Tips for the FT8 Digital Mode
FT8 has really taken the world by storm. It is also used by Dxpeditions as another digital mode. In order to make you FT8 experience enjoyable here are a few operating tips.
- There is no maximum / minimum power level. Some people say FT8 is a low power mode. I say use enough power so that you can make the contact.
- It is very important that your computers clock is accurate. Use a program like “Dimension 4” for this purpose. If you time is out by more than 1 second you will battle to decode signals or to be decoded yourself.
- Use the WSJT-X program. It can be downloaded from http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html . At the time of writing WSJT-X 1.80 rc3 was available.
- Once WSJT-X is opened, by pressing the F5 key a ‘special mouse command” menu appears.
It will definitely make you life easier if you practice the above mouse commands.
5. Get used to working split. In RC3 release there is an option to “ Hold Tx Frequency”. Make sure it is enabled. This makes you transmit on a fixed frequency whilst your RX can float to any frequency, within the FT8 range, to a station calling you.
6. Enable the “ Auto Seq” option. This puts the program into semi-automatic mode, i.o.w it does the various sequences automatically for you. The sequences can be overrided if necessary.
7. If you want to bypass one step, by clicking on the TX4 button you can change the message that gets sent. The default message sent is RRR but by clicking on it (TX4) the message sent is changed to RR73.
8. Try to keep within the FT8 sub-band: the weak signal DXers using Olivia, JT65, JT9 and other digimodes, mostly above 2000 Hz or so on the waterfall.
9. In a DX pileup or a Dxpedition situation a shortened Auto Seq helps maximise the QSO rate. To set things up for this, double-click message Tx1 to skip it (it will be greyed out). Now when you call someone, you will send Tx2 instead i.e. both callsigns plus their report. rather than both calls plus your grid. Next, double click Tx4 to change from the conventional RRR message to RR73, short for ‘Got it , thanks.
10. When I find more tips I will update this. But for now enjoy FT8
