Upgrade of WSJT-X software and the 40 MHz band
Just a post of some notes for my own benefit although others might find it useful as well.
Even when I wasn’t updating the blog for the last six months, I was still using the radio in that I left it monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28.1264 MHz every day. The software I was using on the PC was WSJT-X with quite an old rev V2.0.1 which I think is from 2019?
I never really bothered updating the version I had as it decoded WSPR and FT8 signals fine. I know my old version didn’t decode the ‘new’ FT4 mode but I wasn’t too bothered about that.
I tried listening for some of the Irish 40 MHz beacons this morning. I managed to get two two successful decodes from EI1CAH on 40.16 MHz using the PI4 mode. I think this was via aircraft scatter.
The other beacon EI1KNH on 40.013 MHz uses several modes including FT8 so I had to be careful as I didn’t want to ‘hear’ something on 40 MHz and have my PC upload it to PSKReporter as a 28 MHz signal.
The problem with my old version of WSJT-X and FT8 is that it doesn’t support any 40 MHz operation. So I downloaded the latest version of WSJT-X from the Princeton University website… V2.5.4
It essentially looked the same when I ran it. From the default settings, it doesn’t show 8m (40 MHz) as a band option.
Under ‘File’, I had to go to ‘Settings…’ and then click on ‘Frequencies’ as can be seen above.
There are loads of options here… I picked the one that was All mode on 24 GHz as I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need it 😉
Then it’s just a case of double clicking on it and changing the frequency. I chose 40.680 MHz… and then clicked ok.
When I went back to the main programme then, I had 40.680 MHz on 8m as a band option.
In the end, I didn’t manage to any FT8 decodes from the beacon but I probably need to improve my antenna system.
At listen I can report any signals that I hear now.
Addendum… I finally managed to decode one FT8 transmission from EI1KNH which I think was from aircraft scatter again.
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