen Is

FT5Z Amsterdam & St. Paul Is*

FT8: Not a Prefix, a Powerful new Mode

September 2019


Larry Banks, W1DYJ





FT8 Not a Prefix:

FT/E,J Juan de Nova & Europa Is

FT/G Glorioso Is

FT/T Tromelin Is

FT5W Crozet Is

FT5X Kerguelen Is

FT5Z Amsterdam & St. Paul Is

A Powerful

New Mode


September 2019


Larry Banks, W1DYJ





Agenda • Intro to WSJT-X / FT8

• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites

• W1DYJ experience

• Demo

FT8


September 2019


FT8 Agenda

• Intro to WSJT-X / FT8

• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Demo

• Reporting Sites

• W1DYJ experience FT8: Not a Prefix, a Powerful new Mode

September 2019


FT8 is Controversial! (Disruptive Technology) FCC Part 97:

Advance the communication and technical skills of radio

FT8 RTTY, PSK, etc.

is like

CW Spark

or

SSB AM

There are now FT8 contests – and it is “replacing” RTTY/CW/SSB Qs

AND --- FT4 is now design specifically for contesting.


September 2019


WSJT ~ Weak Signal Joe Taylor

Joe Taylor, K1JT, is a retired Princeton professor and a

Nobel Prize in Physics : (discovered a new type of pulsar)

The original version was introduced ~ 2001

WSJT is a computer program for amateur VHF/UHF communication using state-of-the-art

digital techniques. It can help you to make contacts using fraction-of-a-second signals

reflected from meteor trails, as well as steady signals more than 10 dB below the threshold

of audibility. Distinct protocols or “modes” are provided for different types of propagation:

JTMS For meteor scatter.

FSK441 For meteor scatter.

FSK315 For meteor scatter.

ISCAT Optimized for meteor and ionospheric scatter on 6 meters.

JT6M Optimized for meteor and ionospheric scatter on 6 meters. [2002]

JT65 For Earth-Moon-Earth (EME, “moonbounce”) and weak troposcatter. [2003]

JT4 Designed for EME on microwave bands.

CW For EME using timed, computer-generated transmissions.

Echo For testing echoes of your own signal from the Moon.


September 2019


WSJT–X “experimental” Aug 2017 2.0.0

Adds

JT9 Optimized for the LF, MF, and HF bands

QRA64 EME

MSK144 Meteor Scatter on the VHF bands

WSPR Weak Signal Propagation Reporter: probing potential propagation paths

FT8


September 2019

Targeted multi-hop sporadic E propagation on 6m and

possibly higher VHF bands…shorter T/R period than JT65 or JT9 due to the sometimes very short openings.

The popularity of FT8 on HF is largely a happy accident in that it fulfilled a latent frustration of many potential users of WSJT-X with the slow rate of QSOs using 1 minute T/R periods.

Email, 1/10/19, Bill Somerville, G4WJS


Named for:

Steven Franke: K9AN & Joe Taylor: K1JT

8 -frequency shift keying format

15 Second T/R timing

Tone spacing: 6.25 Hz

50 Hz bandwidth

77 bit word + 14 bit CRC

2^77 = 151,115,727,451,828,646,838,272

(about 1.5 x 10^23) possible messages.

What is FT8? Technically


September 2019


Targeted multi-hop sporadic E propagation on 6m and possibly higher VHF bands…shorter T/R period than JT65 or JT9 due to the sometimes very short openings.

WSJT–X July 2019 v2.1.0

Adds

JT9 [optimized for the LF, MF, and HF bands]

QRA64 [EME]

MSK144 [Meteor Scatter on the VHF bands]

WSPR Weak Signal Propagation reporter: probing potential propagation paths

FT8

FT4 WSJT-X 2.1.0 July 2019

Aimed at CONTESTING: twice as fast, half the sensitivity

[Also: better FT8 transmitted signal characteristics]


September 2019


What is FT8? Operationally

• Designed for WEAK SIGNAL Qs

• Absolute minimum QSO info

• Very structured syntax

• Maximum of 13 free form characters (TX5)

• Both ends must use the same syntax


September 2019


What is FT8? Operationally • Designed for WEAK SIGNAL Qs

• Absolute minimum QSO info

• Maximum of 13 free form characters (TX5)

• Very structured syntax

•Both ends use same syntax

CQ W1DYJ FN42 TX6

W1DYJ W1XXX FN43 TX1

W1XXX W1DYJ -MM TX2

W1DYJ W1XXX R-NN TX3

W1XXX W1DYJ RRR TX4

W1DYJ W1XXX 73 TX5 can be customized


September 2019


FT8 Sensitivity

Typical S/N (BW = 2500 Hz.):

SSB +10 dB

CW +/- 0 - 10 dB

- 15 (best radio/ears)

FT8 - 21 dB

WSPR - 31 dB

More sensitive than CW!

From Joe Taylor, K1JT


September 2019


FT8 Growth


September 2019


Why FT8? [for W1DYJ]

•Gave up on PSK years ago

• Tried JT65 – slow!

• It’s More Sensitive than CW • Important for someone (like me) with MEAGER CW skills


September 2019


Why FT8? [for W1DYJ]

•Gave up on PSK years ago

• Tried JT65 – slow!

• It’s More Sensitive than CW • Important for someone (like me) with MEAGER CW skills

•Makes running barefoot with homebrew antennas viable for DX!


September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo


September 2019


Essentially the same as PSK31 or AFSK RTTY

Rig Setup Transmitting

NO processing, ALC ~0, FLAT equalization

Receiving

NO noise reduction, FLAT response, full SSB BW

Let the WSJT-X software do it’s thing

FT8 HW Setup


September 2019


Harpswell ME

USB

Rig Control

USB

Audio Control

6 year old TS-590S

HW Setup ~ Essentially the same as PSK31 or AFSK RTTY


September 2019

Rig with USB



Woburn, MA

Keyspan

USB >> Serial

USB

RS232

Rig Control

RTSystems

USB >> Serial

USB

RIGBlaster

NoMic

RS232

Audio Control

Audio

19 year old TS-2000


September 2019

Rig without USB


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup [Windows, Linux, OS X]

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo

Email group: wsjt-devel


September 2019


FT8 SW Setup

Read the Fine Manual RTFM!

You WILL NOT operate FT8 effectively if you don’t.

I’m only covering a small portion of the application.


September 2019


FT8 SW Setup

Read the Fine Manual RTFM!

You WILL NOT operate FT8 effectively if you don’t.

I’m only covering a small portion of the application.

Windows Clock Meinberg NTP [or GPS Dongle if no Internet]

Check your computer with: “time.is”


September 2019


FT8

GUI


September 2019


FT8

GUI

Your

Frequencies

Xmit

Rcv

Waterfall

Control Panel


September 2019


FT8

GUI

All Signals in

Waterfall

UTC dB DT Freq Message

Control Panel

Clicking on call

starts xmit

Predefined

Messages

TX5


September 2019

What you are

listening to


FT8 Setup Screens ~ General

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Radio

Cat

Control

Results in a cleaner transmitted signal by keeping the Tx audio always in the range 1500 to 2000 Hz so that audio harmonics cannot pass through the Tx sideband filter.

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Audio

Configure

audio device

for 48000 Hz,

16 bits

“F2”


September 2019

Audio I/O

Don’t let extraneous audio

into your FT8 audio chain!


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Tx5 Macros

For “TX5”

13 characters

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Reporting

Check

for

JTAlert

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Freq’s

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Colors

“F2”


September 2019


FT8 Setup Screens ~ Advanced

“F2”


September 2019


FT8

GUI

RTFM


September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert Provides Audio & Visual Alerts.

My personal preference for integrating WSJT

& ACLog (my logger)

• Reporting Sites


• Demo FT8: Not a Prefix, a Powerful new Mode

September 2019


My 23” Monitor


September 2019


My 23” Monitor

JTAlert


September 2019


JTAlert Laurie Cowcher, VK3AMA https://hamapps.com/jtalert

WSJT - X Logger

New DXCC LoTW “flag”

New State CQ Border

Clicking on a call Sets up WSJT-X


September 2019


Some JTAlert Details

Also has Voice Annunciations: DX New State Calling You

Compatible with

• XLab DXKeeper

• ACLog

• Log4OM

• HRD Log V5

• Standard ADIF 2.2 file

Filters

Cell Alerts


September 2019




September 2019



Right Click on Call Hover Hover

Current

Station

Transmission

Details


September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo

• JTAlert

• DXMaps

• PSK Reporter

These slides show just a

small part of these sites.


September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ JTAlert ~ Default

https://hamspots.net/ft8/


September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ JTAlert ~ My Spots



September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ JTAlert ~ Searches



September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo

• JTAlert

• DXMaps

• PSK Reporter




September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ DXMaps ~ Map mode

http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php

Map


September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ DXMaps ~ List mode


List


September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ DXMaps ~ Graph mode


Graph


September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ DXMaps ~ options


Highlight

a call

Options

DXMaps sends me email alerts for 6M openings


September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo

• JTAlert

• DXMaps

• PSK Reporter




September 2019


Reporting Sites ~ PSKReporter https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

When first

fired up.

Shows

all bands,

all signals,

all calls,

all modes.

Over a

certain

time


September 2019



Changed

to:

All

stations

who heard

W1DYJ

over

1 hour


September 2019



Changed

to:

All

stations

received

by W1DYJ

over

1 hour

Click on a

station


September 2019



14 Feb ‘19

Heard by

V84SAA

Brunei

30M

Click on a

station


September 2019


FT8 Agenda


• HW Setup

• SW Setup

• JTAlert

• Reporting Sites


• Demo


September 2019


0

50

100

150

200

250

Dec-15 Dec-16 Dec-17 Now

DXCC Total*

Phone*

Digital*

CW*

160 - 73

80*

40*

30*

20*

17*

15*

12 - 42

10*

6 - 39

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400


DX Challenge

Total Phone

Digital CW

0

10

20

30

40

50


WAS Massachusetts Phone*

Digital*

CW*

160 - 37

80 - 49

40*

30 - 49

20*

17 - 48

15 - 48

12 - 26

10*

6 - 46 0

10

20

30

40

50


WAS Maine Phone*

Digital*

CW - 47

160 - 47

80*

40*

30*

20*

17*

15 - 48

12 - 22

10 - 29

6 - 34

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350


6M VUCC

Total


September 2019

Need - 5BWAS: 80 - AK / 15 – DE, VT need - 5BWAS: 15 – RI, VT / 10: 21 states


Some Final Thoughts

• Be sure your computer clock is accurate

• WINDOWS clock is not!

• Be aware of different FT8 modes:

• Contests, Fox/Hound, etc.

•SPLIT is good for DX

• Don’t allow extraneous audio in audio chain

• How much power???

• “Keep received reports to ~ -05 dB” (Joe T.)

• Other SW: FT8+, FT8CALL, ??? FT8: Not a Prefix, a Powerful new Mode

September 2019


Thank you!

www.qsl.net/w1dyj


September 2019


Appendix


September 2019


FT8 Growth

Mode statistics based on data from Club Log – from LA8AJA


September 2019


Woburn MA Station 19 year old TS-2000

Hi HF Stack 20M HB Moxon Rect

15M HB dipole (17 & 12)

10M HB 5el yagi

VHF Stack

2M - K1FO 12el yagi

70cm – M2 440-18

6M – 7el HB yagi

Lo HF – Fan dipole

160 / 80-loading coil-40 / 30

2/440 FM stick


Harpswell ME Station

6 year old TS-590S

40M ¼ wave vertical

w/4 elevated radials

Also used on 15M

6M

3el InnovAntenna LFA

Lo HF – Fan dipole

160-loading coil-80 / 30 / 20 / 10


Woburn, MA Harpswell ME

TS-2000 TS-590S

Keyspan

USB >> Serial

USB

RS232

CW

Rig Control

USB

Rig Control

USB K1EL

WinKeyer

RTSystems

USB >> Serial

USB

RIGBlaster

NoMic

RS232

Audio Control

Audio

CW

USB K1EL

WinKeyer

USB

Audio Control



Random stuff

In the v2.0 FT8 and MSK144 protocols there are 2^77 = 151,115,727,451,828,646,838,272 (about 1.5 x 10^23) possible messages. If AP is not enabled, the decoder's job of finding the correct message is equally difficult for every one of these integers. The inner-most layer of the decoder knows nothing about what type of user-meaningful message may emerge f rom the process. At this stage, "F6ABC ON4KHG 73", "73 XYZ TU", and "ABCDEFGHIJK" are all nothing more than different integer numbers between 0 and 151,115,727,451,828,646,838,271.

Hash codes are a one-way function, a.k.a. lossy compression. Many callsigns can have the same hash code, the point is to represent a callsign using less bits that necessary to exactly represent the callsign, which is necessary if the callsign is non-standard, or the other callsign is non-standard. A standard callsign requires 28 bits to store, a non-standard callsign in WSJT-X v2.0.0 FT8 and MSK144 modes can take up to 58 bits to store.


Abstract

FT8: Not a Prefix, a Powerful New Mode

.

FT8 showed up on the ham horizon in August 2017, and has since become the “hot new mode.” Larry will discuss it’s history and how to set up your station. He will also introduce a supporting application called JTAlert and highlight some reporting web sites. He will end with his personal experience using FT8 to chase DX with low power and homebrew antennas. Larry was licensed in 1962 as novice KN1VFX and became W1DYJ in 1966. He was an engineer and manager developing cardiac instrumentation for HP Medical in Waltham and Andover from 1969 to 1985. He was then the Section Manager responsible for establishing the Cardiac R&D lab’s CAD environment, the SW Testing and Quality group, and ongoing Technical Education. Moving to HP Education in 1993 to be responsible for technical and project management training, he became Agilent Technology’s global program manager for their Learning Management System when Agilent split out of HP in 1999. He “retired” in 2005 and then consulted for Avago Technologies (now Broadcom) on eLearning technologies through 2012. Larry holds three degrees in EE from MIT. He spends his time chasing DX and contesting both in Woburn and at his second home in Maine, traveling with his wife Maren, and attending as many jazz and classical concerts as they can. He is also the net manager and newsletter editor for the MMRA, publications editor for FEMARA, a member of the YCCC, and on the executive board for the Merrymeeting ARA in mid-coast (Brunswick) ME.


Top Ten Reasons to Use FT8 for Island Time DX:

• You can listen to your “island time” playlist while working DX.

• You don’t annoy your fellow vacationers by screaming into the microphone.

• You don’t have to worry about remembering proper phonetics.

• You can read the other station’s QRZ page while the computer completes

the contact.

• You have time to visit the restroom without missing any contacts.

• You can upload your log to LoTW while operating.

• You have time to mix up a rum punch while making QSOs.

• It doesn’t matter if you slur your speech a bit due to that extra rum punch.

• If the run rate is really slow, the pc screensaver will kick in to entertain you.

• You can actually make contacts when propagation sucks.

The Slacker DXPedition Method / Bob, K0NR


September 2019

larry banks, w1dyj for web.pdf · 2019. 9. 12. · 33 blueberry hill road woburn ma [fn42kl] ft8...

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