The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society (NEST) will meet on-line and in-person on October 25, 2022 at 7 PM and feature: “Overview of FT8” by Yuri Botnar, KC1LNQ.
Description: This presentation will provide an overview of FT8 with a focus on Yuri’s experience setting it up on a Windows computer with two radios, the IC7300 and the µBITX. FT8 can be an extremely effective mode for operating for individuals in housing situations with limited options for antennas, such as condominiums, as is the case for Yuri. FT8 is one of eleven different protocols of modes offered by WSJT-X V2.5. WSJT-X is a popular computer program designed to facilitate basic amateur radio communication using very weak signals. The first four letters in the program name stand for “Weak Signal communication by K1JT,” Joseph H Taylor, Jr. while the suffix “-X” indicates that WSJT-X started as an extended branch of an earlier program, WSJT, first released in 2001. Bill Somerville, G4WJS, Steve Franke, K9AN, and Nico Palermo, IV3NWV, have been major contributors to development of WSJT-X.
Bio: Yuri became interested in radio at age 13 in the city of Orgeev, Moldova. His interests were in building/repairing receivers and transmitters rather than in QSOs. Yuri graduated with a Master’s in Radio Communication in Odessa, Ukraine. He started his career as an electrical engineer at a power distribution company in Chisinau and worked his way up to senior positions there. Since 1994 Yuri has worked as an Electrical Design Engineer for a company in Beverly, MA designing power supplies for numerous industrial/scientific applications. Yuri was granted a patent for developing a “Precision Voltage Regulator for Capacitor-Charging Power Supply.”