I managed to make a contact on FT8 today, but I still feel overwhelmed and confused by the QSO flow, and how to pick which contact to attempt, and when to even enable transmit.
Maybe attempting FT8 at lunch hour on 20m was the issue? There was a lot of activity out there.
@brainofdane 20m can be quite crazy with how busy it is all the time.
You interested in a short list of tips or perhaps a well presented youtube? Happy to help!
@pauliehedron I would love some tips or a nice video to show me some of the “Do’s and Don’ts” so I don’t frustrate other people while I’m figuring it out.
Cool. Let me pull a couple helpful vids from my history to get ya started. I found these really helpful and I'm up over 4000 contacts in a few months. 😂
People will add a qualifier to their CQ call if they want something specific. Ie if someone is calling CQ 😱 they don't want people in their country. They may also call a specific country or state. Otherwise, give it a try. Just listen first, find an open space in the waterfall, and start transmitting.
@ajh finding an open space is for if I’m calling CQ right?
No - this is critical, and very confusing for new people. Especially with the hold tx option not on by default. You always need to be in an empty spot, otherwise you'll overlap with someone else.
I think the hold TX option might be on by default now, it's good to double check that. You don't need to be in the same 50hz space as the other station.
@ajh ah, that is confusing and very helpful to know. I was probably transmitting on top of other people today. Oops!
