so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for contacts and all that but honestly it feels like a slot machine more than radio sometimes. you click a callsign, exchange grid squares, 73, done. i started poking around JS8Call a few weeks ago because i actually wanted to, you know, talk to people.

the sensitivity on JS8Call is impressive — its built on the same WSJT-X engine so you get that weak signal performance but you can actually type back and forth. its slower obviously, maybe 25 wpm equivalent at the normal speed setting, but ive been having legit conversations on 40m with guys id never reach on SSB from here. my antenna situation is not great (end-fed in the attic, dont ask) so weak signal modes are basically my only option for reliable HF.

the thing i cant figure out is whether theres enough activity to make it worth learning the software quirks. the heartbeat/relay stuff is kind of confusing and the UI takes some getting used to. anyone running JS8Call regularly on a specific freq or net? is 40m the sweet spot or do people mostly hang on 20?

yeah JS8Call has a bit of a learning curve but once it clicks its pretty rewarding. 40m is definitely the most active in my experience, usually around 7.078 MHz give or take depending on your region. 20m has traffic too but tends to be more sporadic unless theres a net running.

the heartbeat thing — basically your station just periodically announces itself and JS8Call can store and relay messages even when you're not at the radio. its designed more for that async messaging use case which is why some emcomm guys love it. but yeah for just chatting in real time the normal exchange mode works fine, dont overthink the relay stuff at first.

honestly the activity level is the real limitation. FT8 you can always find a pile of signals, JS8Call you might sit there for 20 minutes before someone responds. but when someone does respond its an actual exchange so thats worth something to me. PSK31 used to fill that niche but its pretty dead on most bands now, at least around here.

i tried JS8Call last winter and gave up after like two weeks because i couldnt find anyone on 20m during my operating hours. might be a time zone thing, im on the west coast and was mostly trying evenings local time. maybe ill give 40m a shot, hadnt really thought about that.

FT8 scratches an itch but you're right that its not really operating in the traditional sense. feels more like a log filling exercise sometimes lol