General Category > Amateur Radio

Digital modes on HF... love it or hate it.

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Matt285:
Just venting, but I'm starting to hate digital modes on HF. Ham Call DX spots has the option of filtering between Phone, Digital and 'Traditionally' CW modes yet I see frequencies such as 7.078 on 40 and 10.138 on 30 when I filter. I don't know if digital is killing HF or keeping it alive? Just an irritated CW op I suppose. A part of me likes to think theres room for all the various modes, but I also think it takes away from the initiative of learning Morse.....but, I digress 

NJQA:
The guys in the local club have grown tired of my rants about FT8.  I just go numb when I hear a newbie talking about making DXCC a month after getting his license...all on FT8.  They don’t know what they are missing.  The point is the journey, not the destination.  You don’t value things that come too easy.

CW however, has actually seen a bit of an increase among the new hams here.  I don’t know why, but some of our new hams have put forth the effort to learn and operate on CW.

At a VHF conference a little while ago I heard some of the contesters complaining about FT8.  The rovers in particular were having trouble raising stations to run through the bands because the home stations were parked on the FT8 frequency and had stopped scanning the bands.

Matt285:
Just realized I meant to type 'Incentive' to learn. Glad someone shares my view on FT8. Shall we start a petition? Ha

Matt285:
Forgot to respond to the other part. Yes you are right about a bit of a rise in the interest to learn CW. I hear a lot about the new 'Apps' people are using to practice on their phones. Glad to see technology making a positive difference!

Matt285:
One thing I guess is good about it is using it to gauge possible propagation between various areas from your QTH. I also heard there is a way to kind of let it go autopilot on it's own and see who 'Pings' you. Not sure of the details though. As I said, to each their own. Radio has gone through many changes over the years. Im sure people claimed SSB would destroy AM or that people were going to become addicted to SSTV...... Still hate it though!  Lol

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