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FT8 Roundup, 1-2 December 201 - 2018/11/15 10:43
Don AA5AU and Ed W0YK are pleased to announce the FT8 Roundup to be held on 1-2
December 2018. Rules, tutorials and other information can be found at:
https://www.rttycontesting.com/ft8-roundup/
This is the weekend of the Ten-Meter RTTY Contest that we've sponsored for
the past 8 years. Given the state of 10 meters and the explosive adoption
of FT8, we decided to use the 2018 contest weekend for the first full-blown
FT8-only contest. The contest format in 2019 and beyond is yet to be
determined, but will surely be influenced by the results of the 2018 FT8
Roundup.
The rules are the ARRL RTTY Roundup rules with the following changes:
1. FT8 mode only. Must use WSJT-X 2.0, rc4
2. 100 watts maximum power.
3. Logs submitted to ft8-ru@....
4. Single-Operator Unlimited only (no Single-Operator non-assisted).
5. All entry classes may use "multi-streaming" within the same receiver
audio passband, whereby multiple QSOs are run in parallel. In the DX world
an example of multi-streaming is the DXpedition mode with "Fox and Hound"
capability. (CURRENTLY, THERE IS NO WSJT-X, OR OTHER, SOFTWARE SUPPORT FOR
MULTI-STREAMING IN THE ARRL RTTY ROUNDUP CONTEST MODE. THEREFORE, IT IS NOT
EXPECTED TO EXIST IN THIS YEAR'S CONTEST. THE PURPOSE OF THE RULE AT THIS
TIME IS TO ENCOURAGE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS TO DEVISE AN APPROPRIATE
MULTI-STREAMING CAPABILITY FOR FT8 CONTESTING.)
Note, however, that rc4 does support the classic "TU, NW" technique whereby
rolling QSOs can be achieved with only two transmission cycles (30 seconds)
per QSO. In theory, an SO2R station could achieve 240 QSOs/hour, though
this is extremely difficult to obtain in practice. It requires the running
station, and its 240 QSO partners, to operate in perfect harmony for a full
hour!
WSJT-X 2.0, rc4 creates a proper Cabrillo format file for log submission
following the ARRL RTTY Roundup Cabrillo 3.0 specification. The contest
name in the header is CONTEST: ARRL-RTTY, same as for the RTTY Roundup.
Therefore, logging programs can use the existing ARRL RTTY Roundup contest
configuration, though WSJT-X 2.0, rc4 is the recommended software. N1MM+
now has some WSJT-X integration for those users. Hopefully, other
mainstream logging software will follow suit.
Please carefully study the WSJT-X 2.0, rc4 Quick-Start Guide:
https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Quick_Start_WSJT-X_2.0.pdf
Practices: The next FT8 Roundup mock contest will be Tuesday, 20 November,
0200-0300 UTC (Monday evening, NA time). Please see Joe Taylor's
announcement posted on the [wsjt-devel] mail list on Wednesday, 14 November.
Don and I will schedule at least one other practice prior to the actual
contest on 1-2 December.
Ed W0YK
Don AA5AU
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