so ive been running FT8 for about two years now and yeah the DX is great, worked like 140 countries which is insane for 100 watts and a wire antenna, but lately it just feels hollow you know? like you click a callsign, exchange grid squares, 73 and thats it. done. no actual contact happened.

been messing around with JS8Call the past few weeks and its a totally different thing. slower obviously, and the SNR floor isnt quite as crazy as FT8's -24dB or whatever, but you can actually type stuff. had a 20 minute back and forth with a guy in scotland last tuesday on 40m, talking about his antenna setup. that felt like amateur radio again.

i know some people think FT8 isnt real ham radio and i dont totally agree with that, like its still impressive technology and weak signal operating is a legitimate thing. but i wonder if im the only one who started out loving FT8 and then kind of drifted toward modes where you say actual words. also still run PSK31 occasionally on 20m but its getting harder to find activity there, the waterfall is pretty dead most days compared to 5 years ago.

anyway curious what other people run for digital. is anyone still doing RTTY contesting? i did the RTTY roundup last february and that was actually a blast even if its an old mode

yeah the hollow feeling with FT8 is real and i think a lot of people hit that wall after a year or two. i went through the same thing. the mode does what it says on the tin - it moves callsigns and grid squares incredibly efficiently at -24dB which is genuinely remarkable engineering, but WSJT-X basically turned hf into a video game for a lot of people and thats not a knock on anyone its just what it became.

JS8Call is good but i think people underestimate how much patience it requires. the latency in a conversation feels weird until you get used to it. i usually leave it running on 40 or 80 meters kind of like a slow chat room and just check in on it. the store-and-forward relay stuff is also interesting if you ever get into the emcomm side of things, some groups are using it for exactly that.

PSK31 -- i still love it honestly. yes activity is down but if you call CQ on 14.070 or thereabouts on a weekend morning there are still people listening. the problem is everyone assumes nobody is there so nobody calls. its a self fulfilling thing. i had a solid 45 minute ragchew on PSK63 with a guy in spain maybe two months ago. it can still happen.

RTTY roundup is genuinely fun, one of the better contests on the calendar imo. the pile ups on RTTY sound different, theres something satisfying about the old teletype sound even if its all AFSK now.

FT4 is kind of the middle ground nobody talks about enough -- faster than FT8, you can run a decent rate in a contest situation, still gets down to like -17dB or so which is plenty for most paths. i used it during field day and it worked well when conditions were marginal on 15m.

havent tried JS8Call yet but this thread is making me want to. my main rig is an IC-7300 so the USB audio interface is already sorted, shouldnt be too much to set up i think