so ive been running FT8 and FT4 for a while now, mostly chasing DX on 20m and 17m, got WSJT-X dialed in pretty well and the whole workflow just kind of clicks at this point. but lately ive been trying to get more into actual like... conversations? and someone at the club mentioned JS8Call as a middle ground between FT8 and something like PSK31 where you can actually type to people.

i tried it a few weeks ago and honestly i couldnt get anyone to respond on 40m, maybe wrong time of day or i was just unlucky. the decode threshold seems similar to FT8 which is great but the whole relay/store-forward thing is kind of confusing to set up if im being honest. does anyone actually run JS8Call regularly and find a consistent group to ragchew with, or is it kind of a dead band outside of specific nets

also wondering if PSK31 is even worth learning at this point or if it's just nostalgia at this point. i see it on 14.070 occasionally but the waterfall is pretty thin compared to what it used to be apparently

JS8Call does have a bit of a learning curve and yeah the activity is very time and frequency dependent. there are some organized nets, K5SDR runs one i think and there are a few EMCOMM groups that use it specifically because of the store-forward capability which is genuinely useful if you think about it — like you can leave a message and someone can pick it up later even if you're not both on at the same time. that part is actually pretty slick once you wrap your head around it.

for PSK31 i wouldnt say its dead but its definitely thinned out a lot since FT8 came along and ate everything. you still find activity on 20m around 14.070 during the day, sometimes 80m at night. its honestly kind of a nice mode if you want a real back and forth without the 15 second grid exchange thing. just takes more signal than FT8 obviously, like you actually need a decent copy to decode it, so if conditions are rough you'll notice.

my suggestion is pick a JS8Call net specifically and show up a few times before writing it off. the HF JS8 net frequencies are posted on the JS8Call groups.io list.

i run JS8Call pretty regularly actually, mostly on 40m around 7.078 and sometimes 30m. the activity is there but you kind of have to just park on frequency and wait, its not like FT8 where the whole band is buzzing. once you find a few regulars it gets better. the heartbeat/auto-status stuff is kind of annoying at first but once you turn off what you dont need it gets cleaner.

PSK31 i still fire up occasionally just because i like it tbh. theres something satisfying about watching the waterfall and picking out calls by eye. RTTY too, still get on for the big contests and there's always activity there. not everything has to be about weak signal i guess