10M is really quite today, 2/9/26.

[SteveShannon]

21 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

FT8   3573 - 5357 - 7074 - 10136 - 14074 - 21074 - 24915 - 28074 - 50313    all USB

           80        60       40        30          20        15           12           10           6      

If it's on 160 I don't know the freq. as I don't have anyway to operate on Top Band.

160 m is 1.840 MHz. 

[Davichko5650]

5 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

160 m is 1.840 MHz. 

I knew Herr H.E.R.D. would know this!

[SteveShannon]

3 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

I knew Herr H.E.R.D. would know this!

I can’t take any credit; I just googled it. 

[WRYZ926]

3 hours ago, Davichko5650 said:

Currently a "channelized" band, but effective 2-13-26 the entire band is open for amateur use in the US in a shared allocation.  The 5 center frequencies will keep their 100w power limit, the rest of the band will have a 9.15w limit. The band is from 5351.5 to 5366.5 KHz.

I've been using it on the 5 frequencies allotted for CW, Phone, FT8 and VarAC contacts.  All but the VarAC ones were spur of the moment, either calling or answering a CQ. the VarAC contacts were pre-arranged with other stations on one of the other established VarAC frequencies (7.105 - 14.105 etc) and then we'd QSY down to 60 to try it.  Not as noisy as 80, and propagation similar to 40.  Was asked once by a MIL users of the band to QSY during a cw QSO,  as they were going to use the frequency and, as a secondary user, I readily complied.  Lots of EU stations on at night on the common FT8 freq. of 5357.

That is not quite correct.

Channels 1, 2, 4, and 5 will still exist with the 100 watt ERP power limit. Nothing is changing there. We are still going to have those four channels to use.

What is changing is that we are losing channel 3 and instead get 5.351 MHz to 5.366 MHz to use. The reason for the lower ERP limit of 9.15 watts to meet ITU standards. 

We still won't be able to use VFO mode except for the new small portion that is in the part of the band that channel 3 is currently. 

[Davichko5650]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

That is not quite correct.

Channels 1, 2, 4, and 5 will still exist with the 100 watt ERP power limit. Nothing is changing there. We are still going to have those four channels to use.

What is changing is that we are losing channel 3 and instead get 5.351 MHz to 5.366 MHz to use. The reason for the lower ERP limit of 9.15 watts to meet ITU standards. 

We still won't be able to use VFO mode except for the new small portion that is in the part of the band that channel 3 is currently. 

Thanks for the update. Waiting to see how Part 97 is changed to match - we were, other than the 100w channels supposed to get the band similar to the allocations the ITU has for other countries. Most other countries allow amateurs to run 10w, so the 9.15w is in line with that, but one must take into account the antenna gain for that ERP.  I listen on 60 a lot outside the amateur bands and there's various mode traffic there pretty much 24/7. Lots of  Wide band RTTY encrypted and other digital modes cooking, not much phone.

[Davichko5650]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

 

What is changing is that we are losing channel 3

This will be interesting as Ch 3 at 5358.5 is the FT8 5357 Khz + the 1.5 frequency - so wonder if they'll co-opt another of the remaining 4 or just everyone drop down to the 9 watts?

[Davichko5650]

Just tried to look at 47 CFR 97 and it said "this section is undergoing maintenance and will be available soon." Mayhap they're re-writing the 60m band allocations for Friday?

[Northcutt114]

20 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Ahhhh, I see.  Yeah, I have to set up my Digirig for my ft891 someday also.

When you do get to the ic7300 this site has some written settings that might help:

https://k5tmt.com/2019/09/07/wsjt-x-settings-for-the-ic-7300/

Hmmmm...most of those settings tracked with what I was doing. I was able to get CAT control working and the waterfall in WSJT-X was full of signals - and I was hearing them in the radio, but I couldn't seem to get a contact or get anything to populate in the left hand or right hand window. I tried several bands, heard the distinct FT8 alien noises in all bands, but no contacts. 

I assume that if I can hear the noises, the contact is getting to me, correct? I must have some setting off or something...or maybe it was just too late in the evening. I'll try again tonight.

 

[SteveShannon]

31 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

Hmmmm...most of those settings tracked with what I was doing. I was able to get CAT control working and the waterfall in WSJT-X was full of signals - and I was hearing them in the radio, but I couldn't seem to get a contact or get anything to populate in the left hand or right hand window. I tried several bands, heard the distinct FT8 alien noises in all bands, but no contacts. 

I assume that if I can hear the noises, the contact is getting to me, correct? I must have some setting off or something...or maybe it was just too late in the evening. I'll try again tonight.

 

Yes, if you hear the signals your radio is receiving them, but it appears unable to decode them.  If you’re not seeing anything in the decoded messages, check your computer clock.  It has to be set precisely.  You’ll want to link it to an internet time source.  

Also, what does the waterfall in the secondary screen of WSJT-X look like?  If it’s busy you should see it light up all the way across.  If not, check your filter width.  I make sure I have no filters on when receiving FT8.
Then, what does it look like in the list of heard stations on the left side pane in WSJT-X?  You should see a relatively steady scrolling list of messages.  

Depending on how you have your colors set up you should see CQ calls in the left pane.  Double clicking on a CQ should result in your station responding to that particular CQ.

Finally, how is your transmit power set up?  I set my output power on the radio fairly high, but then I use the Power slider on the right hand side of WSJT-X to limit my output power to something like 45 watts.  

[Northcutt114]

11 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Yes, if you hear the signals your radio is receiving them, but it appears unable to decode them.  If you’re not seeing anything in the decoded messages, check your computer clock.  It has to be set precisely.  You’ll want to link it to an internet time source.

Huh...Really? That's interesting. I'll have to check that out. I have no idea if the clock on my laptop is correct. Why would that matter?

 

11 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Also, what does the waterfall in the secondary screen of WSJT-X look like?  If it’s busy you should see it light up all the way across.  If not, check your filter width.  I make sure I have no filters on when receiving FT8.
Then, what does it look like in the list of heard stations on the left side pane in WSJT-X?  You should see a relatively steady scrolling list of messages.

The waterfall is lit up all the way across, yes. Across roughly 3,000hz. List of "heard stations" only ever populated one station the whole time. But if my clock is wrong, would that explain that?

 

11 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Depending on how you have your colors set up you should see CQ calls in the left pane.  Double clicking on a CQ should result in your station responding to that particular CQ.

Correct. That much, I do know, but the left hand panel only ever populated one call and it was a station to station, not a CQ.

 

11 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Finally, how is your transmit power set up?  I set my output power on the radio fairly high, but then I use the Power slider on the right hand side of WSJT-X to limit my output power to something like 45 watts.  

Transmit power was 49 watts.

It sounds like the clock might be the culprit. I'll check that first.

 

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

Huh...Really? That's interesting. I'll have to check that out. I have no idea if the clock on my laptop is correct. Why would that matter?

 

Because the beginning and ending of the digital bit patterns are synchronized to your clock.

[WRYZ926]

Most people running FT8 on a Windows computer use NetTime to sync their computer clocks. And yes being a few seconds off can cause you to not be able to decode other stations.

You might be able to hear other stations when their clock is off but you wan't be able to complete the contact. FT8 runs on 15 second cycles and FT4 runs on 7 second cycles. So accurate time is important.

 

Also double check that you have the correct settings on your radio and in WSJT-X. A sometimes overlooked setting is the baud rate.

If you haven't done so, you will want to adjust your USB audio speaker and mic levels so that you can hear people and also transmit without over driving the radio. Turn off any sound enhancements within Windows for the USB sound devices. WSJT-X and FT8 can be it's own thread as it can get quite detailed.

[Northcutt114]

37 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Because the beginning and ending of the digital bit patterns are synchronized to your clock.

Interesting. Sounds like that is my issue.

 

[Northcutt114]

18 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

Most people running FT8 on a Windows computer use NetTime to sync their computer clocks. And yes being a few seconds off can cause you to not be able to decode other stations.

You might be able to hear other stations when their clock is off but you wan't be able to complete the contact. FT8 runs on 15 second cycles and FT4 runs on 7 second cycles. So accurate time is important.

18 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

Also double check that you have the correct settings on your radio and in WSJT-X. A sometimes overlooked setting is the baud rate.

If you haven't done so, you will want to adjust your USB audio speaker and mic levels so that you can hear people and also transmit without over driving the radio. Turn off any sound enhancements within Windows for the USB sound devices. WSJT-X and FT8 can be it's own thread as it can get quite detailed.

All of that is correct in my settings. I think it's just my clock. 

[WRYZ926]

2 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

All of that is correct in my settings. I think it's just my clock. 

Your clock being off by 1.5 seconds or more will cause problems with decode. NetTime works well.

There are also programs that you can manually set your computer time to match DX stations when their time is way off. I have not used any as I won't bother with stations who's time is off.  

[Northcutt114]

Welp...NetTime definitely solved the issue. My screen was flooding with signals. Didn't manage to make contact with a single one, though. I'll have to keep digging.

[Davichko5650]

I have net time and I've also used the synch on windows. A great site to check your time is time.is