Thoughts on Digital

Ham radio is a long hobby. I don’t really want to rag chew, so I started in FT8/FT4. I got lots of practice and learned about propagation with help of pskreporter and other operators. FT8/FT4 works with low power at home or portable.

I bridged into RTTY and PSK contesting for the next challenge and a bit of excitement interacting with another human keyboard-to-keyboard. I had to wait for contests for activity on RTTY or PSK.

Next, I’m learning CW, the original digital mode. It has the benefit of being common to see every day in POTA and in contests. CW is still low power and weak signal. It’s exciting to learn the skill to key and to copy. I can currently key, but I need assistance to copy with computer or radio.

Digital has been a fulfilling path through amateur radio so far.

See also