so ive been running ft8 for about a year now and yeah its great for working dx and all that but honestly it feels like im just watching a robot make contacts for me half the time. started looking into js8call because at least it seems like you can actually type words to another person which is kind of the whole point of ham radio for me personally

my question is whether the weak signal capability is actually comparable to ft8 or if im giving up a lot by switching. i know the bandwidth and timing are different and ft8 is like -24dB or whatever but js8call supposedly gets down pretty low too. running an ic-7300 into a fan dipole so nothing exotic, mostly 40 and 20m. curious if anyone runs both or has strong feelings either way. also does js8call have a decent user base at this point or is it kind of a ghost town on the bands

js8call is genuinely great if you want that conversational feel, it scratches a different itch than ft8 for sure. the sensitivity isnt quite ft8 level but its still way better than most modes, think the threshold is somewhere around -18 or -20dB depending on conditions and your decoder. for real ragchewing over weak paths its hard to beat and the store-and-forward relay stuff is actually pretty clever for mesh-type comms

activity is definitely thinner than ft8, 40m seems to have the most consistent traffic especially in the evenings. 14.078 is the usual hangout on 20m. you wont be racking up 200 contacts in a contest weekend but thats kind of not the point. i honestly run both, ft8 when im just filling in the map and js8call when i actually want to talk to somebody. the 7300 handles both fine, wsjt-x and js8call play nice with the same rig CAT settings for the most part

psk31 is still my go to for conversational stuff tbh, old school but the waterfall full of signals on 14.070 feels more alive to me than waiting for js8 replies. that said i havent put serious time into js8call so maybe im missing something. ft4 is worth trying too if you want something faster than ft8 but dont need the absolute floor sensitivity, activity picked up a lot during contests