For me the reason I do SOTA is the multiple challenges it offers me. If SOTA was easy I wouldn’t be doing it.
I love the challenge of the hike itself, and even the difficult weather conditions where I am fighting, rain, cold, snow, and yes…the bugs. Pulling the weak ones out of the noise, sending CW with my cold, frozen, shaking hands…ALL a challenge to overcome.
On top of that it is harder to make contacts on SSB and CW than on FT8 with it’s extremely low signal levels I can’t even hear… especially these days when Ten Meters is rarely or barely open. Under these difficult conditions every CW/SSB contact is a major accomplishment.
To top it off i find no Joy, no challenge, in listening to squealing noises on the radio as a computer does all of the work.
Anyhow to each his own, but give me the challenge of the chase…and the Bugs!
FWIW, I continue to listen to 10 m and 12 m spots in CW and SSB during my morning chasing sessions. This despite those bands being closed ~95% of the time since early May (with respect to hearing SOTA activations from the Northern Hemisphere anyway).
When 10 m re-opens across the North Atlantic – probably not until September on any regular basis – I’ll be there.
(I have ample experience with the WSJT modes, but TBH, I don’t enjoy them and rarely resort to them for a SOTA chase.)
On June 22nd I activated and spoke to many stations in Europe and the United States, on the SSB.
As for FT8 at 28,074, a SOTA station is overpowered by the strong signals from fixed stations, which have much more power.
Just like DXpeditions, a SOTA activation is portable and we should use alternative frequencies, such as 28080 for FT8 and others for other bands.
Whenever I see FT8 SOTA Spot, I spot it and ask to change, but this has no effect.
73
Carlos
PY2VM
The same here!!! For this reason (I´m a disaster with PCs, tablets, samrtphones and all regarding software) for me FT8 is more ¨challenge¨ than ¨human¨ modes like CW and SSB!!!
It´s all about point of views.
I may be wrong on this but once u set up FT8 on a summit it seems to me the challenge is mostly over.
For me to make a contact on CW (or SSB) I have to decode a call sign in my head, copy the signal report, copy the summit designator, filter out the adjacent frequency QRM, swat the bug biting me with my frozen right hand, while dealing with the signal fading in and out of the noise, while being rained on, and record it all on a piece of paper for EVERY SINGLE CONTACT with the pencil I misplaced.
On top of that, If the operator I am working has an “odd” fist (makes lots of mistakes or has bad spacing, etc) that also adds to the difficulty.
I have to do that for every single contact. OK…I just realized I might just be INSANE!!
I don’t believe Digi Ops have to deal with that many issues for every single QSO when running FT8 after they set it all up. Maybe I am wrong…
I’m not saying FT8 doesn’t have some challenges, but it seems to me that all other human modes are at least 3 db harder/more challenging than Digital.
You have biting bugs [in AZ?] in the cold weather! I get frozen hands in the winter and bugs trying to bite me in the summer but not at the same time.
P.S. On a business trip to Phoenix many years ago, I went to the Grand Canyon at the weekend. It was snow and ice on the ground at the top but warm to hot 2/3rd of the way down to the river. Weird.
Yes…for some reason Ladybugs swarm to the high Arizona mountains this time of year…millions of them on a peak…the trees and rocks get very red at times…and they bite! HAM is on the menu apparently.
If you say it for me, yes you are wrong. Now, if it’s related to you, that’s fine, you’ll be right. We are not all the same (Thank God!!!)
And out of curiosity I just saw your QRZ, and this forces me to end the debate with you related to Digital.
Good luck and I hope we meet on the CW. If I remember correctly you have chased me more than once.
73 de JP3PPL
Well said. We have had this debate before. However the anti FT8 people still haven’t stopped anyone from using it. Of course not everyone wants to use it. Diversity and experimentation are essential to amateur radio.
I am old enough to remember the vitriol in magazines and on air in the1950s and early 60’s when SSB was making inroads into amateur radio. There was a cohort of anti SSB folk consisting of AM ops and a few CW ops. Those CW ops probably got their teeth sharpened in the period just before and after 1930 in the Stop AM movement. AM is now only for the nostalgic.
There was even a protest over undamped CW transmissions. You had to add a “tikker” to your Rx to receive them or go to a Reinatz set.
As we get older we tend to resist change. Because.
The majority of DX chasers now use FT8 so there has to be a reason or a bunch of reasons. Unlike some modes like PSK32 the participation in FT8 hasn’t stabilised, it keeps growing.
For SOTA the simplicity and light weight of CW rigs and some SSB rigs will ensure that they will continue to dominate. Until an affordable big screen small rig with built in FT8 goes on sale - then watch the exodus.
FT8 is prominent in portable contests and challenges for many reasons but mainly because if you carry the extra gear it works better. I have so far only used SSB and CW in my 10 m only activations this year but would have used FT8 if not for equipment problems.
I have the added incentive of poor hearing and difficulty in copying SSB and I’m a QLF CW OP. However if anyone calls me on either mode I will try hard to make a QSO.
I guess you meant Reinartz, Ron. He spoke at a ham club meeting I attended in 1954. I didn’t know at the time what a major inventor he was. I know now.
Hi Pete,
I’m watching various X6200 lists and YT channels and so far it appears that the processor board that runs Linux inside the radio is the same one as used in the X6100. That would suggest that the hacks developed for the X6100 “could” also work on the X6200. I haven’t seen any video of the full WSJTx running inside the X6200 published yet. At the moment those who blog and have bought the first production version of the radio are producing reports on the base radio as it stands when delivered. I suspect in a few weeks some brave souls will try the X6100 hacks with the X6200, obviously when they do that, as with the 6100, they cannot expect any support from the manufacturer.
73 Ed.
