While I tend to try new things and communications modes there are many hams who don't really pay attention to that. Whatever aspect of the hobby they started out with is what they continue with. There's nothing wrong with that, "to each his own" as the ancient saying goes. When I was starting out, our radios tended to have vacuum tubes. More so transmitters than receivers, but the first radio I ever had in my shack was a vacuum tube-based transceiver that I built from a kit, a Heathkit HW-16.
Today, I still have vacuum tube radios in the shack, but I rarely even turn the Collins KWM-2 on.
For most of my career, I worked in receiver design and I probably spend more time paying attention to receiver design and how they perform than most hams. While I never worked on the software side, I had to take the classes on communications theory that those software guys took. The concepts behind optimizing a communications receiver in analog parts (transistors and ICs) are the same as doing it mathematically in processor.
I posted a longer description of my station with some explanations back in June of '23 but that's not really what I'm here about. What this is about is what's behind a meme that I've run into online.
CW is an abbreviation for Continuous Wave, which is ham talk for communicating by Morse code - as you can see the guy's hand on a Morse code key (in front of that are two other keys). FT8 is a digital communications mode that has become exceptionally popular in the few years since it was introduced into the ham world. It was developed by a small group of hams with advanced degrees and experiences in communications (comm) theory, led by Joe Taylor K1JT, a professor at Princeton University. The software used is called WSJT-X, and while there are other programs that tweak little things in the user experience the most important things are the details in how the software sends and receives.
The translation of the meme is brutally simple: if you don't operate CW instead of things on your (ewww!) computer, you're a pussy. You're a girlie-man not a real man.
For the last several years, I've operated FT8 far more than any other mode: CW, voice (called phone) or any of the other dozens of digital modes. Over seven years ago, I posted the first mention of FT8 I ever posted, and at the bottom of that post is a graph that shows the growth of FT8 in the first year it became available, going from zero usage to over 50% of the traffic through a service called Club Log (that helps coordinate getting confirmation cards for hams).
Let's talk about the communications theory here. Morse code or CW is a single tone, with information added by on/off keying - the familiar "beep-beep" sound of code. The bandwidth (BW) is determined by the on/off keying and the faster the keying (Words Per Minute), the more bandwidth the message takes. This is an iron law of Comm Theory - the more information you send in a given time, the more BW it requires. Morse code at 20 words/minute takes far less BW than talking, but transmits far less information per second. Video takes more BW than voice because it sends more information.
The digital modes in WSJT are designed to be sent by modulating different tones that create a Single Sideband signal. Everyone operating FT8 on the same band uses a common frequency designated for users to meet. Let's say we're meeting somewhere in HF with an SSB rig. We send the audio tones from the computer's audio output to the transmitter and choose where in the transmit BW the output will be. My transmitter is set to allow a 3.0 kHz wide transmission, but the signal from WSJT is a tiny fraction of that width - on the order of 50 Hz. The signal is converted from the text on the computer to audio tones that are encoded with error correction information. In FT8, both stations in the contact take turns transmitting and receiving, 15 seconds each way, and a complete contact is about 75 seconds.
CW wins in speed. A contact at 25 WPM or so (common in contests) can be under 15 seconds. The difference is that CW has problems with interference and interruptions that the signal coding and decoding from WSJT handles easily.
There's a saying that goes engineering is the art of compromise because no solution is perfect everywhere. That's the case here. I've barely gotten into enough details about how the software works, what actual contacts are like and more. I have nothing against CW - until I started playing with WSJT, it was my favorite mode: I have Worked All States and DX Century Club with CW.
When I was first getting my HAM license, everyone was "you have to learn CW and Morse." I was working, typing and using a mouse most of 8 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, and fighting off carpal tunnel syndrome. The last thing I needed was another repetitive activity to put stress on my wrists. None of the "old timers" could understand this.
ReplyDeleteBut then that is one of the reasons I dropped out of amateur radio. They old timers, and their 1950s humor. The old timers and how everything was better before [their complaint of the decade.] And they were shocked that no one younger than them was getting into the hobby.
The last time I attended the Dayton Hamvention I was struck by the fact that the premiere SDR company (can't remember their name) had to build an interface that mimicked an old radio, because HAMs wouldn't buy an software defined radio that just used a computer interface.
I haven't used FT8, but my understanding is that the error corrections, the ability to work under horrible conditions, and the bandwidth would make it outstanding for emergency communications. But we don't worry about that anymore, I guess. "Community Service?" Isn't that the new phrase?