Although not a great mode for chats, there is no doubt that FT8 has really taken off. DX that was once unimaginable is possible, even with QRP and small antennas. I suspect many put their receivers on FT8, maybe endlessly call CQ, and leave it to see what comes through, looking later. Fewer people will just talk in the future, which is sad. There is even an automatic mode, so you can be gardening whilst your PC is having a QSO!
Certainly for me, real 2m DX is possible every day even with QRP.
The danger is people leave modes like FM, SSB and CW and move instead to FT8. Casual listeners will not "find" amateur radio as we did years ago. How people "find" our hobby is important for the future.
One of my first experiences was accidentally hearing a local amateur on 160m AM. What are the chances of this today?
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hf-ft8
I recently see a trend that more and more are coming back to CW/SSB. After all those that now are mad about FT8 are not really interesting to talk to. Since they are the 599 types. FT8 suites them well. SSB/CW is now done by really interesting people, people you like to talk to ;-).
ReplyDelete73, Bas
FT8 is a great opportunity when HF propagation is poor, like now in the solar minimum.
ReplyDeleteI use it quite a bit, mostly for monitoring propagation, but also doing some QSOs now and then.
As soon as CW/SSB becomes feasible again, I will do more of a mix. Especially the sporadic E season, even at solar minimum I have done some excellent CW or SSB QSOs on 10, 6 and 4m (Hoping for 2mEs next year).
73, Jan