JS8 grows up: send one-way SMS and email from an off-grid station, run an APRS-IS gateway that makes those messages work for everyone, see who you can reach on a live heartbeat map, join nets, and leave/collect messages through a real HF mailbox. Plus JS8 as an idle program and full mobile control.
📱 SMS and email over HF
Send a one-way text to a phone number or an email address with no internet at your station — your JS8 transmission rides the APRS network to its destination. The new Messaging form (in the JS8 window's options gear) builds the packet correctly for you — the exact formatting that silently fails when typed by hand — shows the airtime before you send, and tells you honestly that delivery needs a listening gateway.
🌐 APRS-IS gateway — make it work for everyone
The reason "JS8 to SMS" has a reputation for not working: too few gateways are listening. Opt in (options gear → APRS) and your station forwards other operators' @APRSIS messages from RF to the internet backbone. Receive + internet only — it never keys your radio — rate-limited, and every forwarded packet is written to your log. Every home station that opts in makes this work better for every JS8 operator, whatever software they run.
🗺️ Heartbeat Map
A Map button in the JS8 bar opens live reachability: green = stations you hear, blue = stations that report hearing you, amber = confirmed both ways — with signal reports, ages, and lines from your QTH. Grids are learned from heartbeats and CQs and now persist properly, so the map fills in as you monitor.
📬 HF mailbox — leave a message
- Messages addressed to you ("MSG text") are stored — they survive restarts, count as unread, and notify you.
- Your station can hold mail for other operators and serve it when they ask (QUERY MSGS), guarded by a strict transmit budget so a mailbox can never spam a band.
- Heartbeat replies mention waiting mail, so messages find their recipients.
- Serving runs while you're around; an explicit opt-in exists for unattended service, with the regulatory considerations stated plainly. Off by default.
📻 More JS8
- Reply to heartbeats (HB ACK): opt in and stations heartbeating the net get their signal report back automatically — until you turn it off. Off at every launch.
- Joined nets: add @groups in the options gear; net traffic lights your conversation rail and is visible to Guest Pass users.
- Auto-heartbeat countdown on the Auto button, and clear "TX 1/3" progress on multi-frame messages.
- JS8 as your idle program: the station can now open JS8 (instead of SSTV/WSPR/PSK31) after the inactivity threshold — heartbeat net, ACKs, mailbox, and gateway all running while you're away.
- Mobile devices can read mail, send SMS/email, change the idle program, and drive every new toggle over ECHOCAT.
🛠️ Also
- CI-V frames that fail to parse are no longer discarded silently, and an unreported rig mode now names its cause in the log.
