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Biggest News: FT2 — A New Ultra-Fast Digital Mode (February 2026)**This is the hottest topic in the digital modes community. On February 16, 2026, Italian amateur Martino Merola (IU8LMC) and the ARI Caserta team completed the world's first successful FT2 QSOs, with transmission cycles of just **3.8 seconds** — four times faster than FT8 and twice as fast as FT4. Full QSOs were completed in just 7–11 seconds. Signals were decoded down to –12 dB SNR, and QSOs were verified on both 40m and 80m.
FT2 is not designed to replace FT8 for weak-signal work, but rather to maximize throughput when conditions are strong. Ideal use cases include high-rate digital contesting, DXpeditions, special event stations, and pile-ups. It uses approximately 150 Hz of bandwidth — about three times wider than FT8's 50 Hz.
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The FT2 "Protocol War" — Two Incompatible Versions**Things got a bit contentious. The WSJT-X Improved development team (DG2YCB) released their own FT2 implementation in late February 2026 — but the two versions are **completely incompatible** with each other. The two implementations use different numbers of tones, symbol durations, sync methods, and LDPC encoding, meaning a station running one version cannot decode the other at all.
WSJT-X Improved version 3.1.0 includes its own open-source FT2 implementation and notes the mode is still experimental, with the developer undecided on whether it will be kept long-term.
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FT8 on the 4-Meter and 8-Meter Bands (April 2026)**A Florida ham (John K9JMS) operating experimental station WQ2XDM has been using WSPR and FT8 on the **4-meter (40.680 MHz) and 8-meter bands** to explore propagation, including Sporadic-E, Trans-Equatorial Propagation, and low-band VHF paths. He is asking fellow operators to monitor reception and submit reports via PSK Reporter and station logs.
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TinyDX — FT8 via Smartphone (May 2026)**A new device called the **TinyDX** has been announced — a miniature FT8/FT4 ~1W transceiver designed to be powered and operated via a USB connection to a smartphone or tablet. This is aimed at making FT8 ultra-portable.
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The Ongoing "Did FT8 Save Amateur Radio?" Debate**The discussion continues in the community, with a recent article asking "Did FT8 save Amateur Radio?" and debating whether the huge volume of FT8 activity would otherwise transfer to CW and other modes. The January 2026 issue of *The Communicator* also touched on the topic, noting that while FT8 specialization can foster expertise, remaining exclusively in one niche may limit personal growth as an amateur operator.
The FT2 development is the story to watch — if the community can settle on a single compatible standard, it could become a significant addition to the digital modes toolkit, especially for contesting and DXpeditions.