That is one of the issues. It all needs proving to work when you are sat at home drinking tea/coffee/martini first. The first bump in the road was the standard tablet audio input being on-board mic only and too low a rate. I haven’t looked at the speed issue yet. I’ve not delved into how it’s meant to work but I wonder if the time to decode is a function of the spectrum sampled. i.e. if it examines a 3kHz bandwidth and searches for signals in there. Reducing the bandwith searched should speed up the decode. First though, get a sound card that works!
this…
and you also need it for the correct time! (or a GPS mouse)
I use two of these:
I played with JT a lot but Im not sure how to make the spectrum smaller. I remember that the cpu speed scaling might have been the issue. Not sure though.
A new jt app is JTDX 17.2.2 (I think) I used it yesterday on a normal PC and give you more option on how ‘deep’ the audio search is.
Is it just me or is this thread and Tom’s multiple failure reports a perfect illustration of why digimode SOTA will never be more than a transient novelty?
Sure you can reach a summit on a pogo-stick but why would you want to?..
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not sure I understand or maybe I don’t agree (at least regarding the ease of using digi modes).
It can be quite rewording for anyone with my minimal gear and very bad ham shake location (urban noise s9) to reach VK for example.
Not really Richard. We have numerous reports from people who have gone out unprepared with untested antennas/equipment and not had any contacts. We read people’s reports that there first attempt was a miserable failure because they forgot something, they never tried packing their bag and walking into the garden/local park and tried to setup their gear (wearing gloves) and noted what was missing and what was hard to do.
So what Tom’s thread shows is he is not an engineer in his approach to preparation. Though you can excuse that last failure as he was keen to try a new toy. This thread shows there are chasers ready to chase digital activations and it shows that some of us are trying to ensure that for the less experienced, the less computer aware, will be able to copy some simple cheap setups that will work. This is the same as Andrew VK1AD and his J-pole antenna and VK<>W6 tests. J-pole designs are 10 a penny and we all know enough propagation theory to know when and how to work that path. What Andrew showed was that he built a design as specified and it worked as a DX antenna. What Ed DD5LP showed was that he built it with some unintentional changes and it didn’t work. Then he fixed it by understanding what he had done wrong and by doing what the build instructions said. They demonstrated to anyone who is unsure of their own capabilities that this antenna design is repeatable if you follow the design exactly and it works.
The same here, if you want people to try something out of their comfort zone, out of their experience, then you need to show them a solution or solution that works that is easy to clone.
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Tell that to Joao CT1BHG, but please have a look at his logs on the database first - you’ll be surprised to find chasers are in there, myself included on occasion.
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My attitude to testing a new PSK portable configuration is thus:
If I’ve got it into my head that I’m going up The Cloud, then I’m going up The Cloud. Nothing is going to stop me. I could test out my kit in the garden, but as I’m going up The Cloud anyway, I might as well set it up and test it there, thus saving considerable time. You see, if the test had failed in the garden (which it would have done every time recently), I’d have still gone up The Cloud for an activation (of some other format).
Maybe SOTA itself is nothing more than a transient novelty? If we widen the observation period by a few orders of magnitude, that’s almost certainly going to be the case.
I’ve had this system running beautifully using a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. Since that died, I have been struggling to find a suitable alternative and make it work as intended. That is not “a perfect illustration of why digimode SOTA will never be more than a transient novelty” equally as much as the activation below isn’t a proof that it is:
24/7/2013 - GD/GD-001
12:19z G6TUH 24MHz DATA
12:23z DL8OL 24MHz DATA
12:25z HB9MKV 24MHz DATA
12:33z OM7OM 24MHz DATA
12:38z OE5REO 24MHz DATA
12:40z OE5FSL 24MHz DATA
12:42z DL6XAZ 24MHz DATA
12:45z I4UUL 24MHz DATA
12:47z UA3PHY 24MHz DATA
12:49z EA5FIV 24MHz DATA
12:55z RA1TCJ 24MHz DATA
13:00z DK6AN 24MHz DATA
13:14z HB9AGH 24MHz DATA
13:15z DL5CJ 24MHz DATA
13:22z OH1LA 24MHz DATA
13:26z SP6LUY 24MHz DATA
13:28z SQ8OAU 24MHz DATA
13:30z OM5DP 24MHz DATA
13:36z SQ8GBG 24MHz DATA
13:38z DJ9KG 24MHz DATA
13:40z DL6KR 24MHz DATA
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YES - 100% correct timing on the digital modes is critical - especially the JT modes - so a time sync to an internet time server - or to a GPS device is essential to keep the Tablet / Laptop time correct.
Ed.
Unfortunately Igor says on the JTDX pge - your donations would be the only way to let me proceed with the further JTDX software development.
So, at the moment no development of this mode.
I’m seeing lots of JT variants - are they all incompatible with each other, or do they all fallback to a base protocol? If not we could have 10 SOTA activators out, ll running JT and not being able to work each other and the chasers having to install 10 different JT mode programs and then go through them trying to find a matching one to what tha activator is using!
Perhaps there should be a standard agreed for SOTA JT on the HF bnds?
Ed.
ok let me give you all a bit more info on the mode as I used it for the last couple of years now.
all JT65 software will talk to each other! The difference is in:
- how easy the interface is, UI. How simple time makes it for you to do a QSO or in some cases ‘how less stressful’ see below.
- multi-pass deciding = better, deeper signal decoding. these upgrades (from the original code) are mainly on jt65 at the moment, call me JTDX.
jt65-hf hb9hqx 4.0 is the easiest to start with. not the best decoder, but without a SUPER antenna you won’t see any difference. for the summit I think its the best. The other options below make the QSO more stressful!! With less time to react! I use this mainly.
WSJT-X os the original code and main development repository. All the decoders are forks of this I think.
1.7.0 beta is the latest I think. If you are planning to use this you better get the extra features of JTDX 17.2.2 (same codebase with added extra code).
WSJT-X/JTDX need a bit more speedy control! you need to click more times and in less time to make the right call in the 5-10 seconds that the mode allows… but maybe for chasers with super cool equipment (my main station is just a long wire! 
so I you have an antenna mast or rotor you are god to me ) you can decode way more signals at the bottom end (or more overlapping signals)
I hope it makes sense and helps.
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Hello Ed,
Right about timing. There are four PCs here and all are loaded with this software (free) and I selected the atomic time server in Switzerland from dozens of options for servers. No CPU load and working here for last two years.
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
Mike
regarding this, I think we should spot a couple of kHz outside (below maybe, as above is the JT9 mode) the normal freq.
In addition from experience is seems better if the chaser transmits a bit off the CQ freq. if you use the mode or read about it you will see that this is a good practice in order for the activator to decode more chaser.
if you all TX on the same spot decoding will be crazy hard.
Chasers can lock their TX freq and continue to TX with offset. the activator will stay on its own freq. Like split CW or something.
This one too.
Hi Tasos,
I’ve come acrosss a varient of JT65HF called JT65-HF-Comfort, as you say this thread of development appears to be to make the operation for JT newbies (like me) easier.
Thank goodness that all JT-65 progrms can inter-work!
73 Ed.
like all* 20M CW radios probably do!
*maybe not?
I haven’t used it but give the other one a go! you might be surprised!
EDIT: @DD5LP just googled it! it looks way to complex compare to the other one!
Matt
I agree on the time aspect, this is something to play around with once the horde has been dealt with on SSB or CW. Ideally with a cold 
or 
as the sunsets. I’m not yet totally sold on the whole minimally valid QSO business but am curious to give it a try and see what can be done dx wise.
Anyway, installed latest version of hb9hqx, plugged the home-brew iPad interface into the audio jack of the ultrabook and it worked out of the box. CPU averages below 10% (Core m3) and battery seems as though it should last 5 hours or so. So which cable/device will I forget? 
I’ll have fldigi installed as well.
I assume I should just squeeze the summit reference in the 73 message. i.e. replace the other call?
I’ll create a new topic when plans/intentions become clearer.
Andrew VK3JBL
It’s good to know what is working for you.
I was thinking that we could do something similar to how the FSTV boys do their contacts. They normally have a four digit number they display and you have get that correct. So instead of putting a four character locator reference, you could put a 4 character string there. The other end sends that back to you and if you see that then you can assume a valid QSO. Sending the summit ref is great but 99% of people are going to get it from SOTAwatch anyway so whilst it is referred to in the rules, it is often not sent!
Personally, I’d stick to the honour system which is used in all other aspects of SOTA. As an activator, I know if a contact is good - or if a chaser is over-optimistically “winging it”. Those ungood QSOs don’t appear in my log and our awards manager can quickly assess if awards claims are bad if they have an unusually huge number of unasterisked QSOs!
Of course there are several reasons why a ‘good’ QSO might not be asterisked, but chasers not operating in the correct spirit are easy to identify with the sheer numbers of non-matching QSOs.
A SOTA contact requires a minimum correct exchange of callsigns and signal reports. Anything additional to that is at the discretion of the operators involved. It is fine to send the SOTA reference every few QSOs at busy periods, so there isn’t a requirement for it to be part of each and every QSO exchange, although it could be argued that a chaser should have actually heard it - at some point!