so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and i enjoy the weak signal aspect of it but honestly the whole thing feels more like a logging exercise than actual operating. like yeah i worked ZL2 on 40m at 3am with -18dB and that was cool but theres no... interaction? just signal reports and 73 and done.

anyway i been looking at JS8Call and it seems like it fills that gap, you can actually send text back and forth and it still works at pretty low signal levels. the tradeoff is obviously its slower and the bandwidth situation is a little different. im running an IC-7300 into a trapped vertical and my noise floor here in the suburbs is pretty bad, usually sitting around S5-S6 on 20m during the day.

has anyone switched over to JS8Call as like a primary digital mode or do most people just use it alongside FT8? also curious if PSK31 is just totally dead at this point or if theres still activity somewhere. i remember when that was THE digital mode and now i never hear anyone mention it

JS8Call is genuinely underrated for what you're describing. I run it on 40m mostly and yeah the decodes arent quite as deep as FT8 but ive pulled out contacts at -15 or so without much trouble. the thing is the community using it tends to be people who actually want to ragchew so the quality of contacts is way higher even if the quantity is lower. theres a heartbeat network thing built in where stations can beacon automatically and you can see whos around without having to call CQ yourself, useful if you just want to lurk and see whos active before committing.

PSK31 isnt completely dead but its close. if you want to find it try 14.070 around 20-21z on weekdays, sometimes a handful of guys still hang out there. its kind of nostalgic at this point honestly. the signal handling is nowhere near FT8 obviously, you need a decent copy to decode it, so a noisy suburban location is going to make it rough.

i mean FT8 is basically a contest mode that never ends, i said what i said. JS8Call scratches a completely different itch and ive been using both for like two years side by side. one thing to watch with JS8Call and a noisy QTH is the normal speed mode might struggle but you can drop to slow mode and that buys you a few more dB of headroom, the tradeoff is each exchange takes longer obviously but if youre just chatting with someone thats fine.

RTTY is still pretty alive during contests if that interests you at all, CQWW RTTY is actually a fun one and the bands get pretty packed. different vibe than weakd signal stuff but worth trying if you havent