so ive been running FT8 for about two years now and honestly love the weak signal stuff, got into it when i was running a dipole in an apartment and it was the only thing that would actually make contacts. but lately i keep reading about JS8Call and how its supposed to be more like actual conversation-based digital rather than just exchange-grid-and-done. been thinking about giving it a shot but im not sure the band activity is there to make it worthwhile vs just staying on FT8 where theres always someone calling.

also been messing with PSK31 on 20m late nights when the band is quiet and there's something i like about that mode even though the contacts are slower. feels more like actual radio somehow. anyway wondering if anyone has gone down the JS8Call rabbit hole and whether its worth setting up alongside WSJT-X or if its gonna be one of those things that sounds great on paper but nobody's actually using it on the air.

for context im running a 100w rig into a fan dipole, nothing fancy, mostly 20 and 40m. decode rates on FT8 are fine, no complaints there.

js8call is legit but yeah the activity is spotty depending on time of day and band. i check 14.078 on 20m in the evenings and there's usually a handful of stations, not the wall-to-wall decodes you get on ft8 but enough to have actual back and forth. the store-and-forward relay stuff is kinda neat too if youre into emcomm type stuff at all.

honestly for casual ragchewing on digital i still end up on PSK31 sometimes just cause it feels more natural typing in real time vs the structured ft8 exchange. but if your goal is weak signal work and you want some actual content in the QSO then js8call is the closest thing to having both. give it a shot, software is free and it wont mess with your WSJT-X setup, they run on different freqs.

i tried js8call for like a month last winter and couldnt really get into it tbh. the interface felt clunky to me and i never quite knew when someone was done transmitting vs still going. maybe i just didnt spend enough time with it. went back to ft8 and ft4 mostly. ft4 doesnt get enough love by the way, faster exchange than ft8 and the decoding is still really solid even when signals are rough, i use it a lot during contests when the pileups on ft8 get stupid slow.