Let me give you a short comment on the record QSOs over a large pond - as we have seen in EI7GL, a record connection has been established and completed with an FT8 communication mode, with the signal being layed at about 10 to 14dB below noise. In other words - at the signal-to-noise ratio, the noise is about 10dB. However, this is a signal that can be relatively commonly taken by morse talegraphy. Therefore, on our part, there is no cheering at the turning point of amateur radio operation. These connections could and should be made by telegraph and there would be no discussion about the suitability or inappropriateness of this operating mode. If both operators are incapable of telegraph operation and are replacing them with a connection between their computers, it is difficult to speak of a definitive crossing of the Atlantic to 144, respectively. 432MHz. Equally well (even better) then these connections could be established in more appropriate modulation mode than the short-wave FT8 - for example JT6 and the like. That is, in operating modes that are not automated! WSJT offers a wide range of ways to establish QSOs not between computers, but links directly between operators, with has only digital support. And that's a damn big difference!

Maybe the operators even know the telegraph and are not used to the telegraph signals below the noise level. Certainly it was possible during the two days when the tropo condx was opened to upgrade their stations using larger antennas, cables with less attenuation, or larger PAs and to repeat the connection by wire. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Still, there remains a strange aftertaste of suspicion that these connections may not have been entirely real (computers can be interconnected otherwise), respectively. that these connections cannot be counted as a connection established directly between the human operators of the said stations. You don't have to agree with me, but I see it like this.

OK1VPZ