There has been much flap the past year about FT8 so being trendy and all for a way old dude I thought I would share my thoughts not that they matter much but here goes.
Lets back up a year, summer 2017 and Es season is in full swing. I have been a 6 meter junkie for many years and after a break in radio activity some years ago I have not missed an E season for ten years. Last summer I operated my very traditional SSB and CW 6m season and from my stealth antenna HOA location managed 300+ 50mhz contacts. But something was amiss, hummm !!
I noticed by the CQ WW VHF contest that the bands however open were somewhat silent in the phone and CW bands.... What is this thing going on at 50.313 ? I worked a fellow in 6 land that I have worked many times on 6m he said " Jim where is everyone ?" Well that about summed it up band open to Ca. and no one to talk to. I tuned to the FT8 freq. and it was a-buzz with activity.
The righting was on the wall , come along or perish … well sort of. My mission then was to figure this out, being a CW SSB RTTY guy and finding no use for PSK I figured this may be a stretch but a must do if I expected to fill my 6m log in 2018. So off I went downloading WSJT-X already Had a SignaLink for RTTY... Yikes New stuff to learn !!
Well it was mostly painless but of course that fear of clicking the mouse for the first time, well I was off and running as it was winter when I started this I spent time on HF figuring this out spent time on 17m 20m 40m and 160m …… and ya know what, I liked it : ) I worked DX , I worked WAS and just got comfortable with it, my wife called it Ham Crack as I couldn't get off of it !!!
And then..... on Dec.31 and Jan.1 the magic band decided to bless us here in the PNW with a great opening, so my first 6m Qs using FT8 and what fun it was I think I logged around 50 Qs and was delighted. So far this summer I have logged almost 500 Qs on 6m FT8 may not be a big number for some of you but a very big number for HOA guy, and I worked many JA and South America stations and three Europe stations which made my day.
So my point...I love CW and SSB contesting even though I am the littlest of little pistols, I have never been a rag chewer never ! So contesting and FT8 suit me very well. I found FT8
contesting a bit cumbersome as some ops are in contest mode and some in normal mode and it is frustrating, but it is where the action is so we all try to be fluid and adapt.
FT8 is not the end of CW or SSB or RTTY it is another tool in our Ham Radio tool box that we will pull out and use as needed, so don't fear old dudes I will see you on CW and SSB and yes RTTY, so relax enjoy the hobby do the best with what you have and learn new stuff.....
Best 73 Jim, K7JAN
