Re: [wsjt-devel] Someone released an Auto CQ mod - my 2 cents

[Dave A. <aa...@am...>]

+ AA6YQ comments below

Regulations aside, why did we become hams?  If all you want is to collect QSO’s without being actually involved, why spend the time and money on education and equipment?  Sorry, I vote against further animation of FT8 or any other protocol.  Some automation is helpful, too be sure, but there is such a thing as too much.

+ I don't care whether other hams are curious experimenters or appliance operators. Amateur radio encompasses a broad range of activities; no one op is likely to pursue all of them. Who am I to say what others should do?

+ However, we all share the RF spectrum we've been granted, and we are expected to courteously share that spectrum with our fellow operators worldwide. That means listening to a frequency before transmitting on it. That means politely QSYing when a change in propagation causes two previously independent QSOs to QRM each other.

+ There is currently only one FT8 "watering hole" defined on each band (ignoring the frequencies used for Fox/Hound operations). Yes, you can operate FT8 outside a "watering hole", but doing so makes you invisible to the majority of FT8 ops who are operating within a watering hole. So the public release of an application that makes it easy for any user to setup his or her station for unattended 7x24 FT8 operation with the goal of working every station not yet worked should be chilling. The FT8 watering holes are already quite busy; imagine what will happen when the unattended stations of several thousand users around the world jump in.

+ SQ9FVE created this application by modifying the WSJT-X source code. He claims in

<https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/wsjt-x-full-auto-mod.652050/>

+ that WSJT-X can also support unattended operation, but there is a huge difference between allowing WSJT-X to handle the next response to your CQ while you refresh your coffee, and allowing an application to call CQ and make QSOs 7x24 while you are at work or sleeping or out for a bike ride.

+ I was unable to convince SQ9VFE that a public release of his application is irresponsible. My advice to DXers is to work what you need soon, because the FT8 watering holes may be overrun by unattended stations.

+ As for the wisdom of making WSJT-X open source, I will point out that the fully documented PSKCore library developed by Moe AE4JY has been available for nearly 20 years, and could be used to create an application that does in PSK31 what SQ9VFE's application does in FT8: enable unattended operation. No developer ever took that step, presumably because they understood the damage it could do.

        73,

               Dave, AA6YQ