FT8 is currently causing the death of my ham radio hobby

It's a topic we've all heard before, but here is my perspective. In the 35 years I've been a radio ham this year has been the worst for the lack of activity on CW and SSB modes in all the HF and VHF bands (especially high HF i.e. 15/10m).

Is it that the bands are just in really poor condition you may ask? Well no is the short answer! I say this, because in my experience, 90% of the time whilst I've been calling CQ, I've been listening to multiple FT8 signals banging in and according to the cluster and my decode, its coming from all over Europe and beyond. However on CW and SSB modes there is silence despite my attempts at calling CQ.

Is it that FT8 is just way more capable of making QSOs compared to other modes you may ask? Well no is the short answer! I say this, because in my experience as a CW operator, 90% of the time if I can hear a signal I can work it and I can hear FT8 signal coming in at S9 and I am still not able to get a response to my CQ calls on CW.

My conclusion is therefore that FT8 has spoilt my fun on the 15/10m bands and VHF especially. Unfortunately this is where I am 90% of the time. Where I used to be able to call CQ and nearly always get a response, now I get nothing except a bandscope full of strong FT8 signals.

Should I consider moving to the FT8 mode? I already use FT8 where it is appropriate i.e. when 10m is just opening. As soon as I can see or hear FT8 signals, I switch to CW or SSB. Why do I do this? Because FT8 is a weak signal mode not a full communication mode and it's extremely limited info exchange mechanism is only suited to essential information pass under hard band conditions. When the bands open, there is no point in this in my opinion. I can therefore only surmise that those who do not change to a more suitable communications mode are not interested in communicating, are unable to use CW or prefer communicating from behind a keyboard rather than use their voice! These concepts are all unattractive to me as they directly affect my hobby as described above.

I do believe that everyone has the right to their own hobby, so I would never dream of trying to spoil their fun or force them to use other modes some of the time. I therefore just have to accept that FT8 is currently killing my hobby. YMMV.