In the spirit of trying new ham things, I got my rig set up for FT-8 this week to give it a try. I made about 15 contacts the other day. All of them were calling CQ and I answered them. I've got a couple of questions.
How many times do you try contacting someone before it's impolite?
Can you try to contact someone that isn't calling CQ?
When someone is calling CQ, sometimes they list North America, SA, EU or some other designation at the END of their CQ line. If you look at normal FT-8 formatting that isn't who they are trying to contact (like when they write CQ DX). It seems to be where they are calling from. What is the significance of this? Do I need to pay attention to it or ignore it?
Any help appreciated.
Insults and abuse will be graded on the standard 1-10 scale.
Joe
You can try to contact anyone, anytime, for as long as you want to.
Doesn't matter if they aren't calling CQ. You have to consider they're doing something else, though.
Like, maybe, talking to someone else.
Is it impolite if the other guy hears you, but doesn't reply?
Call often if you want the Q.
I am one short of WAZ, for example, after 45 years.
Think I am going to pass that up when the opportunity strikes?
Remember, propagation can change quickly, and if a path opens, and you're there ...
A post above said to QSY after a bit, and that is smart advice.
Now ... If I'm calling CQ and I add <EU>, I only want EU stations. If I format my message oddly for the mode, the intent still remains.
On the topic of something new ...
Using the same exact setup you have for FT8, see if you like JS8CALL better.
Slightly different frequencies (7078 for example instead of 7074).
It's basically texting, but on HF. If the SNR is good, switch to turbo mode and type ahead of your buffer - if you can.