Strong signals, for example on 40 meters, only a few states away working each other without learning even just a little bit about each other, only a computer generated signal report and the other stations four digit grid locator. I first noticed this on six meters and now on other bands as well. If so, my For Sale page will contain my whole station.

With that out of the way, I sincerely hope FT modes are not the only modes available to me into the future. Maybe the most efficient available for general use today. I only call DX stations on the FT modes, but will occasionally send CQ to confirm the system is working as PSK Reporter does not tell the whole story.įirst, FT8/4 are real Ham Radio modes. FT contacts are not very easy for me to make either. A clarification: with my current setup (antenna and power levels) with very little chance of improving, SSB is almost usable and I struggle to make CW contacts. Two computers can talk to each other faster on FT8.Įveryone weighs in on these mode so here I go.

At this point, I am only lukewarm on the mode.įT8 has taken over from JT65A at my station (and maybe the rest of the world). I am using WSJT-X and JTAlert for software. Since I know a lot about running low power and poor antennas I thought I would give it a try. JT65A is said to be good when you have poor antennas and run low power. It appears RTTY will only have limited use in the future because to date I have not been much of a contest operator and with my power levels and antennas CW has proven to be the better mode for DX. That is okay with me as I am a weak typist so Rag Chewing is out of the question. The software I am currently using for RTTY is WinWarbler (a component of the DXLab suite rapped around MMTTY).Īll I hear on RTTY is DX chasing and Contests. Someday I would like to transition to true FSK. This eliminated the need for an outboard interface and I run digital modes through the USB port on my Shack laptop. In late June 2016 I upgraded my K3 with the KIO3B Interface Option. I went this route instead of using the home-brew interface from my PSK31 days (in the early 2000’s) because my current laptop does not have a user friendly I/O configuration. I started by using the Signalink USB interface. After trying RTTY with some success using the K3 in the “RTTY paddle” mode I explored the use of my shack computer with RTTY. Since DXpeditions appear to select RTTY as their digital mode of choice (up until now – FT8?), I kept revisiting the use of the mode. My first adventure into RTTY was short lived many years ago with an Apple IIe and an AEA CP-1 Computer Patch Interface.

Signalink with mtty