A New Adventure in Digital Communications (For Me Anyway!) JT65HF

Finally made a contact!

It's funny how things happen. I'd heard about JT65HF on a blog, and I thought I'd give it a try. I downloaded the software, fired up Ham Radio Deluxe and Digital Master 780, tuned the Ts-440 to 14076 and watched as the stations started to fill the QSO. I answered WA1QIK and after some fumbling around, we finished the QSO. I even got a QSL card via eQSL.cc. I was quite proud of myself. A few days later, I was sitting in the shack and decided I would give it another try. Nothing. I could hear stations sending tones and I could see them on the waterfall. I tried to call... Nada! Zip! Zero! Or in other words... No joy! I had read quite a bit on JT65HF and I knew that computer time was critical, so I downloaded and started running Dimension 4 5.0 to control the clock.

I started asking around for help and found no one locally who was using the mode, so I did a screen capture of the software display and tweeted for help! Bert Hyman, W0RSB took a look at the capture and suggested that I had a time problem. He suggested that I tune in WWV and check my time against that standard.

Imagine my chagrin when I found out that my computer clock was off, not by seconds, but by minutes even though I was running the clock regulation program! I set the computer clock manually by ear, a chore I haven't done for many years, and one that brought back some pleasant memories for me (but that's for a later post.)

With my clock newly set, I went back to 14076 and as our friends in F land say, et voile! The QSO area filled with CQ's and 73's and RRR's just as it was supposed to be. I stumbled through a QSO with AC5T and K1LPS and sat back with some pride and viewed my new domain. I'm in!

I went off to fix some coffee and grab a freshly picked South Carolina peach. I sat back down at the computer and took a look at my email and the news. I worked a few stations in PSK31 on 14.070 and then came back to the JT65HF page. No joy! Nada, Zip again! I rolled up to 15.000 and checked the time again. Off by four seconds! I reset the time (manually) and headed back down to 14.076 and worked KB9ILT.

So now I know I have a computer time problem, I'm not sure how I'm going to resolve it, but at least I know what the problem is. I felt like a blind man strolling through the forest in broad daylight. I could feel the heat, but I couldn't see the light!

The most interesting and most frustrating thing about this entire thing was the coincidnece of having the software work properly the first time.  If that had not happened, I might have just shrugged it off and gave up.  But I knew it could work, and I knew it wasn't working.  I couldn't let that pass!  Thanks for the help guys, and especially you Bert!