so ive been running FT8 for a few months now on 20m mostly and i can decode dozens of stations no problem, the waterfall looks great, i can see signals all over the place and WSJT-X is reporting good SNR on a bunch of them. but when i call CQ i maybe get a response like 1 out of every 20 or 30 attempts and im starting to wonder if something is wrong with my transmit side or if thats just... normal?

my setup is a IC-7300 going into a dipole at about 25 feet, nothing fancy. i have the ALC sitting basically at zero and im running like 30 watts. audio levels into the software look okay i think, the green bar in WSJT-X doesnt clip. ive tried different frequencies in the passband and same result. i watch pskreporter and my signal IS getting out, people are spotting me from all over so its not like im not transmitting.

is this just how FT8 works and im expecting too much, or should i be troubleshooting something specific. a buddy of mine with a G5RV gets responses way more often and i cant figure out what hes doing different

honestly that ratio doesnt sound that far off from normal depending on band conditions and what time youre operating. 20m can get pretty crowded and a lot of stations running high power from europe or wherever just dont bother responding to weaker signals when they have a pile to work through. its kind of brutal that way.

one thing worth checking though -- are you transmitting on an even or odd period and are you calling CQ on a frequency thats actually clear. sometimes i see guys park right on top of another signal and wonder why nobody calls back, the decoder handles it okay for receiving but you're just creating a mess for everyone trying to decode you. also double check your clock sync, if youre even a second or two off NTP your transmissions can bleed into the wrong timeslot and it tanks your decode rate on the other end. i use Meinberg for time sync and it made a noticeable difference.

your power level is fine btw, 30w into a dipole is totally workable for FT8. i regularly work dx on 10w.

same thing happened to me when i started, drove me crazy. turned out my transmit audio was way too hot even though the ALC looked okay on the radio, the issue was the output level setting in WSJT-X itself was cranked up and it was causing IMD on my signal that you cant really see on the waterfall but other stations can hear it basically as a splattered mess. try turning the power slider in WSJT-X down to like 50% and see if your response rate improves. theres a thread on the WSJT-X reflector about this thats worth reading.