I was on 6 meters last night for the first time this season. The band
was open really good from here in Georgia to the east coast of the US.
Unfortunately there wasn't much activity on either CW or SSB. I made
about 20 QSO's but in the pre-FT8 days I would have had a pileup and
made over a hundred. Tuned up to 50313 and heard a bunch of the tones
that identify a FT8 signal. I guess FT8 is now the new mode of choice on
6 meters. I always thought it was just a mode to go to when signals were
below the noise level when the band appeared to be dead.
I suppose I will have to hookup FT8 again to make many QSO's in the June
VHF Contest this weekend. Or do I need to upgrade to FT4 to make
QSO's? I experienced the same thing as W5TD in last year's June VHF
contest. Lots of signals on FT8 but only worked maybe half the people I
called. I'm running 500 watts and a 5 element yagi so I would've thought
I might have had a better result. FT8 has been advertised as a mode to
go to when you don't have a big station but I really haven't found that
to be the case. You still need to have a decent antenna and running more
than 100 watts definitely helps. Personally I wish the ARRL and CQ
wouldn't allow FT8 in it's VHF contests.
Hopefully people will operate some CW and SSB in the contest this weekend.
Jeff
On 6/5/2019 11:50 AM, John Geiger wrote:
We already had this problem in the 2018 JUNE VHF contest. Awesome 6 meter
openings for most of the contest, but everyone sat on 50.313 using FT8.
The QRM was so bad that making contacts was slow going. Think I finished
with 40 grids or something like that. Given the size and length of the
openings, I could have easily worked 100 grids on SSB and CW.
And people complain about making QSOs on the calling frequency.
73 John W5TD
On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 7:56 AM Peter Sundberg <sm2cew@telia.com> wrote:
Please enlighten me, how is single channel contesting going to work
if participation really grows and the big gun stations around the
world with multi yagis and kW's decide to enter FT4 contest? Will the
small pistols still be sailing the airwaves and make contacts or will
they be drowned in QRM?
73
Peter SM2CEW
At 20:24 2019-06-04, DXer wrote:
Hi Jeff,
"Why are people talking about some digital mode on a reflector
that's supposed to be for contesting?"
FT4 *is* a contesting mode. It's 'open' to normal use during beta
testing, but once finalized, it's only going to work in contests. At
least that was the original 'plan', it may change of course.
73 de Vince, VA3VF
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