eHam
eHam Forums => Digital => Topic started by: 2E0SVE on January 14, 2023, 06:31:19 AM
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Which bands are the most used for digital modes?
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Whichever bands have good propagation.....as long as there's propagation to your QTH on the band of your choosing, you won't run out of FT8/FT4 stations to work. I mostly work CW and many many times FT8 is going crazy, but CW that I can hear is quiet....C’est la vie
GL/73
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All of them. As stated, whichever band is open at the time.
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Additionally, you should specify what time you wish to work. Here, the daylight brings very good propagation on 20m-10m. 40m is often good day & night. I am especially active on 80m (nbems nets) where we have stations that are 600-900 (900-1500km) miles away.
73
Jaye
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If you have a radio with a panadaptor display makes it simple to find which band is open. Should not take more than 1 minute. You will know the band is open with a glance, it will be lit up with activity. If not, move on to next band.
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Which bands are the most used for digital modes?
Your question is much like, "if you could have ONLY one gun, what would it be?"
All bands are used with various digital modes. Of course some bands are not open during certain times of the day/night cycle. So it depends on what and when you want to operate. BUT if I could ONLY operate on one band, and I really had to choose, I would choose 20 meters. It is open the most and usually has good activity for all types of digital modes.
IF I had to choose to ONLY have one gun, and that was it ONLY one, I would choose the most versatile firearm, a 12 gauge pump shotgun. So there. :)
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40m,20m,10m
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You can answer this for yourself with this source from Clublog:
https://clublog.org/modes.csv
The file, modes.csv gets auto-downloaded from that link into your "download" directory. Feed that into Excel, do a little basic summation work, and you'll have your answer.
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
I must be doing something right.
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
I must be doing something right.
Well if you are only bringing one gun to the fight it better be a BIG GUN ;)
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
I must be doing something right.
James:
Well, if I HAD to choose... Model 1894. Does it all, from hammering nails to putting food on the table. That and CB (11M) will always carry the day!
Jed Clampett
:)
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
I must be doing something right.
James:
Well, if I HAD to choose... Model 1894. Does it all, from hammering nails to putting food on the table. That and CB (11M) will always carry the day!
Jed Clampett
:)
Well, if you will look carefully on the very old TV series. old Jed did not have one of those fancy new cartridge guns. He was still using a Muzzle Loader. Back here in the Ozark Hills, when I was just a gleam in my fathers eye. Really poor people still used Muzzle Loading shotguns to put food on the table, because they were cheaper to operate than cartridge guns. Poor people sometimes have poor ways. They were effective of course. Just like a HW-101 can still be effective, at least for some things, or even something older. Cartridge firearms have been around since the middle of the 19th century, but that doesn't mean everyone had them even by the middle of the 20th century. Of course even today, people still have them "for fun" just like people still like to ride horses or go for buggy rides. And some people will spend money restoring an old Ham transmitter/receiver. Not me, but some people.
I grew up rather "poor" at least in terms of money. In fact there were 17 o's between the P and the R. :)
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
Only one gun? Well I would want something that the government has banned. If they banned it, it must be super effective!
73 John AF5CC
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And not a single person challenged my choice of ONLY one gun or even ONLY one band. :)
Only one gun? Well I would want something that the government has banned. If they banned it, it must be super effective!
73 John AF5CC
I am sticking with the 12 gauge, because of the versatility. Remember your "one gun" must be able to feed yourself if necessary, and small game to large game can be taken with the 12 gauge by having the proper loads as well as defend yourself if necessary, again by proper load selection. And the pump action is the most versatile because of the ability to cycle the very lightest loads up to the most heavy hard kicking slug load without worrying about whether the action will cycle this wide range of loads and recoil impulses.
Some of the same could be said about a center fire revolver (say a .44 Magnum) because they can function with very light custom loads suitable for taking of small game all the way up to heavy loads suitable for defending yourself from the largest predators on the North American continent.
But I still say most people would do better with a 12 gauge pumpgun. Again this is all hypothetical, as here in America we don't have to get along with "only one gun". NOR do we have to get along with only ONE band for digital modes. I operate all bands for digital modes 160 thru 6 meters. You should too.
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The antenna(s) you have are very important. 10M can be a good band with the high solar fluxes we have been seeing.
But, not if you are using the popular G5RV, as the G5RV is notoriously bad on 10M. It may seem to sort of work, but you can do much better than a G5RV on 10M.
Just as important is the local noise situation. A house now has dozens of electrical and electronic devices are capable of wiping out reception. It only takes one bad device to spoil things.
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Only one gun? Well I would want something that the government has banned. If they banned it, it must be super effective!
Yep a good automatic weapon settles matters quickly. Place some strategically placed machine gun nest and snipers on the border.
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The coming solar cycle is why I opted for the 30 to 10 meter loop for my HOA restricted QTH instead of the 40 to 15 meter version now that the higher frequencies are opening up. Planning on doing more digital modes than voice, the lower meters are easier to tune and require a less expensive and less prominent antenna. And beyond this next cycle I'll be too old to care.
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I've been doing FT8 for a while. Best bands change daily and sometimes within the day. There is no one general answer. Use https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html to determine where in the world you are being heard.