A third public test of the nascent FT8 “DXpedition Mode” is set for Saturday, May 5, the WSJT Development Group has announced. A fourth “release candidate” now is available, and participants in the May 5 public test should install WSJT-X version 1.9.0-rc4, beforehand.

“Once again, the goal is to simulate a rare-DXpedition pileup by having many stations (‘Hounds’) calling and trying to work a designated pseudo-DXpedition station (‘Fox’),” Joe Taylor, K1JT, said on behalf of the WSJT Development Team. “Everyone participating in the test must use WSJT-X v1.9.0-rc4.” Taylor urged participants to “read, understand, and carefully follow” the FT8 DXpedition Mode User Guide, which contains some operating procedure details that differ from earlier versions of the beta mode software.

“If you have legitimate access to more than one call sign (spouse, a club call, or whatever), please feel free to call and work each Fox more than once,” Taylor said. “The more Hounds, the better; we want the test pileup to be as deep as possible.”

The third public test will include three 1-hour sessions.

Any last-minute instructions will be announced on the Ping Jockey Relief chat page.

Installation packages for WSJT-X v1.9.0-rc4 on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Raspian Jessie have been posted on the WSJT website.

Participants are asked to report their test results and any problems encountered to the WSJT-X development lists on sourceforge.com or to the Yahoo WSJT-X Development Group reflector. You must be a subscriber in order to post to these lists.

The third beta release of the new DXpedition Mode has been tested over the past several weeks, including during a public test on April 7. “A few additional bugs were identified and corrected, and the -rc4 release also includes some minor enhancements,” Taylor said. “A general availability (GA) release of WSJT-X Version 1.9.0 will be announced at a suitable time, probably in the near future. After that you should stop using any -rc# release candidate.”