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Operating FT8

The console has an FT8 panel that lists the FT8 messages your radio hears, the way WSJT-X's band activity does, and sends your own. The RemoteMyShack agent decodes and transmits at the shack, by the shack computer's clock, so FT8 works even on a slow connection and with your device's audio off.

FT8 is part of the Super Station plan (and the free trial) when you operate remotely. At the shack, on the shack computer's own network, it's always available. See Plans and pricing.

Open the panel

1. Click FT8 with the mode buttons. It tunes to the band's usual FT8 frequency (14.074 MHz on 20m; 20m if the band has none), puts the radio in USB with DATA on and the widest filter, and opens the FT8 panel under the mode buttons.
2. To change band, click a band button: while you're in FT8 it goes to that band's FT8 frequency. Go to band… in the panel does the same. Clicking another mode button leaves FT8 and turns DATA off.
3. Wait for the end of the next full slot. FT8 runs in 15-second slots starting at :00, :15, :30 and :45 past each minute, and messages appear about 14 seconds into the slot.

The agent decodes only while at least one console has the FT8 panel open. When you open it, it shows the last few minutes it decoded, if anyone had it open.

The panel also opens whenever the radio is in USB with DATA on (USB-D). In LSB-D the RTTY panel opens instead. The buttons above the panel switch between the digital modes: FT8, FT4, WSPR, RTTY, PSK and, in USB, RADE.

Reading it

As in WSJT-X, the messages are in two lists side by side (one above the other on a narrow screen), newest at the top:

• Band activity, on the left: every message decoded.
• Rx frequency, on the right: messages within 50 Hz of the audio frequency you transmit on (TX at), every message to or from your callsign or the station in Their call (underlined), and what you sent, in red, marked TX. Each line starts with its time, so a contact reads from top to bottom like a conversation.

In Band activity, each slot starts with its time (UTC, as hhmmss), then one line per message, by audio frequency:

• dB: the signal-to-noise ratio, as WSJT-X reports it. It's an estimate, usually within a few dB of WSJT-X's figure.
• DT: how many seconds late the signal started. Most stations are within half a second.
• Hz: the message's audio frequency. Hover over a line to see its frequency in MHz.
• The message. CQ calls are green, messages to your callsign are highlighted, and messages from it are in the accent color. Your callsign comes from the station's setup.

Tick CQ and me only to hide the rest of Band activity. Clear empties both lists in this console.

To see more messages, drag the bar under the two lists down (or focus it and use the arrow keys). Both lists grow together, and each device remembers the height. Double-click the bar for the usual height.

Colors from your logbook

On remotemyshack.com, each message's sender is checked against your logbook for what working them would add to your awards:

• NEW (pink): a DXCC entity you haven't worked.
• BAND (orange): an entity you've worked, but not on this band.
• QSL?: an entity you've worked but don't have confirmed yet.
• Dimmed: a station you've already worked on this band in FT8 (or FT4).

Hover over a message to see the sender's entity. The entity comes from the callsign. Worked All States isn't marked, because FT8 messages don't say the state. The colors aren't shown on the agent's own pages on your home network, since the logbook is on remotemyshack.com.

The progress bar shows where the current slot is, and whether it's an even slot (starting at :00 or :30) or an odd one.

Making a contact

The six messages are WSJT-X's standard ones. With Auto-sequence and log ticked (it is to start), the agent picks the next one itself as the other station's replies come in and logs the contact; untick it to step through contacts yourself.

Click a message in the list to answer it. The panel fills in their call, sets the report from how you hear them, chooses the slots opposite theirs, and picks the message that comes next: message 1 for a CQ, message 2 when they've called you, and so on. With auto-sequencing on, clicking also starts transmitting. When they send 73 the contact is done and transmit turns off. You can also type their call and pick a message yourself.

1. Enter Your grid once: the four-character grid square (such as FN31) sent with your call. Every console at the station shares it.
2. Choose where to transmit: TX at sets the audio frequency, or click a clear spot on the strip beside it, which marks where the last slot's signals were. Your place in the passband stays put when you answer someone.
3. Click Enable TX. The panel says which slot it's waiting for, and the agent keys the radio at the start of that slot and sends the message for 12.6 seconds. It sends in every slot of your choice (Even or Odd) until you pick another message or turn it off.
4. With auto-sequencing on, the agent moves the contact on by itself (see below). Without it, pick the next message as replies come in. A new message goes out from the next slot.
5. Halt TX stops at once, even mid-message.

Auto-sequencing and logging

With Auto-sequence and log on, the agent at the shack reads each slot the other station sends in and picks your next message in time for your next slot, as WSJT-X's Auto Seq does:

• They call you with their grid: you send their report (message 2).
• They send your report: you send yours back with R (message 3).
• They send R and a report: you send RR73 (message 4).
• They send RR73: you send 73 (message 5).

Calling CQ, the agent answers the strongest station calling you. Once a contact has started it ignores other callers until it's done. If no one replies, it sends the same message again in each slot, and turns transmit off after ten in a row.

When you've sent RR73 or 73, reports have gone both ways and the contact is made. The agent logs it in your logbook (their call and grid, the time, the frequency you transmitted on, both reports and your grid), and transmit turns off. Tick CQ again after a contact to go back to calling CQ instead, after contacts that answered your CQ. A station that calls again because it didn't hear your RR73 gets it again, but isn't logged twice.

The panel shows what the agent chose, and a line saying when a contact was made and logged. You can take over at any time: pick a message, type a call or click another station's message, and the agent carries on from there. Contacts are logged even if your console closes mid-contact; if the station is offline they're sent when it reconnects.

Your callsign comes from the station's link to your account, so transmitting needs a linked station.

Setting the transmit level

Radios differ in how hard the same audio drives them, so each radio has its own TX level: how loud the FT8 audio is, from 1 to 100% (50% to start). Set it once per radio:

1. Set the radio's power to what you'll use, and transmit, ideally into a dummy load.
2. While it sends, the panel shows the output power and ALC. Move TX level until you get the power you set with little or no ALC. Changes take effect at once, even in the middle of a message.

Too low and you won't reach the power you set. Too high and the ALC works hard, which can make your signal wider. Every console on the radio shares the setting, and it doesn't change the radio's own settings.

Safeguards

• FT8 transmits only in USB with DATA on. On an Icom, the radio must take its data-mode audio from the network: set DATA MOD to LAN in the radio's connector settings, as for RTTY. A FlexRadio needs no setting.
• Transmitting FT8 is like Hold to talk: one console at a time, the station's TX time limit applies to each message, and every message is recorded in the transmit log.
• If your console loses its connection to the station, transmit stops at once and stays off when the console reconnects.
• After sending the same message ten times in a row (five minutes), transmit turns itself off, as WSJT-X's Tx watchdog does.
• FT8 is a full-duty mode for each 12.6-second message, so keep the power sensible for your radio and amplifier.

Clock and audio

• The shack computer's clock must be right, to within about a second, as for WSJT-X: it decides when you transmit as well as when slots start. Windows, macOS and Linux set their clocks automatically by default. If messages keep decoding a second or more late or early, the panel says so.
• Keep the radio's receive filter wide (about 3 kHz) and its AGC and noise reduction modest. The decoder looks for signals from 200 to 3000 Hz.

How it decodes

The decoder finds most of what WSJT-X finds on a busy band. It's built from the published FT8 protocol and the open-source ft8_lib, and some very weak or overlapping signals that WSJT-X digs out aren't decoded yet. Messages from Field Day, EU VHF contest and RTTY Roundup exchanges aren't shown yet.

Not built yet: reporting to PSK Reporter, transmitting FT4 (it decodes), and calls such as WW2DX/7 that need FT8's hashed-call messages.

Related: Decoding FT4 · Decoding WSPR · Sending and decoding RTTY · The spectrum scope and waterfall · Plans and pricing