Getting Started with JS8Call
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2024
- In this video, I'll walk you through setting up JS8Call as well as show you some basic operations such as sending heartbeats and leaving and retrieving messages for other operators.
SUPPORT
Membership - www.buymeacoffee.com/thetechp...
GEAR
* DigiRig - amzn.to/3WCwFgV
* Panasonic FZ-M1 - amzn.to/43j9tYe
0:00 Introduction
0:33 Why JS8Call
2:05 How to Get Started
3:18 Basic Settings
6:40 Adjusting Audio Levels
7:52 Application Overview
9:39 Sending Heartbeats
12:01 More Useful Settings
12:40 Checking for Messages
15:00 Sending a Message (Inbox)
17:20 Close
RESOURCES
* JS8Call download - files.js8call.com/latest.html
* Maidenhead Grid Square Locator - www.levinecentral.com/ham/gri...
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#thetechprepper #js8call #hamradio - Zábava
Thank you for making all these videos that revolve around prepping. Manpack & FIELD videos have been especially helpful as a new ham.
You're very welcome. I am on an accelerated mission to make emcomm easier for those who have a preparedness mindset. More the on way.
Great video, thanks for taking the time! If people need specific info for their set up there are tons of videos on js8call for specific radio setups all over youtube. Thanks Gaston for running us through the basics.
Thanks, Dan. I hope that you are right about the viewers being able to figure out their radio configuration. That's the hurdle to get over.
Great video, excellent layout of info. I hope you read your comments, most creators dont 😬.
It would be great to see this at work on 70cm/2M as there are more Tech licenses out there like myself. It would be practical to show all methods, for those who dont have the time to boost up to General. Maybe it will get more of us newbies on there to communicate back and forth.
Great explanations of an interesting mode. Looking forward to more!
Thanks, more on the way.
This is an outstanding video. You were calm , clear, and a great teacher. I REALLY appreciated this content. Although I've done this mode for some time as a result of your video I'm sharper. I will Like and Share this video as far as I can. I use your content in my radio Development. I'm a big fan bro.
Thanks, brother. I find it easiest to present new material from the perspective of a newbie. This video would have been very different if it was filmed a year from now. It was good to put out the content while I am still new to JS8. Take care!
You are always very informative. Good stuff. Thank you.
Thank you, Richard. I'm glad you found the content useful even the lighting was not great. Cheers!
Another excellent video! Been a long time JS8Call fanboy, glad to see you spreading the knowledge! thank you!
Glad to hear that you've been using for so long. It stinks being late to the party. Any pro tips for myself and other newbies?
@@TheTechPrepper Yes, I have learned the hard way, DON'T use an indoor antenna hung up on the curtain rods in your dining room! Not Kidding! I have made contacts but unless that's all you got, not a good idea!
Just made my first JS8 contact, thanks for the great video!
Congratulations! Leave me a message. My station runs daily from 1200 to 2300Z on 40m. 73 de KT7RUN
Seems like a very powerful tool, just started with digital this week, got it up and running and was and to qso with a couple people but i didn't realize how many powerful features this has
Congratulations and well done. It can even sync your clock using heard signals.
Just subed. Thanks for all the great info that you put out. Working on my ham license now!
Welcome to the channel! It's great to have you. Best of luck with your license. You got this.
Thanks for this very useful introduction on JS8CALL. I am only using it for reception but found the info you gave interesting. Also I applaud you for talking at a decent speed making it easy for me (Dutch) to follow where many other 'tutorial' videos talking is way too fast..
You are very welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. This is my normal talking speed, unless I've had too much coffee. Cheers from the U.S.
@@TheTechPrepper thank you
As a Linux guy for years, I love that you use Linux and are into radios/comms. Keep producing great content. You have earned a subscriber.
Welcome aboard! Cheers to another Linux user. I've been a fan ever since seeing Slackware for the first time in 1996.
@@TheTechPrepper I'd use Linux for everything if I could. There are a few radio software programs that are Windows native and work better there... I just dual boot the computer. Great content, thanks!
@@GhostRider1974 I am in the same boat. I just run Windows 10 for misc programming software. Cheers.
This right here. I’m always surprised that Linux isn’t more popular among the HAM crowd.
I’ve got one windows VM that I use for Motorola programming.
I’m a software engineer by day if you’re interested in some help with that locator app.
Thanks for putting in the effort to create this video, Gaston! I’m slowly planning and saving my cash to get my own setup going and am excited to join in the fun ASAP.
You're welcome, Kenny. You may have mentioned this, but what HF rig are you considering?
@@TheTechPrepper I've been looking at a few, but for now the frontrunner is the Icom IC-705. Having said that, if I can find a Yaesu FT-897, or even a used 817/818 for a decent price, I might go that route.
@@KenReynolds Happy hunting. Those are all good choice. You may want to look at the classic IC-7300 if you plan to operate from the shack.
@@TheTechPrepper Thanks! I will definitely keep it under consideration. At the moment I do not expect to operate from the shack, as there are several factors currently preventing that. Plus, my goal is to have a portable setup ready for emcomm deployment at a moment's notice.
@@KenReynolds Roger. All of these have pros and cons, but this would be my list for evaluation: 817/818, IC-705, Xiegu X6100 and Xiegu G90. I've also hear great things about the Elecraft KX3. Enjoy the research.
I can see a lot more point to JS8Call now.. I'll be following those future vids for sure ;)
Excellent. If you see my station or are able to query another station that can hear both of us, feel free to leave me a message. 73's
I have this combo. Brilliant gear.
A dead simple, transparent protocol ... which turns the entire HF band into a cohesive mesh network minus ALL zero-strategic-value BS. I haven't seen software this good since .. ever??? Absolutely bloody amazing. Nearly the perfect marriage of a PC and Radio. I'll be gearing up with this ASAFP. Thank You Sir. Subscribed.
The only downside is the speed, but I found it to be the most reliable and simple tool to use for communication. I use it daily still. Good luck and thank you for the sub.
OMG so heckin valid
ok i am sold, this will be my next project to dive into. lets see if we can make a no random contact from Arizona to Florida.
Thanks for the info, brother. Having another form of coms is critical. Knowing how to use it is the key, tho. 🤙🏽
You nailed it. That is the key. Cheers, man.
Spot on. Great work
Glad you enjoyed it. Cool handle!
This video was great. Thank you for it. As a rookie it was good to actually see you use it. Do you have hardware recommendations for JS8call?
Cool intro, I hope to get my pocket portable HF setup going soon.
Nice. Details please, Dennis? What are you thinking for gear and software?
@@TheTechPrepper I ordered another Digirig and a (tr)uSDX. Will see if I can get that working with a EFHW and some kind of tablet or ham craptop.
@@AD6DMDennis Let me know how you like the (tr)uSDX.
Great Content
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Live demos are rough, so I'm glad to hear that.
Thank you for a great video, Gaston. The station in Ohio comes up often when I monitor or send HBs. But that's expected since it's close by.
You're welcome. I hope it gives you an idea of how to get started with the heartbeats and message inbox feature. There are some other topics to share in the future like dealing with time drift, relays and direct messaging.
@@TheTechPrepper It did help. Thanks again.
Great primer video Gaston, thanks! I have found that after sending a Directed MSG I have to go back and click on the button to resume HB & ACK.
I don't spend a lot of time doing directed messages, but I have noticed similar quirks when the HB feature is enabled. I also found that after a QSO (directed message) that it is best practice to deselect the operator's callsign, otherwise all of your following messages will continue to be directed to that operator or group. I learned the hard way when not deselecting "@ALLCALL" when I was done asking for message. I was spamming everyone for a few hours. I'll talk more about this in future videos.
I have most HF bands on qrp on the Foundation licence but looking at a cheap hf kit to start doing digital modes, very keen on trying js8.👍
Lots of inexpensive options are starting to hit the market. You don't need much power with JS8Call. In general, 5 watts will do. We've been experimenting with the QDX. It's a great starter option for JS8 and at a good price, but you do need to baby it as you can easily damage the finals. Good luck@
One thing - technicians can use data and CW modes on 10m HF band. Not the best band for long distance contacts but would be interesting to see what JS8Call can do there.
Cant wait to get back to Conus. Ill have a toughpad and and digirig waiting in my pile of mail. So catch up to eveything thats been going on your channel and discord.
It will be like Christmas. Enjoy the ride when you pick your gear.
Thanks Gaston! Clear intro to JS8Call Sir!
73 - KF6IF
You're very welcome. We only scratched the surface. It's a great mode and application. Enjoy! Shoot me a message or leave one for me on someone else's station. I check every morning and have my station running from 1200Z to 2300Z on 7.078 MHz.
In Sweden we only have one tier for amateur radio license (the highest tier were you can do everything on amateur bands including building your own stuff). I have started studying for that test and will do it this summer and then it is HAM radio time.
All country seems to go their own way in terms of the requirements to enter amateur radio. Thanks for sharing as I am only familiar with the US regulations. Best of luck and cheers from the US!
Well... did you get your license??
holy cow im going back to my baofang.
Great
Great video again, Gaston. Always good to see your videos. You might want to talk about the reasons why the autoresponding has the "confirm" option and how unattended operation can be a concern due to FCC rules. In general, I think the rules are satisfied if you can get to the machine fairly easily (i.e. it's not on a mountain or 10 miles away unattended in a radio room somewhere), but some people may be wondering why those options are even there. Thanks again and I can't wait for the release of EmComm Tools! 73 de KD7ZWV
Good morning, Jan. You raise an excellent point. Please, et me clarify... My "auto-reply/automated" JS8Call runs directly behind me in my office. As the responsible operator for this station, I have the ability at any time to look over my shoulder and terminate any spurious transmissions. Secondly, I also have a second monitor at my workstation with a remote desktop session, so I am frequently monitoring the system every few minutes for the same reason. In short, this station is always under operator control. I am pretty sure that this is all that is required in terms of regulations by the FCC without getting too pedantic on the details.
Thanks for the encouragement on EmComm Tools. I have an interesting tech preview for the BMAC live stream this coming Tuesday. I hope you can make it.
73,
TTP
Sad Ham has entered the chat.
@@drewrinella1646 reading comprehension isn't one of your strong suits, I take it. 🤔
@@JanPeterson czcams.com/video/LTunhRVyREU/video.html
Hi @The Tech Prepper are you running this on a raspberry pi? If so, what model RPi? Thanks!
No, this is a Panasonic FZ-M1 running Ubuntu 22.10.
What antenna are you using on your FT-897D? Have done digital on it years ago and as have getting back into things [started by setting up the Baofengs and my UHF/VHF gear] I wanted to see what was out there for this anyway.
I'm using the Chameleon CHA LEFS 8010. It covers 10m - 80m. You need serious space for it. It works without tuner on most amateur radio bands (except 60m). I did a video last year on this antenna. Welcome back and good luck!
@@TheTechPrepper Thank you.
Late adopter - I'm finally moving to digi-rig on the 891...what is that cable (2 usb to 1?) that you showed on a previous video? I will look for it again, but did you describe it at all? Heal up my friend!
The FT-891 will work with a DigiRig, but it is not the best experience as the FT-891 already includes on-board CAT control via USB. So, you will need to use that USB cable for CAT control and not the CAT that is available on the DigiRig. Secondly, to get audio audio out/in, you can use the DigiRig, but you will be connecting only one of two the 8xx DigiRig cables...the data cable. I tried this and it works, but I do not personally run this setup. I actually just use the Sabrent USB sound card from Amazon along with a cable like this: www.ebay.com/itm/385619450633.
Bottom line is that with the 891 you need two USB cables even with the DigiRig.
New to HAM radio and will be studying for tech license shortly. Curious, can you send a JS8 call to someone’s call sign without them being “online” so when they do come on they have it waiting for them? Thinking in emergency situations when you need to reach someone but they not be currently on to receive the message how that works.
Yes. You can leave a message for a particular operator on any other station.
17:06 Does the JS8call software read the message and automatically figure out that it's supposed to route to VK5CZ via N0GQ? Does N0GQ have to be present to read and manually retransmit the message, or is it forwarded from N0GQ's machine to VK5CZ in the background? Seriously cool stuff!
Same question
I have the Yaesu FTDX10 and the JS8 software does not have it listed it list the ftdx100 but not the 10. What do I do?
When you send a message out, does your radio/computer have to stay up for folks to get the message if they are not on live? Does the message live out there somewhere in a "cloud like" state? If we were in a power-out status, leaving equipment on would not be ideal. Set up times to share info maybe?
Great question. If you want to receive a message directly on your machine, you will need to have it running. I keep mine running for 12-hours a day from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily. My group knows my schedu;e.
However, as I showed in the video, you can leave a message for another operator on someone else's station. There are number of stations that keep their system running 24x7. Over the last month or two I have come to notice which stations run continuously as well as when I can hear them and they can hear me. This is part of the reason why I make a query to everyone (@ALLCALL)... "who has a messages for me". There is no cloud, but everyone who uses JS8Call adds to the system of "store and forward" messaging. I hope this answers your question.
Question what Linux distro are you running on your fzm1 touchpad?
It's a heavily customized version of Ubuntu 22.10.
What is a good / bad SNR DB?
So I set offset to a clear slot? Or do I need to match someone elses?
In general, just keep your frequency offset above 1000 Hz when you're doing any type of messaging as 1000 Hz and below is reserved for heartbeats. I try to find to find an area where I am clear of activity and will typically just leave my offset at 1500 Hz. The bigger trick is to wait for the other operator that you're talking to finish there transmission before you start transmitting.
What tablet are you running. Dell rugged or toughbook
Panasonic FZ-M1 Toughpad
So I just did GMRS while I prep to do the ham thing , so this is over my head huh
What do you think of winlink?
It's another tool. I use it regularly. I also recently set up a Winlink RMS packet gateway as a service to my area. It's worth looking into if you're not a Winlink user yet.
Curious: Do most US-based JS8 users operate unattended in violation of FCC Rules?
He started this video with Get a License.
Most ham operators are boomers. If the FCC doesn't catch you, the ham operators will.
Thoughts on night vision?
I plan to get a set at some point is all that I can say. Buy once, cry once.
@@TheTechPrepper you're the tech guy I need ur opinion. We will wait for digital night vision + thermal fusion goggles
It appears that the sender location, the grid square, is only going to be what you sent. (Not updated as you my go mobile, in the field.) If you want your folks (network/group) to know where you are, would you want to change that setting as you move around? Maybe just send the current message if you want them to know? Just clarifying.
Yes, when you move around you will want to change your maidenhead grid square. There are plenty of mobile apps that will convert to a grid square. You just need to remember to change the settings when you switch location.
I hope someone will write js8 all for Android. I think the first to do so will make decent money
A port looks really straight forward. I've this on my whiteboard, but there aren't enough hours in the day. I have another project that I'm working on. Hopefully, someone will take this on.
VK stations are from Australia
I confused it with VE. Thanks for the correction.
Is this internet based software?
No. This is all happening over the air using radio. There is no infrastructure like the Internet or third-party service in the middle.
Ok. Back up.
What hardware is needed to interface the radio into the computer? You flashed a digirig for 2 seconds. But what do you do with a DigiRig? There are 20 different DigiRigs out there. Which one is the right one? Do you need to buy cables? Do you need to make cables?
All the "Newbie to Digital Radio" videos out there skip this stuff and go right into computer settings. I'm a newbie. I have my general license. What do I need to buy?
Unfortunately, there's no way to cover all these excellent questions in a single video. I attempted to help people get into digital modes about a year ago. It may not help you, but here's the playlist that answers some of your questions: Digital Modes Series
czcams.com/play/PLZpc6PnzmzmEVE4u_8K9svKc1-CHi4tUC.html
What flavor of Linux are you using?
I'm running a heavily customized distribution built on top of Ubuntu 22.10.
Can someone port js8call to android & make aes-256 encryption on option to click on. I need to learn to code
What would you pay for an Android application that does this? I'm curious because there seems to be a general aversion to people paying for software. $10, $100, $300 for this application?
$100 easy because then i can carry only a phone into the field instead of a laptop/tablet. especially if it has an encryption option.
@@BobBob-il2ku Thanks for the feedback. Building these applications is not an inexpensive endeavor, so I thanks for helping me "test" the market.
Beartooth has a handset that runs AES256 and can pair with Android and Apple for advanced features like key rotation. 😂
This stuff is annoying tinker toy ham radio b.s. to me.
I'm a cybersecurity guy and this stuff is reinventing the wheel. Good crypto and good operational security allows anyone to have secure comms, even from three letter agencies.
An EMP will screw up all of this and we're back to using pigeons.
You're right - you definitely need to de-nerd this stuff for the non-nerd radio demographic. Imagine doing this every time you make a mobile phone call???
Bingo. We'd be talking a whole lot less.
Anyone in the group using a Flex (6600 or 6xxx) radio? Looking fore some help getting JS8Call set up. I'm in East Mesa... :-)
Unfortunately, you CZcams guys keep teaching how to use JS8 all wrong. I say this only because of a slight flaw in how it works. Sending heartbeats is fine but doing the heartbeat acknowledge is actually an issue that Im sure you dont know is an issue, so js8 decodes from the left(hb section) to the right, so if your hb ack is on and someone tries to send u a message either right to u or your inbox, if say they try to relay thru you or have your station store and forward a message well there can be a good chance those wont work if your hb ack is on and during the same time slot that stations and say another station sends out a hb well then your station will see said hb first and only send an ack instead of waiting to see if there is any actuall traffic to your station. There are a few work arounds to this issue but untill jordan fixes this issue js8 will be mostly useless for its true potential. You are the omly youtuber that got it right about unchecking the ask for confirmation to auto replys. Now this hb ack might not seem like a big issue but if you are on the standard js8 frequencies well you go ahead amd hop on and tell me how often you see a HB lol. When its busy its every single time slot, and when its slow its usually every few time slots so getting a message to someone or say relay to them with all those hb's going out good luck with actually getting the message there the first try or 10 lol. And that brings up the other issue, you youtubers need to push people to actually use the program and not just turn it on and run heartbeats all day. The biggest complaint you will see new users make is just that no one on using it, just a bunch of stupid heartbeats and then most of those new users give up on the program and never bother with it again. Feel free to reach out to me for more info qrz email is good, 73 KN6ODG
Well, waddya know? You're just a novice licensee!
Just kidding, of course, as in the the old days, the KN prefix was issued to novices. Your comment was very interesting. Thank you.
de William, k6whp (formerly novice calls of WV6KJK and WN6EPZ)
All digi modes are creepy =) !
I am sure creepy is the right word, but there is a learning curve.
@@TheTechPrepper 73's my dear partisan
@@TheTechPrepper TP I just got started, this is for your subs! www.delta25.de/JS8-2021-11/JS8Call_Guide.pdf
FCC not FTC
No one cares..
Please add Polish subtitles.
interesting, I always hear VE7OES too, they never hear me though. I am on JS8 almost 24/7 for fun and ecomms.
Cheers to another JS8Call user.
Thanks for the Intro,73 de VE2TSM
Any time!
I saw N0GQ reply to your @HB and just for fun left a msg via him. Glad you got it and featured how it works on this video. JS8 is such a cool mode. Regards Ian vk5cz.
Thanks for sending me a message via N0GQ. You're the reason that I was able to get this video recorded early yesterday morning. I did not want to wait until 7:00 AM for my local guys to come online. Cheers from the U.S.!