Message-ID: <50B6463E.9070705@princeton.edu>
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:13:34 -0500
From: Joe Taylor <joe@Princeton.EDU>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111105 Thunderbird/8.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Subject: LF: WSJT-X v0.5 r2783
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org


To:   Users of WSJT-X
From: Joe Taylor, K1JT

A new revision of the experimental program WSJT-X has been posted.  As 
usual, a link to it appears on the WSJT web site:

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjt.html

The following is a direct link to the installation file:

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSJTX_05r2783.exe

This revision has an unusually large number of changes relative to the 
previous release, v0.4 r2746.  These changes include:

1. PTT control via COM ports COM10 and higher is enabled.

2. Improved decoder performance: higher speed as well as better chances 
of success.  Moderate amounts of frequency drift are detected and 
compensated.  Computed S/N values are more reliable.  Time offsets from 
-2.5 to +5 s are now supported, which makes JT9 usable for EME.  (EME 
tests on 144 MHz have been successful, and performance on that 
propagation mode appears to be good.)

3. Tx Frequency now tracks the selected QSO Frequency (unless you hold 
down the CTRL key when setting QSO Frequency via mouse-clicks or the 
F11/F12 keys).

4. Decoded text containing "CQ " is highlighted with green background; 
text including "MyCall" is highlighted in red.

5. In previous versions, signal reports were required to be in the range 
-30 to -01 dB.  In v0.5 r2782 the range has been extended to -50 to +49 
dB.  There is backward compatibility for the range -30 to -01, but 
reports in the range -50 to -31 and 0 to +49 will NOT be decoded 
correctly by previous program versions.  It is important to upgrade!

6. Items "Save Synced" and "Save Decoded" are now implemented.

7. UTC Date, JT9 submode, and a parameter related to the decoding 
procedure are now included in file wsjtx_rx.log.

8. Editing of Tx messages (in any of the six Tx message boxes) is 
complete when you hit "Tab" or "Return".  The message is then parsed and 
converted to the form in which it will be displayed if decoding is 
successful.  Free-text messages are trimmed to 13 characters and 
highlighted with a pink background.

9. The most recent transmitted message is displayed in the right-most 
label on the status bar.  This can be useful if you have lost track of 
where you were in a QSO.

10. By default, the program now starts with Monitor ON.  An option on 
the Setup menu allows you to select "Monitor OFF at startup".

11. Better scaling is provided for the red "JT9 Sync" curve.  Note that 
JT9 signals in the active sub-mode should appear in this plot as a bump 
of width equal to the total signal bandwidth, with a narrow and slightly 
higher bump at the left edge.  The narrow bump is the frequency of the 
Sync tone, which is defined as the nominal frequency of the JT9 signal.

12. Basic QSO information is now written to file wsjt.log when you click 
the "Log QSO" button.

13. The WSJT-X User's Guide has been updated.

14. Other known bugs have been fixed.  There will probably be new ones! 
  When you find one, or if you know of any old ones that have NOT been 
fixed, please send me email.

Summary of Present Status
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that WSJT-X is now a stable and very usable program.  Many 
thousands of QSOs have been made with JT9-1, mostly at HF -- I have made 
nearly 100, myself.  Also a number of QSOs have also been completed at 
MF, and successful tests have been made on 2m EME, etc.  A number of 
QSOs have also been made with JT9-2.

As far as I know the slower modes (JT9-5, JT9-10, and JT9-30) also work 
correctly.  (Certainly they do in my laboratory test setup.)  Most 
people will find these modes too slow for "everyday" use, and they 
require high frequency stability.  It remains to be seen whether they 
will be widely used.

An alternative approach to obtaining improved sensitivity would be to 
give the decoder an ability to average over several successive 
transmissions.  For example, the average of five JT9-1 transmissions 
could reach a decoding threshold around -32 dB, only 2 dB worse than a 
single JT9-5 transmission.  Because of QSB, the shorter transmissions 
may actually succeed in less total time.  Stability requirements would 
be those of JT9-1, much less stringent than those of JT9-5.

Program development is not finished, by any means.  I will be grateful 
for your feedback on performance issues, as well as your "wish-list" of 
features to be added.  As always, example recordings of files that you 
think should have decoded, but did not, will be much appreciated.

I hope to find time for more work on WSJT-X soon. Later this week, 
however, my radio time will be focused primarily on the ARRL 
International EME Contest.

With best wishes,

	-- 73, Joe, K1JT