Made a great DX contact this afternoon to South Africa using the digital mode known as JT-65. JT65 is a digital protocol intended for Amateur Radio communication with extremely weak signals. It was designed to optimize Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) contacts on the VHF bands and conform efficiently to the established standards and procedures for such QSOs. The most popular sub-mode of JT65 is JT65A. JT65 gets ’65’ from the 65 tones it uses.
JT65 is a digital communication protocol that was developed specifically for use in Amateur Radio communication. It was created by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Joe Taylor, K1JT, and is designed to allow for reliable communication even under weak signal conditions. JT65 is popular among Amateur Radio operators for its ability to make contacts over long distances using low power and simple antennas. It is also known for its ability to decode signals that are below the noise floor, making it a powerful tool for weak signal work
Working some JT-65 DX
The signals are usually found in the data portion of the Ham Radio Band plans between the CW (Morse) and the PSK/RTTY windows. They are always transmitted in USB mode regardless of band.
The most popular JT65A frequency is in the 20 Meter band.
- 160m: 1838.0 kHz USB
- 80m: 3576.0 kHz USB
- 40m International: 7039.0 kHz USB
- 40m USA: 7076.0 kHz USB
- 30m: 10139.0 kHz USB.
- 20m: 14076.0 kHz USB
- 17m: 18102.0 kHz USB.
- 17m Alternate: 18098.0 kHz USB
- 12m: 24917.0 kHz USB
- 6m EME: 50276 kHz USB
