Mine does that too.

I guess the question is whether it's a feature or a bug.

It shouldn’t matter.  As long as the station you’re trying to hit can see your signal anywhere in its’ passband and successfully decode, it doesn’t matter which part of the passband you’re TXing on.

(Keep in mind not all receivers have 3600hz of bandwidth, so if you’re at the edges your target may not be decoding you, even if your signal is strong at their antenna)


In my experience it’s often better to select the “hold TX freq” option and manually select an open segment, free of other signals.  To sort of “hold your spot” so to speak.  Wait until the waterfall is populated enough to tell where the open slots are, click to select, and stay there.


Unless there have been recent changes I am unaware of.

This.

It's actually sort of bad form to reply to a station calling CQ on the exact same slice of the pass band they're calling on.  You can certainly do it, but for station that might have a lot of callers like a POTA activator, if everyone trying to call them did that and replied on their TX frequency, then they might not be able to decode any of the signals all coming in on top of each other.  It's kind of like when you're working a pileup on voice and you can't pull a call out of the cacophony of callers.

Some of y'all that are more experienced with FT8 should make a thread for questions. I've learned a lot reading some of these comments are what to do and what not to do. Not that it's bad being in here, but someone not interested in POTA may never come in here.

Yep

. . . .  and vise versa

I doubt I will ever do POTA FT8

I dabble a bit at home, but find it boring

I use it a lot at night when camping in parks. Don't want to bother folks with the radio or me talking. I can climb in my tent and run FT8 as long as I want.

I bet you sleep like a baby

It does make one's eyes cross after your start getting sleepy.

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Do you FT8 guys ever setup POTA off the standard FT8 freqs like 14.074 etc.  

seems like a ( spotted ) portable would be heard more on something like 14.063 or somthing ???

find a quiet spot, like CW and SSB guys do ???

I have some times, it's a risk/reward type thing.

If the normal FT8 bandwidth is packed, or it's something like a big POTA event weekend, then it can be nice to use a non-standard freq. to avoid the clutter and get the hunters.

But at the same time, you'll miss out on making those random non-POTA hunter contacts.

I also find that FT4 is still pretty underutilized, so that's a nice option as well if FT8 is too packed.

I just stay on the standard freq.

Okay that makes sense.  I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Shoot it had me up until 3am last night snapping up new states.  I got 21 new states just this weekend.

OK

I was thinking from a hunter perspective

I was looking for JA's last night, and never found them in the cluttered waterfall

I got a bunch of Japan, an Indonesia and Aus and NZ last night.  Even saw China.

Attached File

I must have a lower noise floor than a lot of other users because I sometimes decode incoming signals below -20 but rarely get a response if I reply to anything less than -16 or so.  

Also, at what point of not getting a response should you give up and halt tx?TX?

ETA also how do you spot an FT8 activator since they don't list their park number in the exchange?

but where they POTA ?

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When they call CQ in your face after you have been calling them for a while.  Then you KNOW you are pissing in the wind.

The more you guys talk about digital modes, the more I think I can't do it. I bought the interface, and have an arfcommer willing to help set it up, but I don't play well with computers. My brain doesn't work like it did 5 years ago, and simple stuff is now pretty complicated.

Heh, no.  That's got to be super rare.

Nah, just dive in.

The effort on the front end pays off once you have it set up and running.  You don't have to do ANYTHING to log contacts, just export the file.  It makes it so easy to make contacts.

So how do you spot someone running FT8 since their park number isn't in the exchange?

Look here and see if your signal is being received anywhere near there. https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html



 It's up to them to self-spot at the start.

Some will put CQ POTA. Some don't. Some of us do it sometimes and don't do it others. The number of us activators who use FT8 and other modes is pretty small. It easy to recognize their call signs.

Right, but the POTA website requires a park number to post a 3rd party spot.  I see the "CQ POTA" on FT8 but the mode just doesn't  support adding a park number. I suppose ft8 could be used in a non-standard fashion adding a couple more tx/rx cycles but the overall ham community would probably object.

Doesn't the log contain the park when they post it?

The activator has to self-spot and put their park number on the spot page.  Or schedule the activation on the spotter page and when the RBN hears them, they'll get an automatic active spot.

I've seen some people put their park number in place of the "73" TX cycle if you really wanted, but that might confuse non-POTA hunters who work you, and they might keep trying to do the last exchange cycle with you.

Use your HAMRS app and look at the Pota Spots or just use the POTA app on a PC and see the callsigns, and look for them. Also when they call CQ they will call CQ POTA so look for that.  If you are using JTalert you can go by that, the POTA will be in the upper right hand circle and will be purple in color.  Of course they won't call CQ  if they are being called continuously. so you just have to look for their callsigns in the decode list on the left hand pane.

It isn't as big of a deal to not spot on FT8 though. Someone will see and answer. Add CQ POTA and then the hunters will know it's a POTA station.  Also, it's a small pool of folks who activate in digital. It's usually pretty easy to see when they're on even if they aren't putting CQ POTA.

The reason I was asking is because there was a guy calling CQ POTA on FT8 that didn't show up in the spots on HAMRS or the POTA website.  I wanted to do him a favor and spot him but the site requires a park number.

Whoops, duplicate.

Nothing you can do about that. Just how it goes if they don't have a way to spot. Happens to me down at one of the beach parks all the time. If I'm on phone, I'll just get the first person who stops by to spot me. On FT8, I just don't worry about it. There is a way to spot with JS8Call, but I don't remember how it works.

Okay.  I'm glad I wasn't just missing something.   Might be someone trying digital out and not wanting a pileup too.

Sometimes adding the POTA on the CQ really confuses some folks. At least I think so anyway. POTA, while huge, isn't everywhere yet. I've called CQ POTA and didn't get many responses. Dropped the POTA part and responses increased. I was checking my signal on PSK too, wasn't any drastic band changes.

I almost always drop the POTA part late at night. Most US hunters have gone to bed by that point. It's then just DXers and that's when I noticed more of the possible confusion.

Talking to the guy who does the uploading for our club POTA account and apparently we are at 1,723 QSOs for this SYP and some guys haven't sent their logs in yet.

I have zero interest in digital modes.  Paint drying sounds more interesting to me.

Still, I wonder how long it will be before there is something like spam on FT8...?

CQ VIAGRA CQ VIAGRA de P3NIS  

I've been relying on the "CQ POTA" to identify stations I want to contact.

I have the program configured to highlight new grid squares and callsigns.

Since I'm new to this and havent memorized activator callsigns yet (I do recognize K7CAR) if an activator is operating from a different park in the same grid square, or is activating the same park on a different day, without the CQ POTA call, it will look like a station and grid square I have already worked so I am likely to pass on it unless I check the spots in HAMRS.

But I mostly use the spots for SSB contacts, relying on the activators to put POTA in their CQ calls.

When I'm using FT8 I have an eye out towards WAS and DXCC so I'm focused on the decodes more than checking spots on my phone.

It's definitely not an exact science when it comes to the digimodes and POTA. Just how it is unfortunately. But, I'd guess more than 90% of the time they've been spotted. So it's a non issue. Also more than that CQ POTA is out in the text line. The times when they are neither spotted nor have that text is probably pretty small.

I did finally get this on my Ipad.  It wouldn't open on my stupid desk top so I had to buy it, I was holding off entering a CC with apple to buy the Ipad app even though I could use it afield.

I loaded in my short activation (unsuccessful less than 10) to finally get those guys their QSO credit.  

I sent the ADIF from HAMRs to my email and on 3 different accounts, none have showed up yet.  It's been a month so, a little while longer isn't a big deal assuming it shows up so I can use the automatic uploader.  Which would be nice.


Edit, I got tired of Farting around waiting for an email and staying all on the Ipad I figured out how to use the Icloud and droped the adif  there and loaded it to POTA using the autoloader, hopefully that works.

Keeping it all on the Ipad may be the way to go afield anyhow, I do hate typing too much on the ipad versus a laptop.  Like texting, after a certain point I just call the person.

With your hearing loss it may be worth it to get with someone to help you set that up.

I am a luddite non technical,person.  I couldn’t figure out what in my desk top machine was blocking my HAMRS download.  I click on the download file and a screen would pop up and blink away immediately, never running the download.  I didn’t set up the radio station desk top, a ham club member did it for me.  I seem to always fall down with computers lately, out of date software, out of date operator, self defeating security, etc.  

I have resigned myself to eventually doing digital modes. I bought a small laptop to do just that, and to use portable. I have a local member here that is willing to set me up and show me how it works. I have the stuff to do it, I wanted to make sure the computer was going to function ok before I set it up.

It's a good tool in the tool box. Even if it isn't something you end up liking, it's worth learning how though. I don't love FT8, but it isn't altogether awful. Like I've mentioned I use the crap out of late at night at home and camping when I don't want to bother folks in the house messing with phone. My CW is rough, so I gotta be in the right mood to mess with that.

I guess it is a good way to see how good your antenna is, by number and location of contacts.

When you get set up and running, crank your power down as low as it will go and using the same WSJT-X software, switch to WSPR mode and you can really see how far a signal can go on minimum power.  

Back in 2017 when I was using JT65 because FT8 hadn't been invented yet, there was an alternative software (can't remember what it was called) that I liked better than WSJT, but now WSJT-X is really full featured and easy to use.  

There are a few features I'd add, like if you disable TX, it should give you the option to automatically clear the standard message boxes and move to the CQ box.  I've had more than one e instance of stopping TX after several tries with no reply, then calling the same person again when I intended to CQ.

Also have had a few accidental QSOs when some late decodes come through and move the earlier decodes up as I am already clicking the mouse.

Just now I had another QSO with a callsign I already worked who was calling Vermont specifically.  He responded so I went ahead and finished the sequence.  

If you set up the software's colors, you can have it show you which callsigns use LOTW, which are calls you've already worked, which calls are new AND which grid squares are new.  Most of these can be selected as "new on band" so if you haven't worked a call or grid on 20 yet but already logged them on 40, for example, the software will tell you.

It also can be set to show you new DXCC entities.

In a couple of weeks I have logged 17 DX entities and 38 states by focusing on working new grid squares and new DX.

Download the 2nd edition FT8 operating guide.  It's a quick read and explains it all really well and will prevent you from making newbie mistakes, and give you insight into why some people might not hear your calls (noise floor on their end, outside their passband, clock out of sync, theirs or yours, someone transmitting on top of you, etc.)

A very useful tip is that you can shorten the operations window and make room for the waterfall window beneath it so you can view both on a single screen, which you will need to do if using a laptop in the field.

All this is based on about 15-20 hours of using the software over the last couple of weeks, so by no means expert advice.  

I’m taking a water taxi to a remote beach where I’m going to camp for 2 nights this Saturday and Sunday. Gonna pop the cherry on K-1638. Unsure if I will be able to spot myself or not, but I’ll set up on a beach and hope for good propagation. Any spots will be appreciated.

https://pota.app/#/park/K-1638

Virgin Park, nice!

Let me know when your headed out there so I can keep an eye out.

I’m all loaded up and heading out in the morning. My likely window for being on the air tomorrow is 2200z-0200z

How do you guys handle FT8 "pileups" where you get 3 or more responses to a CQ?  Do you go one QSO at a time or do you try to respond to them each before completing the first QSO?

Out of 5 responses over 2 cycles I only got 2 completed QSOs before the rest of them lost interest.