MSHV: An Alternative to wsjt-x for Managing Pileups

For most of my FT8 / FT4 operations, I use wsjt-x. One of the main reasons for that is its use of configuration files to manage multiple radios. At the home station, I mainly use an IC-7300, but can also use a couple of different QRP radios. When portable, I use an IC-7100 or one of the QRP rigs. Being able to switch radios by choosing the configuration file name in a menu makes this very easy. Many details are remembered for each rig including radio connection details, audio devices, transmit and tune gain values by band, power level for logging, etc.

In my opinion, a major shortcoming of wsjt-x is managing a pileup. The only option is to select from the first group of callers to reply to. This can be done by time sequence or maximum distance. Once that QSO is completed, you have find one of the other callers in the decoded receive list or call CQ again. Trying to remember the sequence of the second, third, etc. callers or selecting specific callers is not easy. This mainly happens to me when calling CQ POTA, CQ QRP, or when operating a special event callsign. For those operations, I much prefer MSHV, developed by LZ2HV. However, MSHV does not have radio configurations, so whenever you change radios, you have to reset radio interface, audio devices, etc. from scratch. Each has their good and bad points.

This is not a full tutorial on operating MSHV, there is an on-line manual to help you get started or help with specific questions (MSHV User Guide). Rather, I will highlight how to use “Multi Answering Auto Seq Protocol Standard”. That is a quite mouthful, but basically, it allows MSHV to establish and maintain a queue of callers that have responded to your CQ. This discussion is based on MSHV version 2.70 for 64-bit Windows. Version 2.71 was released on April 25, 2023 and I have not reviewed its operation in detail yet. Of particular relevance to this article, Version 2.71 lists POTA and other “OTAs” in the “CQ” dropdown list described below. Other changes were bug fixes or were made to improve compatibility with wsjt-x Fox and Hound mode for DXpedition use.

The first screenshot below shows the MSHV user interface. The area of interest to us in the lower right corner outlined in red. In that screenshot, the single QSO message box is shown and is similar to wsjt-x with auto-generated messages for the current QSO partner. To change to Multi Answering mode, you select “Options-Other Options-Multi Answering Auto Seq Standard …” as shown in the second screenshot. That changes the message box to that shown in the third image. There are now three tabs in the message box area: “Queue”, “Now” and “Settings”. These are used to select how you CQ and how replies are processed.

In the figure below, you can see that I have chosen the “Free Message” in the bottom-most dropdown list. I then typed “POTA” after “CQ” and clicked the “Use” button. The Free Message option allows you to add “POTA” as I did or other qualifiers such as “QRP” to your CQ message. The list also has built in CQ messages for “DX”, continents and other common modifiers.

Now that we have our CQ message set, we can decide how to process replies. The first decision is how many callers to place in queue. I typically choose a “Queue Limit” of 2 or 3. If you work 2 or 3 callers as quickly as possible, it will take at least 60 to 75 seconds per QSO and those still in the queue may lose interest and move on to other contacts. Although I find that with POTA in particular, the callers are very persistent and will try again later if they don’t make the contact initially.

Another decision is what order to use to reply to callers. This is chosen in the dropdown list labelled “Sort Off” in thew above screenshot. With “Sort Off” selected, the callers are answered in the order that they are received for the first time. If they keep or stop calling, their place in the queue does not change. Other sort options are distance (farthest first) and S/N (strongest first). (You can also sort by distance in the lists of callers within the “Queue” and “Now” tabs.)

The “max Time” setting controls how long MSHV will reply to a non-responsive caller before moving to the next caller in queue. Lastly, the checkbox labelled “CNS” means “Call Non-Stop”. This causes MSHV to reply to each caller in the order selected without having to re-enable transmit. It is important to remember that as the control operator, you must be vigilant and step-in if things go awry. If this box is unchecked, then you can simply re-enable transmit after each completed QSO like wsjt-x requires.

So, what happens when we call CQ? As you see below, 2 callers replied to my CQ in the same cycle. The first caller (KE8CHC) went to the “Now” tab and I replied with his signal report. The second caller (KJ7VRI) went into the “Queue” tab. The tab titles now show the number of callers in that tab. In the second screenshot below, when the QSO with KE8CHC is completed, KJ7VRI moves into the “Now” tab and I reply to him with his signal report. If more replies were received, they would have followed the same progression. If 3 callers were in the queue, the fourth and subsequent others would be ignored until the queue decreased to 2 or less. QSOs are logged at the end of the cycle where the first RR73 is received or transmitted. You can select to always send a final RR73, but it is only sent one time before moving to the next caller or sending CQ again. If the previous caller re-sends “R+S/N” or “RR73”, they will go to the back of the queue.

If you get stuck in an exchange where the other operator keeps sending the same message over and over again, you can use the “Clear Now” button to remove them from the “Now” tab and move to the next caller in the “Queue” tab. If the first caller continues to call, they will be added to the end of the queue. I do not know of any way to ignore repetitive callers other than clearing them. You can also right click on a callsign in either the “Queue” or “Now” tabs to delete just that call sign.

Those are the basics of using Multi Answering mode in MSHV. I find that it makes handling even small pileups much easier and less stressful – check it out at MSHV Home Page.