GSoC Week 2: FT8 Encoder Block Development

May 30, 2025

Hello? Hello. Can you hear me? Yep pretty well…can you hear me? Yep, well see ya. Yea, talk later!

For those who are unfamiliar with what a complete FT8 QSO (contact) sequence might look like, here’s a usual sequence.

CQ call
Response
Signal Report
Confirmation
Confirmation and goodbye
Goodbye

Introductions in real life repeat a lot of the same information your name and where you’re from. A concept I came across was a priori decoding (AP decoding). Without AP decoding the threshold for FT8 is around -20dB. But with AP decoding the software uses information that it already knows might be in the signal to help decode the weaker signals. This can include your callsign, callsign of stations you’re currently in QSO with, “CQ” and other message conventions that are helpful. This can mean the threshold can be a lot lower.

GSoC Week 1: FT8 Research and Technical Prep

May 23, 2025

After my initial meeting with GSoC mentors Marcus and Wylie on May 16th, I’ve spent the week going through FT8 research and preparation. We discussed the project goals - ideally having a complete FT8/WSPR implementation in a GNU Radio OOT module ready for the October conference - and decided to start with FT8 due to its better documentation and reference implementations.