Thanks, and all good points. I personally wouldn't want to pay $12/month unless I was going on a trip or expedition where I felt I might have to rely on the device (everything around here is in cell phone or ham HT range). But if I went on a 1 month expedition and could pay for just that month (or maybe 2 months if the trip overlapped two), that would be ok.

I haven't used JS8call and don't know what its network is like, but even if the present network is insufficient, it might get built out, something like the WSPR network. Basically there would be automated listening stations all over the world, that could accept JS8call messages and forward them to email or SMS text addresses. So you could send daily updates to your friends and that sort of thing (hopefully the ham regs would treat that like using a repeater phone patch). It also shouldn't be any big deal to include a GPS chip in the transceiver, so the message would automatically include coordinates.

WSPR turns out to be quite powerful. Apparently the best known estimate for the MH370 wreckage came from analysis of WSPR signals that had bounced off the plane and been picked up by automated listeners.

I'd have to check into the antenna. Maybe a ferrite loop would be ok. But it is HF after all.

I have not used any of these modes and am not really knowledgeable, but they are very interesting. I reactivated my old callsign (general class) a year or two ago and I have a crappy 2m/440 HT, but that medium is now pretty much dead, so I'm not on the air at all these days. Weak signal digital is the only mode that seems worthwhile to me now (phone calls and email handle everything else), though of course that's just me.