We had a pretty good turnout at our March 2, 2019 Club meeting. Bill Turner W4WNT came by and did a presentation on FT8, which was very well received.
FT8 is an amateur radio QSO communication protocol developed by Joe Taylor (K1JT) and Steve Franke (K9AN). FT8 uses 8-FSK modulation, transmission takes less than 15 seconds.
While sometimes criticized as being only a “paper chasing” mode because of its very structured format (no free-form text) and not being a conversational mode (like PSK), it’s great as a weak signal mode (and sometimes low-power).
It’s very good for evaluating propagation, since it’s easy to tell where you are being heard via the PSKreporter web site.
The software (WSJT, WSJT-X) is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
Bill’s presentation is available in both Microsoft Powerpoint and OpenOffice formats.
For the Powerpoint version, click here.
For the OpenOffice version, click here.
For a printable PDF version, click here.
To download the software for your computer, go to https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/
Shawn, K4RSG
Photo of the day
HF / VHF Solar Propagation