I had my first QSO on JS8 this afternoon on 14.078.
I answered Gary, KM6BYW’s CQ and we talked about QRP. He helped me keep my power down by showing me the Slow mode in JS8Call which “gets through” better, rather than cranking it up to 50 watts.
I enjoy the easier UI of WSJT-X over fldigi,even though fldigi is a time-honored, older looking piece of software. My main issue with fldigi is that I’ve had zero QSO’s in any mode and am having finding difficulty because the frequencies aren’t “standard” for certain modes like they seem to be for WSJT-X and JS8Call.
With that said, 1 thing I don’t like about any of these softwares is that there is no prompt in the ui that a click, double click, or right click does something. Its mincemeat. But who am I to complain? All of this is 100% free!
Having tried to look at and listen to different modes (so that I can switch to that one in fldigi) hasn’t helped. The waterfall kinda helps but I dunno – I have a lot to learn.
Having standard-ish frequencies alleviate the issues of having to be able to recognize a signal’s sounds (although I’m so used to hearing FT8 I can pick it out anywhere).
I’m amazed that I can see nearly nothing on the waterfall yet there are still convos happening on JS8! This makes it really useful to use with my attic 9:1 (which I plan on replacing with a 49:1).
73,
ÆØRS
