If you are new to WSJT or would like to become more adept in its use, the following step-by-step tutorial might help. To use it you must first obtain the collection of sample wave files available at http://pulsar.princeton.edu/~joe/K1JT/WSJT6_Samples.EXE. (Warning to those with slow internet connections: the file is 22 MB in size.) Basic instructions for the tutorial follow. 0. Please begin by reading the most up-to-date WSJT User's Guide and related documentation. 1. If you have already installed and used a version of WSJT6, delete your WSJT.INI file or rename it to something else, temporarily. This will ensure that you start the tutorial with everything in the default configuration. 2. To install WSJT6 (version 5.9.7), execute the file WSJT597.EXE. The default installation directory is C:\Program Files\WSJT6. 3. Install the sample files to your WSJT6 directory by executing the file WSJT6_Samples.EXE. 4. Double-click on the WSJT6 desktop icon to start the program. Position the main WSJT6 window conveniently on your screen. You may ignore or minimize the other two windows for now. 5. By default WSJT starts in FSK441 mode (yellow label at bottom left of status bar). Select menu item File -> Open and navigate to subdirectory RxWav\Samples\FSK441 under your WSJT6 installation directory. Double-click on the first file in this directory, K5CZD_050723_134100.WAV. The file will be opened in WSJT and a 2-dimensional spectrogram will be displayed in the main graphical area. Click the Decode button to decode the file, producing the following text in the main text box: 134100 27.4 220 6 26 -21 O1JT 26 K5CZD 2626 K1JT 27 K5CZ #6 This file contains one meteor "ping" at t=27.4 s, lasting 220 ms, with (S+N)/N = 6 dB. K5CZD is sending K1JT the signal report "26". (Here and elsewhere in this tutorial, please refer to the WSJT User's Guide for additional information.) 6. Hit the F6 key (or select File -> Open next in directory) to open and decode successive files in the FSK441 directory. These files contain recordings of K8EB calling KB4BWW, KC0HLN calling CQ and then working K1JT, KM5ES working K1JT, KM5PO calling K1JT as a "tailender", and finally N9EGT calling CQ. With any of these files you should try left- and right-clicking on the pings to cause the program to decode at a particular location in the file. You can also try clicking on pure noise, away from any ping; you should then see only garbage as decoded text. 7. Exit and restart the program, and then hit Shift-F7 to switch to JT6M mode. Select File -> Open, navigate to the subfolder RxWav\Samples\JT6M under your WSJT6 installation directory, and double-click on the AA9MY file. You should see a message in which AA9MY is finishing a QSO by sending "73 DE AA9MY": 142300 15.1 1.2 -2 -15 9MY 73 DE AA9MF2 The AA9MY signal is rather weaker than those in the FSK441 examples. (Try listening to any of the files using Windows Sound Recorder, to get a feeling for what they sound like.) 8. Hit F6 to open and decode successive files in the JT6M directory. You should see AC5TM working K1SIX, AF4O working K1JT, and WA5UFH working K0AWU. The signals are inaudible or barely audible in several files, and yet decodable. The second AF4O file produces no decoded text by default, but try right-clicking at t=17.6 s. (The file time corresconding to the mouse pointer is diaplayed in a green label at lower left of the plot area.) You can find several other examples of decodable text from flat regions on the green curve. 9. Hit F8 to switch to mode JT65A. You should now pay some attention to the SpecJT screen as well as the main WSJT6 screen; select View -> SpecJT if you have minimized or deleted it. Select speed 3 on the SpecJT screen and check the following items on the SpecJT Options menu: Flatten spectra, Mark JT65 tones only if Freeze is checked, JT65 DF axis. Select File -> Open on the main screen, navigate to the JT65A directory, and double-click on the F9HS file name. The SpecJT screen will show a messy spectrum filled with birdies at 100 Hz intervals and other interfering signals. The red curve in the main-screen graphical area suggests a possible JT65 sync tone amongst all that mess. No decoded text appears, but the program does report a possibly significant detection at sync=1 and signal level -23 dB. The reported width of the sync tone is 5 Hz. To examine further, left-click on the red spike, check AFC, and click on Decode. You should see that F9HS is answering the CQ of K1JT: 074800 1 -23 2.7 363 5 * K1JT F9HS JN23 10. Uncheck AFC and hit F6 to open the next file. A smaller red spike appears, but no decoded text. The SpecJT waterfall clearly shows a weak signal, this time without any significant interference. Go to the menu Decode -> JT65 and change the "Normal" decoding option to "Exhaustive", then click the Decode button again. This time you should see that G3FPQ is calling W7GJ: 131900 1 -25 1.5 42 3 * W7GJ G3FPQ IO91 Exhaustive decoding can take up to twice as long as Normal decoding, but it is more sensitive. If your computer has a 1.5 GHz or faster CPU, you will probably want to use Exhaustive all the time. 11. Hit F6 again to select the final JT65A file. The waterfall shows a clear signal drifting upward by about 15 Hz during the transmission. Again no decoded text appears. Perhaps AFC will accommodate the drift? Click AFC and then Decode; still no good. In desperation (perhaps you need Montana for 2m WAS?) clear AFC and click "Include" to force the program to do its best, even though it may consider the synchronization to be sub-par. Voila! W7GJ is sending K1JT the OOO signal report, so a QSO should be possible. 12. Hit Shift-F8 to select mode JT65B; then select File -> Open, navigate to the JT65A directory, and select the DL7UAE file. The waterfall shows a strong birdie at DF=783 Hz and several weaker signals. The ones at DF=223 and DF=244 Hz look potentially interesting because they show the "speckled" QSB typical of EME libration fading at 2 meters. WSJT chooses the signal at DF=223 Hz and decodes it to show that DL7UAE has answered a CQ from K1JT. The red curve shows another red spike that looks almost as good. Can you discover who else might be calling? (The answer is given below.) 13. When you are ready to go on, hit F6 to open the next file. The green curve shows nasty SSB QRM starting at t=5.3 s into the file. (Again, you might want to listen to the file.) Rhythmic, broadband noise is also present, showing clearly on the green line. Fortunately, the waterfall looks nearly clean in the important JT65 spectral region -- and WSJT has no problem decoding the signal at DF=-46 Hz, with EA5SE sending K1JT the OOO signal report. Try double-clicking on the sync tone in the waterfall, or on the red spike in the main-screen graphics area. These actions will automatically set DF to the selected frequency, Freeze ON and Tol=50 Hz, and will then invoke the decoder. You can see on the red curve that the sync-tone search range has been reduced to the selected DF +/- 50 Hz. 14. Hit F6 to open the next file. You will see EA5SE sending K1JT the shorthand message RRR. Magenta and orange curves in the graphics area show phase-resolved spectra in each of the two phases of the shorthand message cycle, thereby illustrating amplitudes of the shorthand message tones. Hit the F6 key once more to decode the end of the QSO, with ES5SE sending 73 to K1JT. Uncheck Freeze and hit F6 again. The waterfall shows a likely sync tone with plenty of libration fading at DF=-22 Hz, and WSJT decodes EI4DQ sending K1JT the OOO signal report. Double-click on the sync tone to lock him in, and hit F6 to open the next file. He has received my OOO report, and is now sending RO. 15. Clear the Freeze box and hit F6 again to open the first IK1UWL file. Two birdies are in the passband, but WSJT ignores them and finds a valid sync tone at DF=223 Hz, decoding IK1UWL sending an OOO report to K1JT. Double-click on the sync tone to lock him in, and wait for the next transmission (i.e., hit F6). He has copied RO, so is sending RRR. We would now send him 73s to signify that the QSO is complete. 16. Clear the Freeze box and hit F6 to find RU1AA calling CQ. ALex is nearly always LOUD; these signals are easily audible. In the next several files we work him quickly, despite two birdies that are drifting down through his JT65 signal passband. Notice that decoded shorthand messages are always flagged with a "?" mark unless you have turned Freez ON and set Tol to 100 Hz or less, which you should always do for best results. Alex ends the QSO by sending the message "TNX JOE -14 73" to tell me that my signal peaked at -14 dB. Since this message does not start with two callsigns (or CQ or QRZ plus one callsign) it is treated as a plain text message; such messages convey up to 13 characters, so in this case the final "3" has been truncated. 17. Clear the Freeze box and hit F6 to show another big Russian signal: RW1AY/1 is answering a CQ from K1JT. Double-click on the sync tone (on either window) to lock it in, and then hit F6 to see the "RO", "73", "-19TNXQSO 73" contents of the next three transmissions. 18. Were you able to decode the second station answering my CQ in the DL7UAE file? If so, congratulations! If not, go back to File -> Open and select the first file again. Left-click on the smaller red spike, check Freeze ON, and reduce Tol to 10 Hz. Then hit Decode, and you will see SP6GWB calling with an excellent signal. Note 1: The DL7UAE and SP6GWB signals are separated by only 22 Hz, so that their tones overlap almost fully in the 355 Hz passband of JT65B. The JT65 decoder copes with the resulting QRM by means of its robust error-correcting code. Note 2: Hit F2 to open the Setup -> Options screen and enter your own call (or some other call) in place of K1JT in the "My Call" box. Then dismiss the Options screen and try to decode the SP6GWB signal again. You will surely fail, because in this case successful copy was a result from the Deep Search decoder. (Callsigns in the CALL3.TXT database are paired up with CQ and with the MyCall entry, encoded, and compared with the received information. If the signals match to within a specified confidence level, the matching message is displayed.) In these circumstances there is a small chance that you might see a false decode. If so, it will usually be flagged with a "?" mark to remind you to exercise your own judgment, based on signal strength, sync level, displayed graphical information and your accumulated JT65 experience, as to whether the message can be accepted as valid.