Ham Radio TXTpeditions
I took a peek at the VU7A (Lakshadweep Islands) statistics today on Club Log (right). So far 25,000 Q’s – ZERO on CW, ZERO on SSB.
Then I took a look at my old friend’s T32TT (Eastern Kiribati) statistics. Well, I tried to but Dom doesn’t publish statistics anymore [somebody figured a way to count dupes on Dom’s last TXTpedition. Duplicate Q’s were running 50%!] But I know from T32TT spots for the last 30 hours he has 11,000 Q’s with ZERO on CW and ZERO on SSB. That’s a TXTpedition! The TXTpedition posted they’d have two CW and one SSB station, but we all know how that goes…
Ain’t this a bitch? Better yet, ain’t this a “lazy, mindless, automated computer scripted text messaging” bitch?
I said it a few years ago FT8 Is Destroying Ham Radio, and it turns out it’s even worse than anybody ever thought it could be. The Big FT8 Money Grab continues.
I’m trying to come up with a number that separates a traditional human mode DXpedition from a TXTpedition. Perhaps 20, 25% FT8? Or maybe 50%? Or heck, like these two TXTpeditions, they’re running 100% FT8. What percentage of FT8 makes a traditional human mode DXpedition a TXTpedition to you?
And just another friendly reminder for all you Dumbed Down, Lazy, Mindless, Automated Computer Scripted Text Messengers out there – you want to RR73 the virtues of FT8 from the rooftops – do it on your own blog, not mine. Beat it. Go play over at TXTpeditions.com. Only real Ham Radio COMMUNICATORS and OPERATORS allowed around this watering hole can comment here.
🙂
N0UN
I have to confess, I have mixed feelings about FT8 although I’m moving closer to your position. I never even considered getting on FT8 until about this time last year when the Crozet operation was underway. Crozet was one of the few entities that I needed so I read up on it, connected everything up and was on the air with it. I successfully worked the Crozet operation on FT8 but thankfully also worked him on CW. Being a newbie to the mode I didn’t find it as easy or automatic as you describe but that’s probably just because I didn’t have it all figured out. I like the basic idea in that it does provide an avenue for hams that are antenna or location challenged to be able to make a DX contact but it seems to pretty much to remove all of the skill or finess across the entire spectrum of ham radio operation that is required to make a contact on the other modes. I’m actually a pretty progressive person and look forward to change…especially in technology…but I struggle to see how FT8 is a positive in ham radio at the expense of the other modes. Over the past few days, just as an example, there has been some great DX on…the VK9 as you mentioned and many others…but all FT8. It will never happen but, in my view, the ARRL should designate any DX awards achieved via FT8 as separate awards and not considered for honor roll, etc but maybe that’s just the old timer in me talking. 73’s
100% agree Wayne but wrong decision was made by DXCC Award Committee years ago. We cannot change time.
Of course money matters – in DXCC program , in TXTpedition business plans, even in small TXT station paying 3-6 $ for confirmation. Lotw is not for free. There are costs of equipment, domain, servers, code writing etc.
We cannot change situation at least if we are not in DXCC director desk.
I see only one solution (as money matters) to pay twice or three times more for CW, SSB even RTTY contacts made by real Dxpeditions then for those poor FT8 exchanges….
On the other hand Dxpeditioners get older and it is not easy to run 10 hours SSB or CW pileup. They need break. Some of them do not hear as well as 10 years ago, but they are still alive.
HAM radio was great for years but nowadays it is changing for computer game and sorry but we cannot change it.
One more thing…
10-20 years ago to have 200 DXCC entities one have to work for year and to have Honor Roll it needed to be 15-20 years. Now with FT8 one can have Honor Roll probably in 2/3 years and to achieve 200 DXCC entities one can setup automatic station for 2-3 weeks..
Big depreciation in achievements. It is like 200% inflation….:-)
FT8 has killed traditional DX. Textpedition is right. Computer set it & forget it. What a crying shame. Coming into sunspot maximums and both sides these fools playing computer tx enable games. Take away digital and these peoples have nothing for DXCC.
theres more communications going on cb 11 meters than ham bands 10-4?
It turns out that you can add Clublog to the conspiracy. I was the one that “outed” Dom on the difference between gross Qs and actual Qs. And of course many are complaining about the lack of CW and SSB contacts even when someone says there will be 1 or 2 or 3 CW/SSB stations that almost always never materialize. Now, as of Nov 15 (look it up on policy changes on Clublog), the DXpedition can easily “opt out” of statistics but still utilize Clublog. Now there is no data on percentages to even look at. One more nail in the DXing coffin for the traditional types like myself.
So expect that you will have almost nothing other than the MEGA DXpeditions to even look up such data going forward. We can just tune the bands and know from what we hear, or don’t hear, what the real story is.
Ed N1UR
The front cover of QST January 2024 is FT8
During the last 15 years we should have seen a plunge in new licensees, yet we still managed to get a bunch of new guys into this hobby and keep the numbers up.
It was mainly due to the fact that Ham Radio was still Interesting and Challenging even in the Internet / Cell Phone Era. Now most of these same new guys along with all the old little pistols have moved to FT8 for the ATNO’s and Points.
Thinking further ahead I am trying to Figure out how do Hams persuade young people to get into the Hobby. Sending Canned Text messages using thousands of dollars worth of computer driven equipment is only going to get laughs. It is already getting to the point where you go to the Bands and hear just about nobody, all you see are the Red FT8 line on the Bandscope.
FT8 is a blight on this Hobby. It is killing it slowly and the ARRL can only see the money they are making today. They have zero interest at looking at the long tern health of the hobby.
Good point, Rob. I am what they call a “young ham” (under 20,) and this is my opinion. The thing that draws me and many other young people to the hobby is the challenge. That’s why I love Contesting and DXing, even though I only have 100 watts and a 3-element tri-bander. I love to compete, even if it’s just against myself.
The FT8 thing is not really enjoyable to me, because it’s rather boring and lacks excitement.
I would also like to say that it has NOT been the ARRL who has done the most to get me involved in this hobby, but rather it has been my encounters with so many of the friendly “big guns” who really inspired me in my ham radio journey. They give new hams an example of what they can achieve in the hobby. It is individual hams, not the ARRL, who will influence the next generation of young hams.
STARLINK NOW might as well just skype
https://www.hamradioworld.org/post/cb0za-juan-fernandez-isl
30 remote operators, wowza!
N0UN