So arrived in EA6 land and did some pre testing by the pool. Major issue with the Android FT8 app. It simply wont work if you prefix your call with a /. So renders it useless. Tried all day today to get it working using combinations of EA6 prefix. Had me wondering if I had a problem with the radio as I did get some spots but nothing like at home. Eventually I tried APRSDroid on PSK31 and found it worked. No issue with call sign prefixes and a successful qso to northern France pool side. So when I get out up a summit FT8 will not be possible and I will use SSB and PSK 31 and CW as a last resort, cause I’m rubbish at it but can manage a sota / contest style QSO.
Anyway need some feed back to the FT8 app developers to sort out the bugs with / in the call.
Is this the “FT8 Radio” android app?
That’s too bad but I’m sure if you submit a bug report the developer will take a look. I’ve exchanged a few emails back and forth with him and he is quite receptive to feedback.
Not a bug. I think that there are strict limits to how callsigns get formatted in FT8 and for calls with a / etc. that do not look like standard calls you need to use hashed calls. It’s possible your Android app doesn’t support this later addition to the protocol.
Cris,
Not sure if it is an app problem.
FT8 allows the use of :CQ CT1/VK3AFW IM58" for example but wont allow “CQ SOTA CT1/VK3AFW IM58”. (amend your call in the setup)
If you use message 5 you can send the SOTA reference. Stick to 13 characters max and you should be fine
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Hi
Trust me a day of trying combinations of EA6/M0KKA EA6 / M0KKA EA6 M0KKA and everything I could think of in the settings, its a bug.
Strange thing is that I am sure it sent the right call as I got a few spots with the right call of EA6/M0KKA but zero replies. I suspect I was txing something OK but the app was not recognising a response to the call. It has an issue with a call that includes / in it if you look at the reception window. Also if you try and reply to a call with / in the call it cuts the part of the call off before the /.
Interesting, what format would you use instead of the / in a call? Ill give it a go and see.
I have never used the Android app.
I think that the actual WSJT-X software is better at dealing with more callsign formats, and, in turn, JTDX is significantly better than that. But your device and OS dictates which software is available to the op of course.
You could try using EA/M0KKA, which would still be a legal and valid callsign from EA6, with the EA6 making an appearance when you send your SOTA reference in the TX5 options. It might work, it might not!
This explains more for WSJT-X ft8 - Long callsigns in WSJT-X? - Amateur Radio Stack Exchange as for your Android app, who knows.
Indeed the complexities of callsign encoding in WSJT-X are deep indeed. I don’t think anyone has re-implemented a full set of message encoding - all the Windows/Linux variants depend on the original (Fortran!) base code.
Rick
Fortran (and some hand-knitted assembler) put a man on the moon. No other language did that 
Oh there was a lot of other language used but it’s not for reproduction here.
I thought Algol was better than Fortran but Fortran won the battle of the engineering/ science language. I suspect that was mainly because more US computers and their Chinese clones were sold than European ones and providing a Fortran compiler was a sweetener few could resist.
Hi Andy
The first language I learned as a student in the late 70’s was Fortran66 … must have used at least 20 others since then culminating in Python being my current favourite.
My son is also in IT and I mentioned to him once that I had written a LISP interpreter in VAX assembler. He asked whether that was the same company that makes vacuum cleaners ? 
I think due to the NAG libraries as much as anything ?
Rick
Thanks all. Just can’t see a way in the Android app to correct the problem and suspect the developer needs to look at it. I will report it. Also if you try to reply to anyone using /P it won’t recognise the call and makes it impossible to reply to a sota /p station calling.
Anyhoo been playing with PSK 31 and that was s working. Just a bit more manual but will set up some sota macros to speed it up for actual activation later this week.
Pool side planning!
Also Fortran is somewhat simpler to comprehend just what is happening than a deeply OO C++ program.
C++ is the language we use mostly at work. Some of it is nicely designed and gets written to work then profiled and improved. And some is C with a class here and there and no design! Just like lots of software 
I have to say I do enjoy using Python, it’s the only language where I think more about the problem than the language, it doesn’t seem to get in the way that so many other languages do.
How does that old computer joke go… “GOD is REAL. Unless declared INTEGER!”
The same problem exists in WSJT-X, it’s a known issue when you are using non standard callsigns like special event. I experienced it recently when using GB22GI for the Commonwealth Games and my good friend Phil G4OBK also had it when he was using GB22GE.
73 Victor GI4ONL
I had the idea to make a fork of WSJT-X to make it headless (that dispenses with the UI) and to build a comprehensive set of JSON API’s. Then you could (say) run the backend on an RPi and the UI on your platform of choice (phone ?)
Maybe a winter project ?
Rick
Yup. People maybe forget that for a long time after the development of the WSJT software call signs World wide were no bigger or more complex than VK3ZLP. 13 characters for a transmission was enough if parts of the messages were coded. When we had calls like VK3FZLP issued it didn’t cope anymore. /P wasn’t considered initially either.
Joe Taylor and his team have tried to shoehorn more into the coding without destroying the basic signal configuration. The flurry of peculiar call sign formats we see now means the coding can’t cope with all of them…
Just what the Android app does I don’t know. I’m not surprised it isn’t equal to the current issue of WSJTX.
However a Tablet will run the real thing and that is perhaps the best compromise at present.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Buy a cheap tablet, is probably the answer. Out of interest can you run JS8Call on an android tablet?
Hmm, I’m looking for the ultimate portable solution. I have a windows tablet pc and an Android tablet but they didn’t fit what I want.
I really thought the Android app would be the ultimate using an old Android phone.
PSKDroid for psk31 works like a champ on an old Android phone.
FT8 for Android does work but is limited and just need a bit of work and it would be a killer app.