Tag: FT8

Working JA via long path grey-line propagation on 17m.

I’ve never been one for morning TV but quite often, before I go to work in the morning, I’ll switch the wireless on and work a few stations using FT8. This morning I tuned to 17m, pointed the aerial towards Europe and started calling CQ. It took a few shouts before an EA4 (thanks Antonio) […]

200 DXCC entities worked on 17m FT8

In 2017 I set myself a little mini challenge to work 100 DXCC entities on 17m FT8 and when I started, I described FT8 as a new mode. In 2017 it really was a new mode and I wonder who could have predicted back then how big it would become. I reached 100 entities in […]

That’s N5J in the log for DXCC #304

Anyone who chases DX can’t fail to have noticed that the Jarvis Island DXpedition is now on air and has been for less than 48 hours. I did have a listen yesterday but didn’t hear them anywhere. I set up HamAlert notifications specifically for N5J with the source set as G, GM and GW in […]

Amateur radio picture of the week

FT8 key down

Over the weekend I was operating in the World Wide Digi DX contest and I wondered if I could get a screen capture of my TS-890 just as I started transmission. I reached over and as the radio went into transmit, I hit the screen capture button and this is the result. As you can […]

Entering the Batavia FT8 contest

Map of stations worked during the Batavia FT8 contest 2021

Oh this is going to bring the haters to the fore! Not only is it an 48 hour contest but it’s a 48 hour contest using FT8. Mind you, as it’s FT8, it only takes up a few kHz of the spectrum in an area that’s not used for SSB or CW so it shouldn’t […]

150 DXCC entities worked on 17m FT8

Map of stations worked on 17m using FT8

Wow! That’s taken a while. Back in August 2017 I set myself a challenge to work DXCC on 17m using just FT8. At the time, I described it as ‘the new FT8 mode’ and it really was in its infancy back then. I completed that challenge in March 2018 and then quietly set myself another […]

Accurate time keeping on an Apple Mac running macOS Big Sur for FT8, FT4 and WSPR

ChronyControl

2023 update – This still works with macOS Sonoma and Apple Silicon. I’ve been using Apple computers for many years now and even though I’ve made a couple of previous blog posts about keeping the clock accurate on a Mac, those methods have never really been needed and I posted them as a sort of […]

An unexpected new DXCC

This weekend was the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest and for the first time, FT8 was allowed. I spent a couple of hours operating just to give away a few points and get some experience using the new version of WSJT-X in contest mode. I’d been working mainly European stations and all of a sudden, I […]

If you use WSJT-X for FT8/WSPR/JTx etc, you should upgrade to V2.0.0 as soon as possible

WSJT-X version 2.0.0 has been released and everyone who uses this software for any data modes should update as soon as possible.  This new version is NOT compatible with previous versions so everyone is encouraged to upgrade to 2.0.0 as soon as possible. New features in WSJT-X 2.0.0 Compound and nonstandard callsigns are automatically recognized […]

Accurate time keeping on an Apple Mac running macOS Mojave

When running data modes such as the very popular FT8, it’s important to keep your computer clock accurate because if it’s more than a couple of seconds out then you won’t be able to decode anyone, they won’t be able to decode you and you won’t make any QSOs.  There are a number of utilities […]