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weechat-radio:$ Compare modes
How WeeChat Radio’s radio presets sit next to other ham text modes in noise. Click a column header to sort.
The two HF chat presets
Orange rows are WeeChat Radio on HF: hf-weak / hf-poor for normal noisy chat, and hf-deep when the path is almost gone.
vhf-fm / handheld is also WeeChat Radio, but it is 1200 baud FM packet — closer to APRS than to FT8.
These are not lab measurements
Each score is 1 (poor) to 5 (strong) for that column only. SNR numbers for WSPR, FT8, JS8, Olivia, PSK31, RTTY, and APRS are typical published ham figures. modem73 has no side-by-side SNR table in this project. Rank WeeChat Radio HF by design (slower preset + retries), not by a claimed dB number.
Score colour
- 1 poor
- 2 weak
- 3 mid
- 4 good
- 5 strong
- Colour is that column only. 1 red (poor) → 5 green (strong). The number is always shown.
- Orange row = WeeChat Radio HF. Indigo name = handheld. Those are not scores.
Mode × trait
Click a header to sort. Click again to reverse. Score columns start high-to-low. Mode and Job start A–Z.
| Mode | Job | SNR | Fade | QRM | Speed | Recover | Open | VHF FM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wcr hf-weak / hf-poor | Normal HF chat | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| wcr hf-deep | Last-resort HF | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| wcr vhf-fm / handheld | Local VHF/UHF FM | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| WSPR | Beacon, not chat | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| FT8 | 77-bit QSO | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| FT4 | Faster FT8 QSO | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| JS8Call | Slow HF chat | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| Olivia 8/250 | HF typed chat | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| VARA HF | Winlink / files | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| PSK31 | Live keyboard HF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| RTTY 45 | Contest / bulletin | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| APRS 1200 AFSK | VHF short text | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
What the columns mean
| Trait | 5 | 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Weak SNR | WSPR (~−31 dB) then FT8/JS8 (~−21 dB) | AFSK 1200 / FM quieting required |
| Fading | Long coded symbols, interleave, or retries across a fade | One dip prints garbage (PSK31, RTTY, APRS CRC) |
| QRM | Narrow or heavily coded; survives splatters | No FEC; one hit corrupts the line |
| Speed | 1200 baud packet or adaptive OFDM (VARA) | WSPR 2 min beacon; FT8 15 s / FT4 7.5 s tiny payloads; JS8 / hf-deep chat |
| Auto recover | ACK + retries + mode step-down or ARQ (wcr HF, VARA) | Beacon only (WSPR) or print-and-pray (PSK31, RTTY) |
| Open | Documented amateur mode (JS8, Olivia, PSK, RTTY, APRS) | Closed (VARA). wcr envelope is open; modem73 is a separate modem |
| Quiet VHF FM | Handheld KISS / APRS on a clean FM channel | HF-only waveforms |
How to read the WeeChat Radio rows
hf-weak/hf-poorMid SNR (3), strong fading recovery and retries (5), usable speed (3). Start onhf-poor. Drop tohf-weakwhen they are faint. This is the usual noisy-HF chat setting.hf-deepSNR 4, next to Olivia, below FT8/WSPR. Speed is 1. A short 1:1 line is about 2–5 seconds of PTT. The same line to#bulletinis about 10–15 seconds because HF groups send three Reed–Solomon pieces.vhf-fm/ handheldSame air as APRS (low SNR/fade/QRM). Auto recover is 4 because of ACKs and retries. Use it on a quiet FM channel, not as an HF weak-signal mode.
WSPR, FT8, and FT4 are weak-signal benchmarks. They do not carry a typed chat line.
What actually helps in noise
- Helps a lotCoded waveforms (JS8, Olivia, MFSK-32R, RDM), retries across a fade, splitting a line so any 2 of 3 pieces rebuild it, waiting for a quiet channel.
- Helps littleCalling the payload “text” vs “binary.” CRC without FEC (APRS, AX.25, RTTY, PSK31) still loses the whole frame. A compact envelope only helps by spending less time on air.
Operator steps when the path is faint: weak signals. How internet vs radio is allowed: modes. Whole apps side by side: compare apps. Same text offline: wcr help compare.