All posts by Fred Kemmerer

I enjoy station building, contesting and helping new folks to join and have fun with our hobby.
Digital, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

FT8 Mode on the 6m Band

Anita and I have been operating using the FT8 Mode on the 6m band using our remote operating gateway quite a bit this summer. The SDR-based remote operating gateway in our station allows us to operate…

Source: Operating FT8 Remote on the 6m Band

FT8 Mode on 6m
FT8 Mode on 6m

Our next Tech Night will be about the FT8 Mode. I’ve been using FT8 to work quite a few contacts on the 6m Band this summer using the remote operating gateway in our station. The link to the post above shows how we use the WSJT-X software and other tools to operate using the FT8 digital mode at our station. It also provides links to much of the software that we use to do FT8 and other weak signal digital modes.

Fred, AB1OC

Digital, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Significant Changes in Store for FT8 and MSK144 with WSJT-X 2.0

WSJT-X co-developer Joe Taylor, K1JT, has announced that major changes are coming to the FT8 and MSK144 digital protocols when WSJT-X 2.0 arrives in a few months. Taylor said version 2.0 should be ready for prime time by January.

“Much of the necessary programming is finished,” Taylor said in a post to the Packrats reflector. “Many of the new features have been tested on the air, and we find them to work well.”

Source: Significant Changes in Store for FT8 and MSK144 with WSJT-X Version 2.0

Some of the more interesting additions planned include:

  • Support for Field Day Exchanges
  • Support for the ARRL RTTY Roundup
  • Support for user-defined telemetry messages

Support for Telemetry messages (could be useful for a future long-range HF HAB radio system). See Joe’s whitepaper here for more details.

Looks like we’ll see a beta in October…

Fred, AB1OC

Digital, DX, Featured, General, Newsletter

A 6m Es Season to Remember

2018 has been a summer 6m E-Skip (Es) season to remember. The Es openings have been strong this year and they are continuing into the second half of July. We are enjoying almost daily openings to E…

Source: A 6m Es Season to Remember

If you are interested in trying the 6m Band, plan on attending our August Tech Night. We’ve changed our plans and will be talking about getting started with the FT8 mode and how it can be used on the 6m and HF bands. The preceding link is an excellent source of information on how to get started with FT8.

Fred, AB1OC

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