05/01/2018

A third public test of the nascent FT8 "DXpedition Mode" is set for Saturday, May 5, the WSJT[1] Development Group has announced. A fourth "release candidate" now is available, and participants in the May 5 public test should install WSJT-X version 1.9.0-rc4, beforehand.

"Once again, the goal is to simulate a rare-DXpedition pileup by having many stations ('Hounds') calling and trying to work a designated pseudo-DXpedition station ('Fox')," Joe Taylor, K1JT, said on behalf of the WSJT Development Team. "Everyone participating in the test must use WSJT-X v1.9.0-rc4." Taylor urged participants to "read, understand, and carefully follow" the FT8 DXpedition Mode User Guide[2], which contains some operating procedure details that differ from earlier versions of the beta mode software.

"If you have legitimate access to more than one call sign (spouse, a club call, or whatever), please feel free to call and work each Fox more than once," Taylor said. "The more Hounds, the better; we want the test pileup to be as deep as possible."

The third public test will include three 1-hour sessions.




UTC



Frequency



Fox Call Sign



Operator




1400



14.090 MHz



W1/KH7Z



N1DG




1500



14.090



W7/KH7Z



AA7A




1600



14.090



K1JT



K1JT



Any last-minute instructions will be announced on the Ping Jockey Relief[3] chat page.

Installation packages[4] for WSJT-X v1.9.0-rc4 on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Raspian Jessie have been posted on the WSJT website.

Participants are asked to report their test results and any problems encountered to the WSJT-X development lists on sourceforge.com[5] or to the Yahoo WSJT-X Development Group[6] reflector. You must be a subscriber in order to post to these lists.

The third beta release of the new DXpedition Mode has been tested over the past several weeks, including during a public test on April 7. "A few additional bugs were identified and corrected, and the -rc4 release also includes some minor enhancements," Taylor said. "A general availability (GA) release of WSJT-X Version 1.9.0 will be announced at a suitable time, probably in the near future. After that you should stop using any -rc# release candidate."


[1] https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
[2] http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/FT8_DXpedition_Mode.pdf
[3] http://www.pingjockey.net/cgi-bin/pingtalkB
[4] http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
[5] mailto:wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge
[6] mailto:wsjtgroup@yahoogroups.com

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