So ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah it works great for racking up contacts and the DX is incredible but honestly after a while it just feels like watching a slot machine. You click, something happens, a grid square gets logged. Fine.

Anyway someone at the club mentioned JS8Call and I set it up last weekend and its... different. I get that its based on FT8 underpinnings but you can actually type things to people? Had a 20 minute back and forth with a guy in Finland on 40m with signals that woulda been completely unreadable on voice. That part was genuinely cool.

But heres the thing — the activity level seems really thin compared to FT8. Like I'll watch the waterfall on JS8Call for 20 minutes and see maybe 3 or 4 signals whereas FT8 on 20m is a zoo. Is this just a time of day thing or is JS8Call kind of a niche within a niche at this point. Also running it at the Normal speed setting, should I be on something different for HF.

Not trying to start a modes war just genuinely trying to figure out if this is worth investing more time in or if its always gonna be a ghost town compared to FT8.

JS8Call is definitely thinner on activity but its not dead, you just kinda have to know when to look. 40m seems to pick up in the evenings US time, and there's a loose group that hangs around the standard calling frequencies — I think its 7.078 for 40m. The heartbeat feature helps a lot once you get a few people in your contacts list, basically lets you see whos active without having to manually check.

The Normal speed is fine for most HF use. Slow mode is for when conditions are really rough or you're doing something like 160m or dealing with heavy QRM. I've used Turbo a couple times on 20m when the band was wide open and it moves along pretty quick but honestly Normal hits a nice balance between speed and sensitivity.

Your point about it feeling more like a real contact is exactly why some people prefer it. FT8 is great for what it is but the 15 second turnaround and the structured message format means you're never really talking to anyone. JS8Call at least has some personality to it. I had a ragchew with a guy in New Zealand last winter that went almost 45 minutes, propagation was marginal but the mode just kept pulling it through.

yeah the activity thing is real, JS8Call never really hit critical mass the way FT8 did. I think part of it is FT8 got embraced by the contest and DX crowd fast because the log fills up quick and everyone loves a new band country. JS8Call doesnt really scratch that itch so it attracts a different kind of operator.

honestly for weak signal ragchewing its hard to beat though. i also messed around with PSK31 for years before switching and JS8Call kind of fills the same role but with way better sensitivity. PSK31 is nearly dead on most bands now which is kinda sad because it was such a clean mode and you could actually have a normal conversation. waterfall is pretty barren these days except around 14.070 occasionally.