From: WSJTX@groups.io [mailto:WSJTX@groups.io] On Behalf Of Richard Berry
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 9:43 AM
To: WSJTX@groups.io
Subject: [WSJTX] FT8 Questions #new #FT8

Been trying FT8 for a while now and posted questions on the 'digitalradio' forum but got no responses, so will try here:  

1) Running FT-8, when I double-click on a station calling CQ, WSJT-X frequently starts transmitting immediately instead of waiting for the next transmit window.  Is this normal?  Is it because there's still enough time left for a possible decode on the receiving side?  I also notice it often takes multiple answers to a CQ to get a response.  I have found the same thing.  This is probably due to the fact that FT-8 only is a 15 second cycle.  So, if you double click toward the end of the CQ-ing station's transmission, your station will appear to start transmitting immediately.  This would also answer the rest of your question, in that if your station doesn't get a chance to get a full return message out, the CQ-ing station wouldn't be able to decode it, hence he/she will send another CQ.

2) How much power are folks running.  I sometimes see a very large difference between sent/received signals, especially from stations working Europe.  A post on the Flex forum said some are running 100's of watts, up to the full 1500W at times!  With my station, I try to keep my output power to 30 watts for domestic (US) stations, but never exceeding 50 watts for DX stations.  Typically, when a station is transmitting using excessive power, it will tend to "desense" a good portion of the window, but there's not much we can do about that, I guess….

3) In the Message section, what is the ~U.S.A. and !Italy etc?  Are these DXCC entities and is there any documentation on the use of "~" and "!"?  I scanned the most User Guide including FT8 and didn't see it  These are DXCC entities, but I'm not sure what the other characters represent.

Thanks,
Dick
KF5SA