Hello Operators
This message was posted by Jordan KN4CRD in the groups.io forum. I thought it was incredibly important to get this message read, by as many operators as possible, so I’m reposting it here.
Howdy folks! We’ve just surpassed 5000 testers of FT8Call! I’ve heard of some really great QSOs happening and hope there are many more in y’all’s future. I also keep getting loads of emails about a couple recent happenings…so I wanted to make an announcement to help communicate with y’all.
The WSJT-X group has started testing their new release (2.0 RC1) of WSJT-X and have chosen 7.078 and 14.078 MHz to trial the new FT8 features. These are two frequencies where you’ll find FT8Call operators. What this means is that if you’re operating FT8Call, you might see some signals transmitting every other interval in the waterfall and those signals will not decode. Those signals are likely the WSJT-X 2.0 FT8 signals. It should be nothing to worry about, as there is plenty of room for all of us on the band. But, if you run into problems, please let me know.
Next up, FT8Call is Free Software. It is and will always be free. Free as in beer and free as in speech. Meaning, you will never have to pay for it, and, you can do with it what you want. It is a derivative of WSJT-X, is open source, and licensed under the GPLv3.
The last question I am getting is about the name “FT8Call” which was likely prompted by a particular statement made by K1JT today. I want to point you to the history section of the documentation where I’ve explained the timeline of the experiment and further why FT8Call is named the way it is:
You might be asking…why is this named FT8Call? Why not something else, like JS8Call or HF Messenger? Good question! It is named this way an homage to its heritage:
FT8Call uses FT8 modulation (Franke-Taylor design, 8-FSK modulation). More specifically it uses the same modulation and demodulation engine developed by the WSJT-X group. This is the base RF transport.
FT8Call has a directed “calling” protocol laid over top the base RF transport to support free-form and directed message passing.
Hence FT8 + Call = FT8Call.
I hope this helps clear up some confusion on the topic. At this point in time, there’s no plans to change our operating frequencies or the name of the application. If you have any other questions, let me know. I’d be happy to answer!
Also, stay tuned for more info on FT8Call 0.7…lots of exciting stuff coming down the pipe!
Cheers!
Best,
Jordan / KN4CRD
73
Julian oh8stn
