so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and honestly its great for racking up contacts but i keep hearing about JS8Call and how its more like actual conversation mode. the thing is every time i try to get on JS8Call the band seems pretty empty, at least on 40m here in the midwest. i get maybe one or two replies if im lucky.

my setup is nothing fancy, IC-7300 into a G5RV up about 30 feet, running WSJT-X obviously for the FT8 stuff. for JS8Call i downloaded the software and got it configured but my signal reports seem all over the place and i cant tell if thats normal or if my audio levels are off again. i went through the whole ALC thing and i think im ok but who knows.

anyway the question is basically — is JS8Call actually active enough to be worth learning the quirks of the software, or should i just stick with FT8 for weak signal work and accept that its not really a conversation mode. i do miss actually talking to people, even if its just typed text back and forth. PSK31 used to scratch that itch but nobody seems to be on that anymore either.

JS8Call activity really does depend on time of day and which subband you're watching. I've had decent luck on 40m around 7.078 but you kinda have to just park there and wait. the heartbeat mode helps a lot once you figure it out because stations are basically beaconing even when nobody is actively calling. it's not like FT8 where there's always someone — more like HF chat where you might wait 20 minutes before someone wanders by.

your audio level thing is probably fine if you've already done the ALC check on the 7300. that radio is pretty forgiving once you get the USB audio set right. i'd say give it a few more sessions before writing it off, maybe try 20m in the afternoon if 40m is dead. and yeah PSK31 is basically a ghost town now which is a shame because i actually liked it for keyboard to keyboard stuff. RTTY still has some life in contest season at least.

honestly i just use FT8 for the contacts and accept it is what it is. tried JS8 a couple times didnt really get into it. if you want to ragchew just go find someone on SSB or do Winlink or something lol. ft4 is kinda fun if you want something faster paced than ft8 but still weak signal capable, i use it during some of the shorter contests now.