Michael O'Brien

okay so dont let this overwhelm you, it really does seem more complicated than it is at first. LoTW is definitely the most important one to get set up if you care about DXCC or other ARRL awards down the road — a lot of serious DX stations upload there and nowhere else. the certificate process is a little annoying but you basically just have to mail a postcard to ARRL with your callsign and they send you back credentials, or if you got your license recently theres a faster way through the FCC database. once thats done TQSL (the software you use to upload) isnt too bad.
eQSL is worth having too, some people only use that, and its free and easier to set up. i wouldnt skip it. physical cards are kind of a personal thing — some people love them, some people have boxes full of them they never look at. if you work a really special contact or a rare entity its nice to have a paper card for the wall but you definitely dont need to do it for every qso. log4om should be able to upload to both LoTW and eQSL directly from the software once you configure it, worth looking into so you dont have to do it manually every time.

I've been working linear transponders like MO-122 and Fox-Plus with V/u inverting transponder configurations and finding Doppler tracking challenging when not using computer control. Most linear satellites use inverting transponders where you transmit LSB on the uplink and it appears as USB on the downlink. My issue is with the IC-9700's satellite mode - only correct computer control ensures stations stay on the same frequency during the pass. Currently using SatPC32 for frequency control but looking for alternatives. Has anyone compared the linear transponder Doppler correction strategies in different tracking software?

I'm setting up a RemoteHams server with an Adalm-Pluto SDR for QO-100 operation and running into some latency issues with audio streaming. The remote SDR system handles web browser control with reduced bandwidth needs versus direct SDR data streams, but I'm still experiencing about 300ms delay between TX audio input and actual transmission. Currently running on a Raspberry Pi 4B with the latest RemoteHams software.
Has anyone successfully optimized audio latency on this setup? I'm particularly interested in buffer size tweaks and network optimization settings that might help with real-time operation.
Also curious about the claimed bandwidth reduction from 10M bytes/sec for raw SDR data down to less than 100k bytes/sec for processed audio and spectrum data - are these figures realistic in practice?

so ive been wanting to do QRP for a while now and finally pulled the trigger on a Xiegu X6100 a few months back but then a buddy at my local club convinced me to try building a kit first before spending that kind of money. ended up going with one of the QRP Labs QCX+ kits for 40 meters and honestly i wasnt sure i could do it, my soldering is decent but nothing special.
anyway it took me about 5 hours spread over two evenings and the thing actually worked first time which i was not expecting at all. put out about 3.5 watts into my endfed and made a contact to a guy in georgia from ohio on the first try. i know thats not crazy DX but i was sitting there at like 5 watts wondering how people ever did this before digital modes and i have a new respect for the old timers doing CW QRP seriously.
the kit itself is pretty well documented, dont let the instruction booklet intimidate you, its very step by step. only thing i fumbled was the toroids, wound one wrong and had to redo it but caught it during the alignment stage. if youre on the fence about building vs buying i honestly think building taught me more about how the radio actually works than anything ive read. anyway just wanted to share since this forum helped me decide to go for it

oh man dont stress about this at all, seriously everyone fumbles their first few check-ins. i remember my first net i called myself by my wife's callsign on accident because i was so nervous. net control has heard everything.
for the ID thing — you do need to give your callsign at the end of each transmission technically, FCC requires it every 10 minutes and at the end of a contact, so on a net that means when you're done talking before you turn it back. something like "no traffic, W1XYZ" is all you need. nice and short. some nets have their own specific format and the net control will usually tell you if they want something different, like some want you to say your name and location too for roster purposes.
and listening before jumping in is totally fine, thats actually how you learn the flow of a specific net. every net runs a little differently and picking up on the rhythm before you participate is smart not weird. you'll get the hang of it fast, just keep checking in.

yeah cut long and trim is the way to go, learned that lesson the hard way on my first 20m dipole lol. also dont forget to account for the center insulator thickness in your overall measurement, its minor but if you're trying to be precise it adds up. my first one i just zip tied the coax to the center and it lasted two years before the connector started acting up, so even the janky approach works for a while.

so anyway i've been working on this install for probably three weekends now and i think i finally got it dialed in but now there's this new problem that showed up and im not sure if it was always there and i just didnt notice or if i did something recently that caused it.
background: FT-7900R mounted under the dash of my f150, NMO mount through the roof with a Tram 1185 dual band antenna. grounds look good, i used the chassis ground near the mount and ran the power directly to the battery with the recommended fuse close to the battery terminal. been pretty happy with it overall.
the issue is when i key up on 70cm i get this buzzing in the audio that kind of pulses with engine RPM. classic alternator whine i guess? but here's the thing — on 2 meters it sounds totally clean. no noise at all. only on 440. ive read that UHF can be more sensitive to this kind of thing but i dont really understand why it would only show up on one band and not the other. is this a filtering issue or could it be the antenna or feedline? running LMR-400 which seemed like overkill for a mobile but i had a bunch of it left over from another project.
anyone dealt with this before? kind of at a loss here

welcome to the addiction haha. seriously though 67 contacts on your first activation is pretty solid, some people struggle to get the 44 minimum for a valid activation so you did great. the spotting networks make a huge difference, i always post to wwff.us and also put something on SOTA watch if im doing a combined activation.
for finding references that are less crowded, i usually just browse the WWFF directory and filter by activation count. parks and forests with zero or very few activations are everywhere once you start looking, and hunters get excited because theyre chasing a new reference. i tend to avoid the super popular ones on weekends anyway just because parking is a nightmare. also worth checking if your state has any WFF references that are national wildlife refuges or wilderness areas, those tend to be really nice operating spots and people love them.
what antenna setup were you running with the KX2? im always curious what people bring for portable ops

im kind of in the same boat as you so take this for what its worth but one thing somebody told me at a hamfest that stuck with me — your go-kit is only as good as how often you actually test it. like dont just pack it and leave it in a closet. actually set it up in the backyard every couple months and pretend you're deployed. you'll figure out real fast what you forgot or what doesnt work anymore. batteries especially, they can sit fine and then surprise you at the worst time.

so ive been doing CW practice pretty consistently since i got my general last year and i hit 13wpm pretty quick, like within the first few months. but now its been maybe 4 or 5 months and i just cant seem to get past this wall. i do about 20-30 minutes a day with the koch method on the lcwo site and sometimes i fire up the radio and try to copy actual QSOs but it just turns to mush after a few seconds.
i started at 5wpm and honestly the jump up to around 10-12 felt pretty natural but something about that 13-15 range just feels like a brick wall. i read somewhere that this is common but nobody really explained WHY it happens or what to do differently. my character speed is set to 20 but my word speed is like 13 so maybe that mismatch is the issue? i dont know. anyone else gone through this and come out the other side?

I'm setting up a RemoteHams server with an Adalm-Pluto SDR for QO-100 operation and running into some latency issues with audio streaming. The remote SDR system handles web browser control with reduced bandwidth needs versus direct SDR data streams, but I'm still experiencing about 300ms delay between TX audio input and actual transmission. Currently running on a Raspberry Pi 4B with the latest RemoteHams software.
Has anyone successfully optimized audio latency on this setup? I'm particularly interested in buffer size tweaks and network optimization settings that might help with real-time operation.
Also curious about the claimed bandwidth reduction from 10M bytes/sec for raw SDR data down to less than 100k bytes/sec for processed audio and spectrum data - are these figures realistic in practice?