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FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

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Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#71

Post by silman »

ianburrell wrote: post #66
silman wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you explain how QSX is different from the other SDRs being mentioned (ADALM-PLUTO, HackRF One, etc)? Is it just more transmit power than those other SDRs? I feel like i'm missing something.

It is a SDR-based HF transceiver instead of wide-band SDR. SDR is implementation detail and extra feature. Most SDRs are receive only, and the ones that can transmit, like ones you listed, are limited in power. The other difference is interface. The QSX, and other SDR-based transceivers, work like other regular transceivers. They have USB port for computer control and sound card output. Some newer radios provide I-Q…

So would you recommend the QSX as a good way for a beginner to get to explore all the different bands/modes? Do you think this is a good replacement to - say - a hackRF? Or is the hackRF better for specific use cases like debugging because it has wide bandwidth?

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#72

Post by Custardian »

zokier wrote: post #55

I feel like I'm missing some context here; why is FT8 controversial in the first place?

Global communication in amateur radio was previously only been possible using high power transmissions (which requires a full license).

FT8 makes global communication achievable for beginner amateur radio folk.

Some amateur radio practitioners think if you want global communications without learning radio theory, use your ISP or SIM provider.

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#73

Post by vvanders »

mmaunder wrote: post #28
silman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who went from nothing -> Amateur Extra when i was 23 (25 now) from a random spurt of inspiration to learn ham radio and then promptly did nothing with the license i agree with this. I don't know exactly what i was expecting from getting the license but i will say that i didn't expect it to basically just be dominated by old conservative men who don't appreciate younger folk stepping in on their air space.…

Guys, no one is forcing you to listen to that stuff. Get off the voice bands, get on digital and you'll have a blast. Here's a fun talk at Defcon from Balint Seeber, a ham who focuses on security, to get you in the right headspace. I attended this and the group of 6 of us that hung out afterwards with Balint was some of the most impressive people I've met at Defcon. One had built a bug sniffer. Another was intercepti…

I love the digital stuff, definitely an awesome space.

Another great group is Summits On The Air[1] which basically involves hauling a radio up to the highest peaks and seeing how many people you can contact from the top of the mountain.

It's something you can do with just a simple 5w VHF handheld(yay line-of-sight) and the group is really welcoming. Last weekend I was up at about 6k ft and making direct line of sight contacts over 100mi away on 5 watts.

[1] https://sota.org.uk/

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#75

Post by kw71 »

AWildC182 wrote: post #4

This has one unspoken bonus feature: Not having to talk to an octogenarian about politics. I know it sounds silly, but I suspect this is one of the huge features driving it's success. Amateur radio is plagued by bad actors and grumpy old men, along with the general age imbalance that makes it fairly unpleasant for young people and extremely unpleasant for anyone who sounds vaguely feminine...

> Not having to talk to an octogenarian about politics.

Nobody "has" to do this on phone. Of course there are people predisposed to this but you don't have to talk to them or you can change the subject. For instance I still enjoy discussing radio stations and usually it's interesting to hear about someone's elaborate construction and what they are doing with it while they are willing to hear how I am getting over the equator and atlantic with no amplifier and a shitty piece of wire.

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#76

Post by kw71 »

ip26 wrote: post #49
resters wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have yet to actually speak to anyone because i don't feel like there is anything i would want to say. That's true for many people. You don't need to use it to make a statement or to express your individuality, you can just participate in contests, enjoy propagation, etc.

Yes, but if you don't have anything to say and you don't want to hear the things other people are saying, then what are you doing? Thus the remark that the radio was shelved.

DX and contesting is still a sport and for these people many contacts end after QRZ and signal report

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#77

Post by jpmattia »

ianburrell wrote: post #68
MisterTea wrote: post #36

Interesting. But as a non-ham I find the article chock full of ham jargon which leaves me completely lost. > What happened to take an esoteric mode designed for multi-hop E skip on VHF and overnight turn it into a worldwide phenomenon across all bands from 2200m through 70cm? In other words, what makes FT8 a killer app? Indeed. What does make FT8 the killer app? Anyone care to break this down in layman's terms that a…

FT8 and other weak signal modes can work with more noise and less signal than conventional modes. Which makes possible to communicate with the current poor HF propagation, or with lower power devices and longer distances. It does this by using low bandwidth (50 Hz), low bit rate (6 bit/s), and error correction. The other special thing about FT8 is that it only does contacts, with binary messages for doing the exchang…

> FT8 and other weak signal modes can work with more noise and less signal than conventional modes

I'm a little surprised that FT8 is better S/N than conventional mode of morse code, but then I didn't think in terms of S/N back when I was active in the 70s/80s (btw: Straight key! I finally build a keyer after 5 years of straight key, and then went off to college and didn't have another QSO for many years. :(

Edit: Regard QSO, Do folks even use Q signals anymore?

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#78

Post by rmason »

silman wrote: post #24
AWildC182 wrote: post #4

This has one unspoken bonus feature: Not having to talk to an octogenarian about politics. I know it sounds silly, but I suspect this is one of the huge features driving it's success. Amateur radio is plagued by bad actors and grumpy old men, along with the general age imbalance that makes it fairly unpleasant for young people and extremely unpleasant for anyone who sounds vaguely feminine...

As someone who went from nothing -> Amateur Extra when i was 23 (25 now) from a random spurt of inspiration to learn ham radio and then promptly did nothing with the license i agree with this. I don't know exactly what i was expecting from getting the license but i will say that i didn't expect it to basically just be dominated by old conservative men who don't appreciate younger folk stepping in on their air space.…

In certain places like 80 meters it has always been this way. There was a rather famous individual on 80M AM that used to call CQ by saying no lids, no kids, no space cadets. A lot of young ham in the sixties like to really get in this old boys face. I wasn't one of them and found out he was a pretty intelligent fellow, he just didn't had a low tolerance for fools.

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#79

Post by zipster90 »

AWildC182 wrote: post #4

This has one unspoken bonus feature: Not having to talk to an octogenarian about politics. I know it sounds silly, but I suspect this is one of the huge features driving it's success. Amateur radio is plagued by bad actors and grumpy old men, along with the general age imbalance that makes it fairly unpleasant for young people and extremely unpleasant for anyone who sounds vaguely feminine...

I absolutely agree. The topics of discussion on HF are mostly conservative politics, joint replacement surgeries, and their wives' behavior.

Digital modes are a godsend.

Re: FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?

#80

Post by geofft »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #50
geofft wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an emergency situation I'll probably have my cell phone, too. What I'd love to have is an app (or packaged web app using WebAudio) that encodes/decodes PSK31 so I can plug in an audio cable from my iPhone to my Baofeng and start typing.

I agree. So, why not a JS8CALL app? As I understand it, the real go-to mode for EmComm is still CW. Which implies very experienced operators. At some point in the future, you'll have more operators experienced with digital modes than Morse code. So...

A CW app should also be doable....
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