[wsjt-devel] FT8 Bug in AutoSequencing For Rovers Using Callsign/R

[Tim Goeppinger via wsjt-devel]

I think FT8 has a bright future for VHF Contests and Field Day, but I really struggled with it in the CQ WW VHF contest last weekend.
I believe I have discovered a bug that affects the couple of dozen hams who go roving in VHF Contests.   The contest rules say that as a rover,
we must use /R after our callsign.  I entered N6GP/R and my grid into WSJT-8, and tried FT8 during the contest a bit.   I had Autosequencing turned on, and I kept getting stuck in the signal report part of the QSO.   I was receiving signal report, and sending a report over and over again.  My QSOs were almost taking as much time to complete as a JT65 QSO!
I emailed Pat, N6RMJ, with whom I had one of these elongated FT8 QSOs.   I asked if there was some problem with my signal, and he said no.  I asked him to provide our QSO out of his ALL.TXT file.
N6RMJ is running WSJT-X V 1.8 r 14 with Win 7 Pro
Here are the QSO exchanges from the N6RMJ perspective
170716_193445  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  CQ N6RMJ DM14       
193500 -10  0.6 1639 ~  N6RMJ N6GP DM14     
170716_193515  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
193530  -9  0.1 1777 ~  DE N6GP/R R-15      
170716_193545  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
193600  -9  0.6 1704 ~  DE N6GP/R R+00      
170716_193615  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
170716_193615  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ RRR      
193630  -9  0.6 1633 ~  DE N6GP/R R-19      
170716_193645  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ RRR      
193700 -10  0.6 1705 ~  DE N6GP/R 73        
170716_193715  Transmitting 50.31 MHz  FT8:  N6GP N6RMJ 73
It appears that something went wrong with his autosequencer at 19:35:45 and 19:36:15 because it was not seeing my signal reports and continued to send his signal reports.   Looks like he manually intervened during the 19:36:15 transmission with a mouse click to send the RRR. 

I am not fully versed on how the autosequencer works. but for whatever reason, the "DE N6GP/R R-15" seemed to cause the problem.  Is the problem that the N6RMJ callsign is omitted, or that my callsign changed from the original N6GP to N6GP/R ?
For completeness, here is my side of the QSO from my ALL.TXT
N6GP/R running WSJT-X 1.8.0 rc1  with Window 7 Starter
193445  -4 -0.1 1739 ~  CQ N6RMJ DM14       
170716_193500  Transmitting 50.313 MHz  FT8:  N6RMJ N6GP DM14     
193515  -5 -0.1 1739 ~  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
 170716_193530  Transmitting 50.313 MHz  FT8:  DE N6GP/R R-15      
193545 -10 -0.1 1812 ~  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
  170716_193600  Transmitting 50.313 MHz  FT8:  DE N6GP/R R+00      
193615   0 -0.1 1740 ~  N6GP N6RMJ -10      
170716_193630  Transmitting 50.313 MHz  FT8:  DE N6GP/R R-19      
193645  -9 -0.1 1740 ~  N6GP N6RMJ RRR      
170716_193700  Transmitting 50.313 MHz  FT8:  DE N6GP/R 73

Tnx & 73,
Tim N6GP

[Bill Somerville]

Post by Tim Goeppinger via wsjt-devel
I think FT8 has a bright future for VHF Contests and Field Day, but I
really struggled with it in the CQ WW VHF contest last weekend.
I believe I have discovered a bug that affects the couple of dozen
hams who go roving in VHF Contests. The contest rules say that as a
rover,
we must use /R after our callsign. I entered N6GP/R and my grid into
WSJT-8, and tried FT8 during the contest a bit. I had Autosequencing
turned on, and I kept getting stuck in the signal report part of the
QSO. I was receiving signal report, and sending a report over and
over again. My QSOs were almost taking as much time to complete as a
JT65 QSO!

Hi Tim,

I am sorting out some issues with auto-sequencing as or with type 1 & 2
compound callsign holders. Hopefully the changes will be tested and
ready for an RC2 release of WSJT-X v1.8.0.

73
Bill
G4WJS.

[Tim Goeppinger via wsjt-devel]

Bill,
I am glad to hear that you are already working on the complex callsign sequencing issue.
Many tnx & 73,
Tim N6GP