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JS8Mail: Offline-first radio mail over JS8Call (github.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
11 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm not sure how useful this would actually be, but I've not had the chance to use it since nobody seems to know about it...so I'm posting this in hopes that some folks might give it a try.

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[–] 6 points 1 week ago* (4 children)

JS8CALL is great. I can't believe how much technical brilliance went into FT8 only for it to be deployed in such a stupid protocol. JS8CALL actually puts the brilliance to use.

Email over JS8CALL with all the stuff you mention seems a bit heavyweight because of JS8CALL's slow speed (around 1 character per second). Something very simple would suffice, like SMS, or SMS single hop to an email gateway. Anyway it should be relatively realtime.

For those of you wondering why anyone would want such a slow modulation scheme, it means you can potentially send SMS-like messages over intercontinental distances purely by direct radio, no internet, no multi-hop routing, no satellites, from a battery powered handheld device. Bigger than a cell phone but let's say paperback book size, with a few dozen feet of wire as an antenna.

I'll put looking at your github on my infinite todo list but anyway I'm glad JS8CALL is getting attention.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (3 children)

    What's a good frequency/time to try out JS8CALL? It's easy to find the big block of FT8 but I haven't found other digital modes yet (just getting started with digital). I'm best set up for 40m.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    The app has got a list of frequencies on all bands.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    Alright, I got the js8call app installed and had a QSO. Mostly heartbeats though (on 40m). Glad to set up a sked if anyone wants, especially if you'd like a postal QSL card.

    I had played with WSJT-X for FT8 and fldigi to try to find PSK31 or others. I didn't realize JS8CALL wasn't in fldigi with the others. The dedicated JS8CALL interface is much more inviting than WSJT-X though, and it's nice that all the apps share mostly the same configuration for rig communication.

    I'm getting some random characters typed while the rig is in transmit mode, probably need to invest in a USB cable with some ferrite beads.

    It does make me appreciate CW more, though. No configs to get wrong, no stations in bot mode that you can't actually talk with. I need to practice more before I can be my own modem at any reasonable speed though!

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    • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Cool shit. I am curious to try it out. PM me if you have a radio and time :)

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    [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Oh yeah! FT8 based mesh networking, i love it!

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    [–] 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I wanted to read about the radio hardware needed for this but the docs are super dense and I couldn't find any sections discussing this. Can you point is to any resources that would explain how to give it a try?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

    You need a ham rig, and ham credentials to run that rig.

    In practice any radio that has a way to interface with a computer or soundcard, and a means to automate push-to-talk, is workable.

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