JS8Call version 0.12.0 released

About JS8Call

JS8Call is an experiment to test the feasibility of a digital mode with the robustness of FT8, combined with a messaging and network protocol layer for weak signal communication on HF, using keyboard-to-keyboard style interface. JS8Call is heavily inspired by WSJT-X, Fldigi, and FSQCall and would not exist without the hard work and dedication of the many developers in the amateur radio community.

JS8Call is a derivative of the WSJT-X application, restructured and redesigned for keyboard-to-keyboard message passing. It is not supported by nor endorsed by the WSJT-X development group. While the WSJT-X group maintains copyright over the original work and code, JS8Call is a derivative work licensed under and in accordance with the terms of the GPLv3 license. Source code can be found in this public repository: https://bitbucket.org/widefido/wsjtx/ 

Please Note that JS8Call is currently pre-release software

As such each version will have a limited lifespan, you should also be aware that there may be bugs in the software and that links on the websites may become out of date at times. If you want a stable version of the software then we ask you to please wait for Version 1.0 to be released.

The reason for the limited lifespan is because older versions of the software may be incompatible with the current release, for this reason we encourage you to sign up to the JS8Call groups.io discussion  to stay informed about latest releases.

 

About this release

JS8Call version 0.12.0 includes lots of updates with tons of fixes (many of which were issues reported via the issue tracker). Some changes are notable:

• There’s now a word suggestion feature for transmit text (sort of like a spell check) that gives you the red “squiggly” line for words and abbreviations that do not appear in the dense code dictionary. Right click the word and view the suggested alternatives that may transmit faster. If this isn’t something you want to use, you can turn it off in the Configuration.
• Inbox messages (messages sent via the “>” command, either directly or relayed) now persist between application restarts. They also no longer disappear with Callsign Aging. 
• Your station will not AUTO reply to a query if a “message buffer” is open. Meaning…when you are receiving a message directed to you, your station recognizes that and will not go into transmit mode so you can complete the receipt of the message. This is a HUGE help!
• ACTIVE/IDLE is gone. It never really worked well and just confused things. It was a nice experiment, but sadly it had to go. 
  • So…what happens if you ask “STATUS?”. The command reply is an awesome mix of how long the station has been idle and which options they have enabled and the version of the app they are running. Like this: STATUS 1H AUTO SPOT RELAY V0.12.0
• SELCALL is gone. Recent improvements in message buffering and command replies negated the SELCALL effectiveness (it was rarely used and really had no usefullness). So, instead of issuing a SELCALL toggle, just toggle AUTO. It controls whether or not your station will respond automatically. 
• You can now choose your table sort options for Call Activity and Band Activity by right clicking the column header.
• Clear Activity now asks for confirmation before clearing.
• And plenty more.

  

Download JS8Call

You can read the JS8Call documentation here and you can download JS8Call from http://js8call.com/downloads/