FT8 works as advertised, but...

After the success of sending FT8 through the Cat5 antenna, a more thorough review was desired.

With trying FT8 almost exclusively for a week, I achieved several of the lower level QRZ.com awards.

The first two award was the “participation trophies” of communicating with 25 and 30 other QRZ members. This is a gimme award to get you started with their logbook software. These are called the “World Radio Friendship” and “30 Years of QRZ”.

Working 100 maidenhead grid squares(pdf) was the second achievement. The Maidenhead Locator System is the predecessor to “these three words” and still remains superior. The system divides the surface of the Earth up into increasingly smaller grids.

Australia and New Zealand both were contacted to gain Oceania and finish off the “Word Continent Award”. I’ve never spoken with these places before because of the, um, well, ‘petite’ station I run.

QSOs were rolling in with the “for laughs” antenna test so I decided to see if FT8 would be a digital mode that I’d enjoy using in addition to voice over SSB. FT8 did energize me enough to want to try out a new antenna. New for me was an End Fed Half Wave(EFHW) antenna. In the past I’ve run half wave dipoles. The EFHW does work, but the disclaimed compromises are obviously present. RF coming down the feedline into the shack was something that needed to be handled immediately.

I was not able to make Worked All States(WAS) during my week of testing. I’m sure FT8 will be part of knocking off the remianing states. I have a hunch a dipole will take the place of the EFHW though. SSB is more fun for me, but I’m glad to become acquainted with some of the digital modes I had not played with in the past. I’ve since tried out FT4 and enjoy it as well.