Fox and Hound

The special-activity select next to Options switches the FT8 panel between Normal, Hound, SuperHound and, on stations set up for it, Fox.

Hound: working a DXpedition

Choose Hound when the DX station is running Fox mode. The console then follows the Fox/Hound rules for you:

• Your TX Freq is kept above 1000 Hz (it jumps to 1500 if it was lower) and your RX Freq below 1000 Hz, where the Fox transmits.
• You transmit in the odd periods (:15 and :45). TX Even/1st is locked.
• Only CALL and R RPT are offered under Next TX Message, and when you send your R+report the console moves your transmission onto the Fox's frequency, as the protocol requires.
• Find TX Gap only looks above 1000 Hz.
• After the Fox sends your RR73 the console stops transmitting; it does not send a 73.

Click the Fox's CQ (or any decode from it) to call. Decodes in which the Fox answers you, including the combined "RR73; …" messages a Fox sends to two hounds at once, advance the sequence and complete the QSO like a normal contact.

SuperHound is for a Fox that is not enforcing the 1000 Hz split. It locks you to the odd periods but leaves your frequencies alone.

Fox: running a DXpedition

Fox appears in the select only on stations where it has been enabled. Choosing it shows You are enabling fox mode 🦊, which reminds you that Fox mode is meant for rare DX, that you must not run as a Fox inside the standard FT8 sub-bands, and that completed contacts are logged automatically to the selected logbook without a prompt. Click Enable Fox Mode or Cancel.

In Fox mode the panel changes:

• Streams (1 to 10, default 5) is how many hounds you work at once, each on its own frequency. Tries (1 to 10, default 4) is how many periods a stream repeats before a hound is dropped.
• The Fox Queue replaces the contact form. The decode filter switches to Fox callers only; click a caller to add them to the queue. Click a callsign in the queue to move it to the front, or its × to remove it.
• The streams table on the right shows each stream's Freq, TX Message, the hound's Callsign and the try count (#).
• Now shows Transmit N streams while you are sending.

Turn on TX Enable above the queue to start. Each completed contact is logged on its own; if a save fails the panel shows Contact upload failure (will retry) and keeps trying.