Friday, March 27, 2020

Benefit of doubt - Ascension Island

I've been trying to work ZD8SC for months now. Since there are always big pile-ups I didn't contact him yet till yesterday evening. After trying to call for about an hour I finally got a free spot in the waterfall and a response. However like many times before someone else is transmiting right at my frequency when in QSO, probabely not receiving my signal. FT8 purists would say this is not a valid contact because ZD8SC didn't come back with a 73. However, we exhanged reports which a valid enough for a contact. I think I transmitted RR73 for at least 50 times after this till he transmitted ZD8SC QSY twice. I think he must have seen my RR73 but didn't want to disrupt next QSOs. I've experienced this kind of contacts a few times before and always was in the log. So I wrote Steve an e-mail if he could confirm I'm in the log. However I know internet on Ascension Island is difficult. I hope he will respond in the end anyway....till then I have logged the contact for a new one on 60m and an ATNO.


6 comments:

PA4JJ said...

WFWL (Work First Worry Later)
73
Jan
PA4JJ

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Zo denk ik er ook over Jan. Ik zag dat hij LoTW doet dus we zullen zien. Ondertussen probeer ik het nog een keer al ik hem zie...73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Very nice contact for sure!
73,
Mike
VE9KK

Photon said...

When the signal reports are exchanged, that's enough! Each station clearly heard the other. The '73' is superfluous.

MadDogMcQ said...

This is what I find frustrating about FT8! So many times I've exchanged reports with someone and then the operator is in QSO with someone else, leaving me with no 73. I guess Photon is correct - the 73 is, in reality, superfluous.

73, Tom, M7MCQ

PE4BAS, Bas said...

I agree, a exchange of signal reports is essentialy a QSO. I did send a e-mail to Steve but he didn't respond yet. I guess he gets too many e-mails :-). 73, Bas