I am very interested in digital HF amateur radio. I think it’s the future in an urban high-noise environment.
I have had a play with FreeDV and I am very impressed. It’s a digital voice mode for amateur radio. It works really well, is crystal clear and easy to set-up. There’s the FreeDV official client and a third party Mac version (which I use). I believe it is the future of amateur radio on HF and the way we will “all” communicate one day by voice.
I think D-Star from Icom and used also by Kenwood is a great technology but it’s limited by adoption and a lack of repeaters (although hotspots are pretty good).
There are many digital data modes for amateur radio with FT8 being the most popular. I have had a play with JS8 Call but never really worked it out although I did get it going. It was slow and confusing to me.
I have seen some publicity lately for JTTY using the release Candidate of WSJT-X 3.2. I knew nothing about it and decided to give it a go on my M4 Mac mini running 27.0.1. My process was:
- Downloaded it
- Hooked up my Icom IC-7300 Mk2 via USB
- Put the mode on JTTY
- Set the baud to 19,200 (same in app and on radio)
- Put the frequency on 7090 kHz USB-Data (Upper Side Band-Data)( spelt out as to avoid confusion)
- I put out a few test messages and played with input and output volumes to keep ALC where it should be.
- Voilà – VK2BLQ came back to me.
Sending and receiving is just like just Messages or WhatsApp on your phone. It’s not like FT8 that ticks over every 15 seconds. It’s instant. And you can say anything. It’s not limited to the six template messages of FT8. There are a few buttons for template messages you can modify. I have them for CQ, QTH, QRZ and QST.
The questions I have are:
- Can you receive or send at the same time?
- Can you direct message or is the frequency a party line?
Anyway, I look forward to playing with this and learning more. Please share your experience with me.
73’s
Andrew, VK2AWN
10 October 2026