The latest stats from the Clublog website suggests that the FT8 digital mode now accounts for over half of all contacts made on the amateur radio bands in the year 2020.
The chart below from July 2017 to March 2021 shows how FT8 has grown to dominate the bands since its release in the second half of 2017.
Surprisingly, the newer and faster FT4 mode doesn't seem to have made any inroads on the popularity of FT8 since its introduction in late 2019.
Tens of thousands of logs are uploaded to the Clublog website every year and the data trends for 2020 are based on over 66.4 million contacts.
Every year, the Knights QRSS Group release their annual compendium. You can view the Winter 2020(3rd edition)HERE
The Knights QRSS Group promotes the use of very slow mode code beacons to carry out propagation experiments on the HF bands. Often signals that are 15 to 20 dB below the noise can be seen on a computer screen as opposed to being heard by ear.
While newer digital modes can now be used for detecting very weak signals, they don't really show propagation effects. Either the digital signal was decoded or it wasn't. QRSS signals like the one shown below shows propagation over a 15-minute period.
In that image, you can see how signals fade with the Sporadic-E footprint moving and the polarisation changing. It also shows up slight doppler effects.
Press Release... Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).
This will be a direct contact via amateur radio between students at the Athlone Community College, Athlone, Ireland and astronaut Shannon Walker, amateur radio call sign KD5DXB.
Astronaut Shannon Walker
Amateur radio station EI1ISS will be the ground station for this contact. About 800 people will be onsite for the event. Students will take turns asking Walker questions and English is the language expected to be used during the contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for December 7, 2020 at 2:50 pm GMT (Athlone), (14:50 UTC, 9:50 am EST, 8:50 am CST, 7:50 am MST and 6:50 am PST).
Television report from Irish state broadcaster RTE...
Students from a secondary school in the midlands are hooking up with an astronaut on the International Space Station this afternoon to try and find out how space travel is affecting life on earth. https://t.co/ljwoI4jaOWpic.twitter.com/T3wTcRTdEi
Athlone Community College has 1,200 students, ages 12 to 18, from a diverse range of backgrounds, and from both rural and urban areas. Mathematics, science and engineering subjects occupy a special place in the school curriculum for both the junior and senior levels, and students have enjoyed studying the ISS and space. In preparation for the ARISS contact, teachers have conducted lessons that involve science and physics studies.
Video from Athlone Community College showing the preparations for the contact ...
Preparation for our live space call on Monday starts at 1:30 pm with great music, guest speakers and more, before the direct contact is made at 2:50 pm 🚀☄️ https://t.co/yy6T8TOlEBpic.twitter.com/aMQaDVsnfh
As time allows, students will ask these questions: 1. Did you enjoy the launch into space? 2. Tell us something about current experiments on the ISS? 3. What is your favourite area in the ISS? 4. What activities do you do in your spare time? 5. What is the most interesting thing you have seen on Earth from the space station? 6. What evidence of climate change can you see from space? 7. How many years of training does it take to become an astronaut? 8. Where does the ISS get its energy from? 9. What happens if you are in a space suit and your nose becomes really itchy? 10. When you return home what will you miss most about the ISS? 11. What was the most difficult challenge you had to overcome during training? 12. When you first saw the earth from space what was your reaction? 13. Has something useful on earth come from space experiments? 14. Are your muscles weak when you return from micro gravity? 15. If there was a manned mission to Mars would you consider going? 16. Will it ever be feasible to travel to another solar system? 17. How do you keep fit with the low gravity in space? 18. Does your sense of taste and smell change in space? 19. While on the ISS are you able to communicate with family? 20. When did you decide you wanted to become an astronaut - from a young age or did your interest develop at a later age?
Profile of astronaut Shannon Walker...
ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations on the ISS
About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) marks its 95th anniversary in 2020 and the national society for Spain (URE) have a special award scheme to celebrate the event.
Contacts can be made using any mode or band from 160 meters to 6 meters with the 10 different AMxWARD special stations. The special station callsigns are: AM95WARD - AM1WARD - AM2WARD - AM3WARD - AM4WARD AM5WARD - AM6WARD - AM7WARD - AM8WARD - AM9WARD The award scheme runs from the 15th April 2020 at 0000z to 30th April 2020 (2359z). There are diplomas in PDF format awarded as follows (For European stations)... SILVER DIPLOMA - Work 5 AM*WARD stations GOLD DIPLOMA - Work 7 AM*WARD stations on at least 3 different bands (i.e. work 7 stations on 3 bands) PLATINUM DIPLOMA - Work 10 AM*WARD stations on at least 3 different bands (i.e. work all 10 stations on 3 bands. This was later reduced to 9 as it was felt 10 was too hard.) The award website is... https://iaru95.ure.es/
The Spanish National Society (URE) run award schemes like this every year or so and their award websites are excellent. As award schemes go, they really set the Gold standard.
Update 2nd May 2020... The award activation came to an end on the 30th of April and I managed 75 contacts on CW.
I worked 9 of the 10 stations on the 8 bands from 10m to 80m and I worked all 10 stations on 3 bands for the Platinum award (shown below).
The problem one of course was AM9WARD in Ceuta and Melilla on the north coast of Africa. They were always in demand with big pile ups and with the activity spread out over SSB and FT8 as well, they were always going to be a problem.
I missed the first 3 days of the award activation but I doubt if I would have worked much more from the start.
