so ive been running FT8 for about two years now and honestly the contact logging side of it is great, worked a bunch of new entities and filled in a lot of band slots on logbook of the world which is cool. but lately its starting to feel like a slot machine more than amateur radio, you know? like im not actually talking to anyone, just exchanging signal reports and grid squares and then both move on.

someone at my club mentioned JS8Call and said it lets you have actual QSOs with weak signal capability similar to FT8. ive looked at it a little bit but the interface feels kind of clunky compared to WSJT-X and i wasnt sure if there was enough activity to make it worthwhile. my setup is nothing fancy, IC-7300 into a fan dipole up about 30 feet, so i can do most of the HF bands reasonably well.

is anyone actually using JS8Call regularly and finding contacts? or is it one of those modes where you fire it up and the waterfall is basically dead? also curious if the weak signal performance is actually comparable to FT8 or if thats kind of oversold. id be fine giving up a few dB if it means i can actually type a sentence to someone.

yeah JS8Call is real and people do use it but you're right that it's thinner than FT8. the 40m JS8 calling frequencies get some action especially in the evenings, and there's a decent cluster of EMCOMM types who use it for nets and message handling which keeps some life on the bands. the weak signal piece is legit though — it uses a derivative of the FT8 waveform so you're getting similar sensitivity, maybe 1-2 dB worse depending on the speed setting you pick. there's a slow mode and a fast mode basically, turbospeed is more like FT4 territory and the normal speed is closer to FT8. the thing that'll get you is the timing is less rigid so if your clock sync slips a little it still works, which is actually kind of nice vs WSJT being picky about that.

the interface clunk is real, i wont lie. KN4CRD does maintain it and it has gotten better but its not as polished as WSJT-X by a long shot. just takes some getting used to. i run both simultaneously on my 7300 with two vfo's and a virtual audio cable split, works fine.

honestly if you want an actual conversation on weak signal digital modes have you tried PSK31 at all? i know its not as sensitive as FT8 by like 10-12dB but you type in real time, the other person types back, it actually feels like radio. 20m around 14.070 still has people on it. not tons but its not dead. RTTY too if you want something with more of a contest scene behind it.

i use JS8Call occasionally and agree with what the other guy said about 40m evenings. also there's a windows app called JS8Call Monitor that helps you see whos active before you even transmit which helps a lot with the dead waterfall problem.