I got on the air with WSJT-X when I got home from work this afternoon, and everything worked the way it’s supposed to. I made 25 contacts on 80 through 17 meters, using version 2.0 … except for 60 meters … Everybody on 60 was still using ver. 1.9.1.
This is a good sign. Looks like lots of people upgraded. There is a decided increase in the number of stations running the latest version. I even worked a new one on 17 meters … ZD7JC, St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic. This is where the British imprisoned Napoleon after his defeat.
Today is the day! The final version of WSJT-X ver. 2.0 has been released. This newest version is not backwards compatible with earlier versions, and contains significant enhancements over older versions, so it’s to your advantage to upgrade.
F5IGF was up and down with QSB, but look at the screen capture … he was right at -24, the lower limit of decoding in WSJT-X. His preceding transmission was at -23dB. This is using version 2.0 rc5. I seem to be completing more of these marginal QSOs with this latest version. Thanks, development team!
Checked out FT8 last night … started by using WSJT-X 2.0 rc5 … crickets! Where’d everybody go after the contest? Lots of activity on the spectrum display. So I reverted to ver 1.9.1 and voila! … tons of stations!
I think it’s going to be an uphill battle to move everybody to the newer version. Still, when the non-beta version 2.0 is released on December 10th, I may be surprised. I hope so … this newer iteration of WSJT-X really has some good features and Joe and his crew seem to have fine-tuned the decoding algorithm for optimum performance.
This weekend I dabbled in the FT8 Roundup. I was on the air when I had some free time, and made a total of 70 QSOs … not even a big effort, but it was interesting.
When the contest first started, there was lots of confusion, especially about operating frequencies. The normal frequencies were not used … special ranges of frequencies were specified. Also, there were several settings that had to be changed in the software itself, and that confused some. The instructions were well-written, and I had no problems at all.
Contest action!
To do things right, it was necessary to go into the files and create backups and then delete specific files. I was leery of that, but I followed the instructions to the letter … no problems were noted when restoring everything afterwards. I even worked another ten stations afterwards to make sure everything was copacetic (HA! Look that one up!).
SO … everything is back to normal, all the contacts are uploaded to LOTW, ClubLog, eQSL, and QRZ, and I’m already seeing some confirmations, minutes after the contest.
Have you been a ham long enough to remember contests back in the “Dark Ages”? Submitting a log then was a real trial … dupe sheets, deciphering handscribbled logs, counting multipliers, computing scores on your fingers and toes, snail mail submission … like I said, the “Dark Ages”. Soooooo much easier now!
Of course, my mouse quit working during all of this. “Must be the battery,” says I. I replace the battery … still bad. Look all over the house for a spare mouse. Finally, a light went on … I tried another AA battery … success! The first replacement was no good. I need to turn in my Technician badge!
Hope you had a good ham weekend. I had thought about pulling out my manual tuner and making some contacts in the 160-meter contest, but I was busy enough with what I was doing. There’re never enough hours in the weekend, are there?
The next few weeks leading up to the holidays are going to be hectic … banquets, dinners, parties, concerts … all sorts of things to keep me busy. But, I’ll still do radio when I have a chance!
