All,
I feel like I am fighting the same battle on alternate fronts here. It's
either "FT8 isn't real radio and shouldn't be allowed" or "No one needs to
run 1500 W to work DX". The common thread is that the originators of these
messages are almost exclusively hams on the East Coast (where I grew up and
operated for the first 13 years or so as a ham, so I have no inherent bias
against you guys, I promise).
You have to understand that propagation from the western half of the US is
NOTHING like it is where you live. On some bands, we haven't heard Europe in
a year or more. This includes 12, 10 and 6 Meters. On 160 M, it takes a kW+
to work Europe most nights, and FT8/JT65 are often the only modes that are
sensitive enough to pick them up. I have frequently reviewed my logs for
160, 80, 10 and 6 Meters, and more than half the contacts I've made in the
past three years (nadir of Solar Cycle 24) were with stations that were
weaker than -15 dB on digital modes. This is the commonly-accepted threshold
for being able to hear CW. So, without the weak-signal modes, I wouldn't
have made the contacts. It's great that you all are 2000 miles or less from
most of Europe, but remember that we are at least 5000 miles from the
continent. I'm not going to give up the chance to work new countries because
"it's not CW or SSB", and I suspect none of you would either.
For contests, a very similar situation exists. I am a semiserious contester
and prefer CW to all other modes. However, for multimode contests, I can't
hear, much less work many of the stations that you all work easily. While
FT8 is painfully slow compared to CW or SSB, at some point I can pick up
many more QSOs and some multipliers at the cost of a much lower rate with
FT8. Again, why shouldn't I take advantage of the opportunity instead of
turning off the radio? This weekend's CQ WW VHF contest was a great example.
In 4 hours that I had to operate, I made 15 CW and 5 or so SSB QSOs, all in
TX and FL. I was able to make 40 FT8 QSOs within the same window, many of
which were new grids in the contest. Looking at my log, fully 75% of them
were below the -15 dB threshold for CW. I bet that most of you East Coasters
were able to make more QSOs in one hour than I did in 4 and probably had
twice as many multipliers.
I'd love to impose a rule that before anyone can bitch about FT8, they
should have to run a contest from the West Coast. If you can get within 25%
of your score in the same contest from a prior year at your home QTH, I'll
take out a full-page ad in the newpaper of your choice to trumpet your
opinion. You guys just don't know how much better it is there. There is a
reason why there are fewer than two dozen 6 M DXCC awards earned by West
Coast stations since the award started. Some of us have multiple towers, big
yagis or stacks and run full QRO. You can argue how we do so much better to
Japan, and that's true, but it's ONE country. We also occasionally can work
China, Taiwan, S Korea and VK/ZL, but that's about it and they are 6000+
miles away. Certainly not the number of entities that are within 2000 miles
of you guys.
So, the next time you want to complain about why anyone would want to use
FT8, consider that we're all not as fortunate as you. It's far worse for our
fellow hams in KH6 and KL7. It's a great weak-signal mode that has a place
in radio. I'll never give up CW (phone is another story), but I have no
intention of quitting FT8 either and neither do many of my friends on this
side of the country. All we're asking is that you show a little
consideration for others that are in less favorable QTHs.
73,
Eric NC6K
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