WSJT-X - Filling in the missing pieces

WSJT-X works as a standalone program and I used it that way for some time. Recently, as I mentioned in my last post, I enabled the connection to pskreporter so I could see whether similarly set up stations received my signal. Later versions of WSJT-X will even show your signal strength of the other station, which is an excellent way to determine band conditions, although sometimes it is frustrating when a station you want to work hears you but doesn't answer. However, as the system will run just fine unattended they may be just out of the shack rather than intentionally ignoring you.

WSJT-X keeps its own log in ADIF and text format which is fine for uploading, although you'd need to ensure that you're only uploading or importing the contacts logged since the previous upload. Also it records minimal information so if you want to record the US state for instance it lacks that capability, so I've typically entered JT65 contacts by hand into my logging program (DXLab/DXKeeper in my case) and suffered the consequences of various typos.

I'd heard about a program called JT-Alert but never found the time to try it until Canada Day, when I was cleaning up the shack and doing some research. The program was written by VK3AMA and is a free download for various versions of Windows. The advantage of JT-Alert is that it works with various logging programs to determine whether the call signs picked up by WSJT-X have been worked before on the same band and mode (WSJT-X will only tell you if you've worked the station before on any band or JT mode) and whether it's a new zone, country, state or grid (selectable by band so I only have grids set up on VHF, for instance). It even has a voice alert that will announce things like "New Grid" in your choice of male or female British voices, assuming you have a separate sound card from the one you use to connect to your radio.

The program supports standard ADIF files, DXLAB DXKeeper, HRD V5 or V6, Log4OM and MixW (CSV File), meaning it will work for just about everyone. It will also work with JT65-HF, which is an alternative implementation of the JT65 protocol with slightly different features.

So now the suite of software I run for JT65 and JT9 are as follows:

• WSJT-X V1.5
  
• JTAlertX 2.6.3
  
• DXLab DXKeeper 13.0.6
  
• Meinberg NTP (Network time protocol which is essential to keep your system clock in synch)
  
• PSKreporter (although this is a service, not a program you download)
  
• TrustedQSL which DXKeeper uses to upload and synchronize logs with ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW)
  

After a week or so of operating I've discovered the following:

• JT-Alert (at least with the settings I have currently) will advise me of new continents, zones, countries, grids (on 6m, as I've set it that way) and states for any station I've not worked before on that band and mode - whether they're calling CQ or not. In the 10 seconds available to decide what to to after seeing all the decodes come through, there's still some excitement in picking the best station to respond to that's actually calling CQ. The ideal way to do this is to look use the "decodes history" window but unfortunately you need to look at the right hand column to see whose calling CQ, then the left column to choose the best option to respond to, then find that station in the WSJT-X decode display, and then double click on it.
  
• The programs should be started in a particular order. Meinberg NTP starts automatically on system startup, which is good because it can take 20 minutes or so to synchronize the system clock with network time. Then DXKeeper should be started. This is most important because otherwise JT-Alert will start it in the background. It will successfully look up stations that are heard in the DXKeeper log, but fail to actually log completed contacts. You will not be able to bring up the DXKeeper user interface either, as it will tell you that it's already running. Then JT-Alert can be started and it will prompt you to start WSJT-X.
  
• There are several versions of JT-Alert that will be installed. You need to use the one that matches the JT65 program you are using. JT-Alert X is the one for WSJT-X.
  
• It would be nice if I could somehow tell whether a "new country" was (a) never worked on any band (b) never worked on the band that I'm currently on (c) never worked on the mode (JT9 vs. JT65) that I'm currently using, or (d) whether it's just the band/mode combination that is new. I would give higher priority to stations earlier on the list.
  
• In the end though, I will work anyone anywhere if I haven't worked them on that band/mode combination before. It's just that new countries, grids and states will be worked first.
  
• In a week I haven't worked a single new country, although I've heard a couple (India and Indonesia) and worked some new band/country combinations on 30m and 17m.
  

JT-Alert is a way better method than what I was doing before, which was scrambling to look up stations I'd seen on the WSJT Band Activity window to see if I'd worked them on that band. This way is much more relaxing, but still has an element of decision making. I imagine someone, somewhere, is working on an add-on to run a fully automated station. That would be an interesting challenge to correctly respond to some of the non-standard messages that you see in this mode, and also to limit QRM with other stations on the band. Such a program would also ideally manipulate the power level of the transmitter to match the station being called. If see a station below -15db, for instance, I'll usually up the power, and if they're showing -5db or more, I'll usually lower it. Then I'll further adjust power based on the signal report I receive, sometimes taking observations of fading into account. If I answer a station calling CQ who then calls CQ again, I'll also up the power. Sometimes they don't hear me because I'm not the only station calling, but other times it's because they don't hear me as well as I hear them.

Notes from the Shack - March 2014

Contesting isn't for everyone, but when we talk about ARRL Field Day as an emergency preparedness exercise it isn't just about establishing long distance communications in the face of widespread disaster, but operational readiness and reliability. As the recipient of the Coffee Pot Award for my first shot at being a band captain, I've seen how important it is to have a solidly reliable setup.

Mazes of Software

Over the holidays I used Ham Radio Deluxe to participate in a few phone and RTTY contests. The last of these was the RTTY Roundup, and 30 minutes into the contest I was so frustrated with HRD I quickly installed the N1MM logger, MMTTY and 2Tone. Setup took less than an hour and the result was a much better QSO rate, easy identification of dupes (for non-contesters, this is slang for duplicate contacts, not for operators who are easily hoodwinked), and flagging of multipliers. The sudden increase in efficiency let me log more contacts in the dozen or so hours operating the contest than in 24 hours of Field Day - not necessarily an apples to apples comparison but still encouraging.

In conjunction with N1MM I used HDSDR to find signals using a Softrock Lite II connected to the IF of my K3. HDSDR can't control N1MM directly and rather than try to hack a solution while the contest was running I didn't use it for rig control. This resulted in a fair amount of knob spinning to tune in signals but as they were so close together it wasn't a big deal even at the dial's most precise (i.e. slowest) setting of 200Hz per turn. The IF output is picked off prior to the radio's crystal filtering stage, so the narrowest filter (250 Hz) can be used to feed the RTTY decoders while still being able to see a 100 KHz wide swath of the radio spectrum.

The default display in the MMTTY and 2Tone RTTY programs is amplitude over frequency rather than a waterfall. In general I keep the filter narrow (250Hz) and it's more like regular tuning than just clicking the mouse on the signal you want. What the programs lacked in point-and-click was made up by the better decoding accuracy, integration with the logger (worked call signs display in grey, new ones in blue, and multipliers in red, based on the rules of the contest), and fine tuning ability. Using two different decoders at once also helps to figure out the message when there is noise, interference and fading as they use different decoding algorithms. N1MM supports up to 4 decoders at a time which can be used to "vote" for the right interpretation.

I'm still working on finding the best way to integrate all the software without having them fight over the control ports and audio interface. LP-Bridge is a way to have two programs share the same serial port but it's a hassle managing all the layers of software, and is reputed to have performance problems as well as some restrictive licencing.

For non-contest operation, N1MM is usable but not ideal. It doesn't like to flip modes nor can it log modes that aren't supported in the Cabrillo format (JT65 and JT9 for instance, which I frequently use). So I set out in search of a better way, which will be the subject of a future post.

The Bottom Line

I'm not a competitive contester (yet), but using N1MM has transformed the contest experience. By using a footswitch and mounting the microphone on a boom for the January 18th North American QSO Party, it left my hands free to work the radio and the keyboard.

With that in place, the logging process didn't slow down the QSO rate and the number of contacts per hour has gone up substantially. With ARRL Field Day only 5 months away, the job now is to perfect the digital operation and reach the goal of doubling last year's score.

Postscript

I should hope that every club member who uses simplex communications, whether on HF or VHF, has signed up for Logbook of the World. While signing up isn't the simplest of tasks, setup is getting easier and uploading logs is simplicity itself, especially with a good logging program LoTW accepts both ADIF and Cabrillo files, typically used for general and contest logging respectively. I have noticed that contesters are much more likely to load their QSOs into LoTW, as are digital operators. The confirmation rates have been pretty good. Excluding the contacts from the 80's that I transcribed from my paper logbook and uploaded, the percentage confirmation is 59%.