so ive been messing around with JS8Call for a few months now and honestly im kind of torn on it. the idea is great, you get that weak signal capability kind of like FT8 but you can actually have a real conversation instead of the 599 73 exchange thing. but man the bands feel pretty empty compared to FT8 most of the time. i'll call CQ on 40m JS8 and just sit there for like 20 minutes hearing nothing.

i do like that you can leave it running and it'll store messages for you, almost like a store-and-forward thing which is pretty neat for emcomm type stuff. and the heartbeat feature where it just periodically announces your presence is clever. decode sensitivity is solid too, been able to pull in some pretty marginal signals.

i guess my question is does anyone actually have active JS8Call nets or schedules they work? or is it basically just FT8 for people who want to feel like they're doing something different. not trying to be harsh, i genuinely like the mode i just cant find anyone to talk to on it half the time

yeah the activity problem is real. i check in to a JS8Call net on sunday evenings, 7.078 i think, and there's usually maybe 4 or 5 people. it's not exactly a pile-up. but the conversations you do have are actually worth having, like last week i was chatting with a guy in Montana for probably 45 minutes while i was doing other stuff around the shack. you just glance over every few minutes.

the store-forward thing is underrated. i had a message waiting for me from a buddy who tried to reach me at like 2am and i saw it in the morning. that's genuinely useful. FT8 you either connect or you dont, theres no async anything.

for what its worth i think JS8Call scratches a totally different itch than FT8. FT8 is basically a propagation tool with a logging addon. JS8 is actually trying to be communication. whether the activity level ever picks up is another question, but i dont think its going anywhere anytime soon either.

tried it once, couldnt figure out the interface fast enough and went back to WSJT-X. maybe ill give it another shot. does it work okay on a compromised antenna? im running an attic dipole so weak signal stuff is kind of my whole life at this point