JT what - Ah, JT9!

Well,

A while ago I had a play with JT9 - its a cousin of the popular JT65. JT65 was designed for V/UHF comms and JT9 was designed for L/MF. Now JT65 has proved popular on the HF bands generally, and , for example on 20M, you would find JT65 with a dial frequency on USB of 14.076. Now, JT9 is typically found 2KHz above this, so on 20M this would need a dial frequency of 14.078.

The latest and greatest piece of software from the gang that develop the WSJT software, more specifically WSJT-X, have now included a bi-lingual feature! The software can receive both JT65 and JT9 at the same time!

To do this you need a radio capable of a wide RX - 4KHz required here for the full spectrum of both types of transmission. I have completely failed to find  way to do this with my FT-DX-3000, but have managed to get the FT-DX-5000 configured to do this.

I hoped to do this in PKT mode, but the width is fixed at a maximum of 2.4KHz in this mode, but in USB you can set the bandwidth to 4KHz (I struggled to see this full bandwidth in the waterfall until I remembered that I had a 3KHz roofing filter in line - doh!).

So, here is a screen shot from the latest WSJT-X:

including my first JT9 QSO with CT1FBK - thanks Miguel! The JT9 signals are to the right of the blue line at 2500Hz in the smaller window with the JT65 signals to the left.

Now, most (if not all) commercial SSB transceivers include an audio filter in the TX path, this means that the radio cannot generate the tones over the necessary spectrum for both JT65 and JT9 with a single dial frequency. To get round this the software includes CAT interfacing and you run the radio in split mode, using VFO A for RX and VFO B for TX. When you TX in JT9 the dial frequency on the TX VFO is altered and the appropriate tones generated.

Simply genius!

I'd Get Annoyed - If I Actually Cared

Well,

Been doing a bit of JT65ing over the past few days, using the callsign A71A from QARS:

This is my friend Ali, A71BZ, I've been trying to get over to him and others the benefits and usage of low power digital modes. It seems, however, when you live in the desert, have oodles of space for antennas and can run power without anyone even noticing, SSB has great appeal....

This is the simple setup I have been using for JT65, on the left of the FT-2000 is a gigawatt rated ATU, in front of that is the remote control for a 2K amplifier from Acom, and above the ATU is a bandpass filter box of some kind. This stuff is used when they have two stations running in the same room at the same time with antennas not very far apart. How well this works is rather dubious as the preamp in the FT-2000 is clearly destroyed - running in the setting IPO results in far stronger signals that using Amp-1 or Amp-2. All is clearly not well inside the radio.

Anyhow, my 20W on JT65 is leading to signals all over Europe and as far the other direction as Japan and China. Something is working.

Now, here's the problem. When I am in QSO with someone in JT65, I really don't expect other stations to start calling me on top of the station I'm working while I am mid QSO- there's a fixed set of exchanges in JT65... as any JT65 operator will know. I understand that the call is probably a new country for most in that mode but....

Do I need to say more - this applies as much to digital modes as any other mode:

I kind of though that the digital boys were better behaved - how wrong I was.

Not done much from the apartment yet:

Being on the 21st floor is likely to have advantages RF wise - it's not so clever when the wind is extreme and there's sandstorms outside. Time will tell...

Bad news though, egh?