Release of WSJT-X 2.6.0-rc2

 Dear WSJT-X Users,

We are pleased to announce that Release Candidate WSJT-X 2.6.0-rc2 is
ready for download by beta testers. A list of its essential changes from
previous releases can be found in the Release Notes:
https://physics.princeton.edu//pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt

Links for downloading WSJT-X 2.6.0-rc2 can be found on the WSJT-X Home
Page, https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
Scroll down to find "Candidate release: WSJT-X 2.6.0-rc2".

We hope you will enjoy using this beta release of WSJT-X 2.6.0. As a
beta tester you should report on your experiences with its new features,
successful and otherwise, on one of the relevant WSJT forums. Bugs
should be reported by following instructions found here in the User Guide:

https://www.physics.princeton.edu//pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.6.0-rc2.html#_bug_reports

WSJT-X and MAP65 are licensed under the terms of Version 3 of the GNU
General Public License (GPLv3). Development of this software is a
cooperative project to which many amateur radio operators have
contributed. If you use our code, please have the courtesy to let us
know about it. If you find bugs or make improvements to the code, please
report them to us in a timely fashion. Additional licensing details can
be found here:
https://physics.princeton.edu//pulsar/k1jt/devel.html

73 from the WSJT Core Development Team
Joe, K1JT; Steve, K9AN; Nico, IV3NWV; Chet, KG4IYS; Uwe, DG2YCB;
Brian, N9ADG; and John, G4KLA

WSJT-X FT8 update

 I ran this WSJT-X on my Linux Mint laptop on 50.313 in FT8 mode for a few days, amazed at what it decoded,  from here in Sydney (VK2)  decoding stations VK1,2,3,4,5,6,7, plus ZL1,2  this is not using a 5 or 6 element 6metre yagi, no, this is  from using my 40m HF dipole, through the Icom 756 Pro2's antenna tuner, with s5 noise level, the FT8 does the trick of pulling signals out of the noise.  Even a SWL can throw a bit of wire out in the backyard and decode these signals.  

It's not hard to think  what you can get with a couple phased arrays up a mast, in a low noise environment. No reason not to get the America's or Europe with proper 6metre setup. Great fun, I can't wait to go out in the country and try it from a low noise floor environment. It's too damned noisy in the city suburbs with all these damned houses with solar panels with noisy inverters running all day. Tired of listening to high noise level on HF  and 50 Mhz, thanks to fxxxing Greenies and their fxxxing solar panels polluting the RF spectrum.

WSJT-X 2.5.4 running on Linux Mint 20.3

 I finally got around to installing latest WSJT-X, both on my Windows10 laptop and also on my Linux Mint laptop, these are old hand-me-down laptops,  the Linux Mint laptop is an old ASUS N550J 2015 model I think, it was my XYL's MS Windows10 laptop which became unbearably slow and useless, so I took it and installed Linux on it, I tried a few different versions, but settled on LinuxMint as it is derived from Ubuntu and Ubuntu derived from Debian. Anyway, the old ASUS has a new lease on life, it is fast again.  I have in the past ran WSJT on  various Linux platforms, on old Dell servers, I had deliberately  gone about  compiling and testing WSJT on  the various Linux derivations and documenting it. Anyway, I finally put some antennas up at home, since moving house, I thought lets try some actual weak signal radio activities.  

Next, I downloaded the .deb files for WSJT-X 2.5.4 and installed on Linux Mint 20.3 this was just too easy, much easier than the old days of manually compiling against different version of Linux, now days  it is  as easy installing on Linux, (since it based on QT5,) as it is for  installing on a MS-Windows 10 laptop.

Next step, connect the TigerTronics USB SignalLink interface to my IC-756PROII transceiver and the other end into the USB of the Linux Mint laptop, to make sure it was found and defined as a linux device, I ran a couple commands from terminal window, such as lsusb command to show the USB devices,  and used the Sound application in Linux Mint to see the input and output sound devices were identified and could see it displayed and I could test the interface.

I read some forums, I can see quite a few hams complaining that they  could not get their SignalLink devices to work on LinuxMint, I can't understand it, as I found it so easy. I can't imagine what the hell they were doing, (or not doing),  to make it work, it was just so damned easy. Maybe they just using some old crappy PC or laptop.

Anyway, I had it all installed and configured and plugged into the transceiver and before I even realised it, the thing was decoding  FT8 on 50.313MHz, which blew me away, as I couldn't even hear anything like a signal coming from the radio, yet, I was decoding callsigns and messages from other hams. This is what I call weak signal Dxing!

Next step, I better read the WSJT-X documentation to see how I start replying to people on FT8. A few years I was at Dave VK2JDS's place watching JT65 on 23cm EME, which was impressive as it is, but FT8 is pushing the boundaries even further.