Latest Ham Radio Digital Modes Software Has Been

As the software has been improved and the decoders carefully tweaked or rewritten, the number of successful decodes has increased.

Over the past few years, the number of operators using one of the numerous forms of data (or digimode) has exploded.

For some, this has been the difference between being able to make contacts on air or not.

Because every PC, laptop and mobile device has built in sound capability, all you really need is your radio and an audio lead to connect from the sound device to the radio.

In fact, you can miss out the audio lead and use the microphone to pick up the sound from the speakers.

This, however, is not recommended as any other room sounds will be picked up and either transmitted or interfere with the received signal.

These can be purchased fairly cheaply on eBay, or you could make one your self.

There are new modes being invented all the time and keeping track of these is could turn into a full time job.

Most of the decoding software uses a visual waterfall display to facilitate easy tuning and identification.

Below you will see images of each mode together with some brief notes on the mode.

The images show the most common variant(s) of the mode, although some have many different variants Bear in mind that this list is not exhaustive and there will be many modes not covered (yet).

This is a mode that was co-authored by Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Joe Taylor, K1JT as part of the WSJT ( W eak S ignal (K1) JT ) suite.

FT8 was originally conceived in answer to requests by Dxers for a faster alternative to JT65, for use on 6m during the brief Es openings that sometimes occur at odd times during the year.

Enter FT8. FT8 has tx periods of 15 seconds (compared to the JT65 tx period of 60 seconds).

A whole QSO can take place in 1 min 30 (or even less), 4 times faster than was possible previously.

FT4 takes this one stage further, with periods of just 7.5 seconds.

The trade off is a drop in sensitivity by a few dB.

In Es openings, signals are usually strong so this is not much of an issue.

With the fast txrx periods, you can work many stations in just a few minutes.

Latest Ham Radio Digital Modes Plus It Has

We have now discovered that the 2m band has far more tropo openings than was thought, plus it has been a useful tool for random MS.

FT8.

FT8 on 6m took off and it was discovered that the band was open far more than had been previously thought.

I spent a lot of time on 6m during 2017 and it certainly paid off.

DX was everywhere Even for my single element receiving station, I was hearing places that I could have only dreamed of a few years ago.

There is a slight trade off in sensitivity between JT65 and FT8, but most operators were willing to accept that for the increased QSO rates.

JT65 is still the best mode for sensitivity so for real low signal work, use JT65.