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[W3BJ]

For some reason I can’t see ft8ww tx.I see a ton of station calling him, but not him answering. I running beam and vertical. I must be missing something.ts990 with150 watts

[NA4M]

Are you checking both short-path and long-path beam headings to Crozet? 

[N4UFO]

His signal is very weak most of the time and MANY stations I've talked to are having to wait for a 'peak' to even hear him. There are likely a lot of stations calling him that can't hear him, which is dumb really. Just causing QRM to the DX trying to work who can hear him. One W6 station kept on calling and calling with him responding numerous times with 10-20 calls at a time. Not sure what the W6 problem is, but he clearly was not hearing Thierry. - I am lucky... I caught an evening peak on 30m early on (last Monday evening) and managed to get a Q.

Good luck & hope you work him!

[W4HRL]

Same here in Southeastern Virginia - lots (and I mean LOTS) of stations calling him, but I never am able to see him transmit. 

I'll bet some (most?) of the stations calling him are not seeing his TX signal either. I often wonder what the rationale of someone calling him (over and over) when they cannot hear him even if he would choose them to respond to.

Seems like a special kind of stupid to me.

Hopefully, in the time he is there, I will start seeing his TX signal so I can give him a call. But until that happens, it is an interesting side show to look in on every now and then.

W4HRL
Mike in Poquoson VA

[W6IBU]

His clock is off about 1.5s maybe that is the reason?

Paul, W6IBU

[W1VT]

In Connecticut I hear him much better on 30 than 20.
He is often running two or three streams, which significantly reduces the power in each stream, compared to if he ran just one stream.

Crozet is a long distance from Connecticut, 9700 miles, and he is using simple antennas.  I'm surprised he is as loud as he is on 30M.

[WA8NVW]

General information: FT8WW is reportedly NOT using the WSJTx software package, nor is he is running Fox & Hound, so those built-in safeguards are gone out the window.
Another part of the problem is that the local regulatory will only allow him to operate three weeks from start to finish, though he is on the island for tree months.
 
HRL:   If you never hear FT8WW transmitting, you are probably listening (and he is sending) in the reverse time slot.  His local clock error certainly isn't helping.
UFO:  Since on FT8 mode all stations are time-sequenced, if you are sending in the proper time slot you can't interfere with him, just with your 'competition'.

[W4HRL]

Greetings Karl  / WA8NVW -

That's a good point, but you missed MY point.  I listen (and listen and listen) to both time sequences to see if I am receiving him. I look at the RX streams to see if I can hear him in response to other stations.

If I cannot receive his signals as he is "talking" with other stations, I don't call him.

I am not complaining that I cannot hear him, I am making the point that if I do not hear him as he "talks" with other stations, there is no use in me calling him. Even if by some "magic" he was able to hear me in those circumstances, I would never know it because I would never hear his answer.

So, my FT8 practice is (and it should be the practice of EVERY FT8 operator) that if I cannot see him on my incoming RX feed, I will not call him, regardless of whether the DX cluster says he is there or not. 

Also, listening to both time sequences for a couple of cycles gives me the chance to make sure I know which time sequence he is on, and enables me to (hopefully) pick a clear (at least on my end) spot on the waterfall to TX on.

Here's a tip for new FT8 users who may stumble upon this thread, when you look at the various streams of data and you see "FT8WW" (or whatever station your chasing) appear in the data stream, you can tell whether it is some station calling FT8WW or whether it is FT8WW responding to a station.  The data stream will read just like a Christmas present sticker: TO: xwy FROM: mbp.

If all you see is "FT8WW  W$ABC", that is W$ABC calling FT8WW.  Unless you see some data in the form of "W$ABC FT8WW," you are not receiving any signals from FT8WW.  And once you see "W$ABC FT8WW" in the data stream, then you need to be calling FT8WW in the OTHER time sequence.

[WA8NVW]

MIKE -
I understood what you were saying, just wish a higher percentage of 'rookie' ops also understood, and were more familiar with how FT8 normally works.  You are absolutely correct, if the 'newcomer' can't hear and decode the other end of an FT8 exchange, he will not collect a QSL from that distant station himself.  So, rookies, don't add to the QRM cloud by calling the FT8WW DX station if you cannot hear or decode him.

[KB9WQJ]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one seeing caller but not hearing FT8WW myself.  Aggravating.

[N5PG]

FT8WW is always transmitting Even xx00, xx30 and so on.
Has to qrt 0500z to avoid disturbing  scientific measurements.

I start to hear him around 1400z in NTX on 14085, ft8.
I have never heard him on 30m, cw or ft8.
I can usually decode weakly around 0330z on 20m cw,
 14031.

I have yet to make a good contact

Rig Ftdx10 on ft8; Ftdx1000mp Mkv on cw.
Ant 2E steppir and Butternut vertical.

73 good luck
Paul

[W3BJ]

It looks like I would have heard him once. Must be condx. Keep trying iguess

[VE3TMT]

Haven't been able to copy him on my end either. Tons of stations calling him, I wonder how many are actually hearing him. 

[K0UA]

I can guarantee this, the number of stations hearing him is way less than the number of stations calling him.  With a significant number of lids calling on the wrong timeslot that will never hear him and the usual plain ordinary lids that call and call and never hear the DX even though they are on the correct timeslot that are expecting some sort of miracle  to happen. As someone above pointed out, that is a special kind of stupid.

 But we have all seen both phenomena long before the invention of digital modes. Lots of guys call on CW and SSB while the DX is transmitting, and lot of guys just call in the pileup that have never even heard the DX even once. Ham Lid-ery is alive and well regardless of mode. 

[K0RS]

Basic DXing

with apologies to  Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD

(With a minor modification by K0RS)

One of the Local QRPers came up the hill last week and he was not happy. "Put me down as another one who missed FT8WW", he said. "Those high-powered, non-stop-calling European FT8 types pushed the QRM needle off the peg at my place." We were properly sympathetic for a broken heart is a nagging burden. "Too bad", we said, hoping to ease the grief with some small talk, "we saw you in there calling and figured you'd worked them. We could not print him here."

The QRPer shrugged. "Oh, I wasn't seeing him on the waterfall. I was in there calling blind. Called for three days and got nothing.  Set WSJT to F/H and called every cycle.  Nothing at all with all that EU QRM." We had to think this over a bit for it appeared something was not meshing. "If you could not see him", we asked, "how would you ever know if he came back to your call?  Wasn't that a bit of a futile effort to call blind?" The QRPer bristled. "Look", he said, "If I didn't call, how would they have printed my call and come back to me? Heck! That's basic DXing."

We were still not getting the story. "But if you call blind and you are not seeing the DX station, how will you know when he comes back to you . . . if he does?" The QRPer started to bristle again . . . and it was apparent we had run our string. "I can see you really never will be a Big DXer", he said devastatingly, "You just cannot understand that they won't print you if you don't call. You just don't understand!"

Son of a Gun! Let's face it. There are some of the Eternal Enigmas that only a few will understand. These are trying times in this world of DX, although for some more than others. We thought again about what the QRPer had told us. We pondered the Mysteries of the Ages, for there is often wisdom hidden beneath the surface and there are none so blind as those who will not see. After a few minutes, we decided a visit to the optometrist wasn't necessary . . . and while one of us wasn't seeing, we had convinced ourselves that our eyes were just fine! So we turned back to the rig and waited for Crozet to flash up again on 20 CW. The Great Days of DXing were at hand.

DX IS