FT-8 Does FT-8 beacon?

[N9JIG]

A little back story here:

I get a bunch of CloseCall hits on 28.08 in my neighborhood over the last couple months. The signals were usually 12 seconds or so of apparently unmodulated carrier when heard in the FM mode, repeating every few minutes. I was thinking at first some sort of wireless device since I had had mice and keyboards operating in or around the CB frequency range in the past. I was also thinking it might be from a city water pumping station right there.

Yesterday I spent some time playing with this and set up my IC7300 on it but since the last place I used it on was on USB I had not yet changed the mode when the signal appeared, it had a warbling sound. I compared that to some YouTube videos that indicated FT-8 and fine tuned the signal to 28.075 or 28.074.

Turns out that one of the common FT-8 freqs is 28.074. I downloaded the WJST-X software on the PC and set up the IC-7300. It all seemed to set up pretty well but I didn't got any decoding from the local signals. I left it on the rest of the evening and eventually got one message decoded ("MY6ESB ~ PJ1FSG 569 7179") later on. I know the software connects to the radio as it will tune it etc.

What I don't know (not having ever dealt with FT-8 in the past) is why there was no decoding of the local signal. I would presume that if there is some sort of beaconing happening that at least a callsign would appear.

Is it possible that this is some mode other than FT-8?

 

[N9PVW]

Did you set your internal sound card up. Also FT-8 is USB.

 

[N9JIG]

Did you set your internal sound card up. Also FT-8 is USB.

Yes, according to the instructions the 7300 is the sound in and out.

It was after setting a radio to USB that I heard the warbling, in FM mode it was just dead carrier. I assumed that even in FM mode I would have heard something, sort of how a scanner set to FM will sort of hear an AM mode. I guess it works differently with SSB.

 

[belvdr]

Did you set your internal sound card up. Also FT-8 is USB.

I think on the 7300 it's USB Data, but it's been awhile.

 

[N9JIG]

I think on the 7300 it's USB Data, but it's been awhile.

Yes, that is the mode I have it set to to try to decode.

 

[N9PVW]

In the software you need to set the power here is the link WSJT-X FT8 and the Icom 7300 the Easy Way! for the 7300

 

[jwt873]

28.074 is the 10M FT8 frequency. As mentioned above, it's upper sideband.

It's critical that your clock be as accurate as possible.. If you're out by over 1/2 second, you won't be able to decode any signals. You can check your clock with this link --> Time.is - exact time, any time zone

There's no 'beacon'.. But if you set the Enable TX button, you'll start sending CQ. You'll call for 15 seconds, then wait 15 seconds for a response. When listening to an FT8 frequency you;'ll hear a slight pause as all the stations on the frequency switch from TX to RX and vice versa.

 

[GlobalNorth]

It's critical that your clock be as accurate as possible.. If you're out by over 1/2 second, you won't be able to decode any signals.

Oh so true.

 

[N9JIG]

28.074 is the 10M FT8 frequency. As mentioned above, it's upper sideband.

It's critical that your clock be as accurate as possible.. If you're out by over 1/2 second, you won't be able to decode any signals. You can check your clock with this link --> Time.is - exact time, any time zone

There's no 'beacon'.. But if you set the Enable TX button, you'll start sending CQ. You'll call for 15 seconds, then wait 15 seconds for a response. When listening to an FT8 frequency you;'ll hear a slight pause as all the stations on the frequency switch from TX to RX and vice versa.

That sounds like what I was hearing but there was nothing being decoded on my end. I am now seeing stuff populated on screen so perhaps there was a configuration error yesterday.

 

[N9JIG]

It's critical that your clock be as accurate as possible.. If you're out by over 1/2 second, you won't be able to decode any signals. You can check your clock with this link --> Time.is - exact time, any time zone

I think that was the issue after all. I came home today and saw my screen populated with hundreds of messages. Now I have to figure out the rest!