so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and i get it, its great for weak signal stuff and working new entities but every contact feels kind of hollow? like you exchange signal reports and grid squares and thats it. i started poking around JS8Call last month because somebody on a local net mentioned it and honestly its kind of blowing my mind a little.

the thing is JS8Call is like 10-12dB worse than FT8 sensitivity wise which matters when youre trying to work deep into the noise but you can actually have a real conversation. typed back and forth, relay messages, store and forward stuff. its more like the old packet days but way more capable at weak signal levels than anything i used to run.

i guess my question is does anyone actually use JS8Call regularly for more than just testing? ive heard people say the bands are pretty dead on it compared to FT8 but maybe im just looking at the wrong times or frequencies. also does anyone still do PSK31 anymore, i kind of miss that mode even though JS8Call is probably strictly better for what PSK31 was used for

yeah JS8Call has a much smaller user base than FT8 but its not dead, you just have to know where to look. 14.078 USB is the primary HF frequency and there's usually activity there during daylight hours on 20m, sometimes more on weekends. the store and forward stuff is genuinely useful, ive relayed messages through like 4 or 5 stations to reach someone who was completely out of my direct range. its a different mindset than FT8 logging.

PSK31 honestly i havent seen much of it in a couple years. the waterfalls on the old PSK frequencies are pretty sparse compared to what they were in like 2010-2015. some guys still run it and you'll occasionally see activity on 14.070 but its not what it was. VARA HF has kind of eaten some of that niche for people doing winlink and data transfer stuff.

the hollow feeling with FT8 is real and i think a lot of people feel it but dont say anything because it sounds like complaining about a mode thats genuinely useful lol. i use FT8 when i want to work a new band-country combo or chase something rare, but for just hanging out on the radio JS8Call is way more satisfying even if the decode threshold isnt quite as low. also RTTY still has a solid contest following if you want something with a bit more back and forth and a decent number of stations to work, the RTTY roundup every january gets pretty busy