Frank Nakamura

JS8Call is genuinely worth trying if you want actual QSOs. it runs on top of FT8 basically so the RF performance is similar but not quite as deep into the noise as pure FT8 since its sending text in longer bursts. i run it on 40 and 80m and theres usually activity if you know where to look, 7.078 is the main hangout. its not huge but the people who use it actually want to talk which is refreshing. your IC-7300 will handle it fine, just make sure your audio levels are dialed in same as you would for FT8 and dont overdrive the tx, same deal.
PSK31 is still kinda alive but honestly its like finding a payphone. some people use it but you have to hunt around. 14.070 on 20m is where i check occasionally and sometimes theres someone there, sometimes not. if you want to chat digitally and not just exchange grid squares JS8Call is your best bet right now in my opinion.

had almost the exact same symptoms on mine about a year ago, turned out to be the RF input relay. those small signal relays that switch between the antenna and the internal attenuator/preamp path can get flaky, and when they do the receive tanks but tx is routed differently so it still looks fine. icom used a pretty standard relay there, nothing exotic. you can actualy hear it click when you key up if you listen close.
the way i confirmed it was to probe the relay contacts with the radio in receive mode and wiggle the board slightly near that area — got intermittent noise changes which pointed right at it. if youre comfortable with SMD rework it's not a terrible job to replace, just takes patience and a decent iron. if not, icom service centers know this failure and it shouldnt be a huge repair bill. worth calling around for a quote before you dig in yourself.

ok so ive been listening on 40m for a few weeks now and people throw around all these codes and shortened words and i honestly have no idea what half of them mean. like i hear QSL, QRM, QRZ, QTH all the time and i sort of figured out QSL means like... confirmed? and QTH is location maybe? but then sometimes people say 73 at the end of a contact and i dont know if thats a code or just someones number or what. also heard someone say OM and YL during a roundtable and had no clue what was happening. is there like a master list somewhere or do you just pick this up over time. feels like everyone else just knows this stuff already and im missing something obvious

yeah the TQSL thing tripped me up too when i first started, i think i had to watch a youtube video twice before it clicked. the part that confused me was that you have to create a separate callsign certificate for each location if you ever operate portable or from a different address, which nobody really explains upfront.
one thing worth doing is going back and uploading your logs from contacts you already made, you can set the date range in TQSL and it'll handle it. i waited almost six months before i started uploading and still got a bunch of confirmations come through retroactively which was a nice surprise

hamstudy.org is honestly all you need if your main goal is just passing the exam. i didnt even crack a book, spent maybe two weeks doing the flash cards every night for like 20-30 minutes and passed with a pretty comfortable margin. the site tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and focuses on those which is really helpful. the electrical theory questions are kind of annoying but there arent that many of them and once you see the same ones cycle through a few times you just kind of memorize the answers anyway. dont stress too much about actually understanding every single thing, you can dig deeper into the theory stuff after you get your callsign if you want to. the pool only has 35 questions on the actual test so the odds are pretty manageable once youve gone through everything a couple times

hey welcome to the hobby first of all. so the CTCSS thing -- you only need to set the transmit tone, not a receive tone, at least for most repeaters. the receive tone (sometimes called DCS or just squelch tone) is only for filtering out the audio on your end if you dont want to hear every kerchunk, but it wont affect whether the repeater hears you. so if you have 100.0 set on your TX you should be good there.
one thing that trips up a lot of people with baofengs is the menu system is kind of a nightmare and sometimes the tone gets set in one memory channel but not the one you're actually using. worth double checking that the tone is saved to the actual channel you're transmitting on and not just set globally or whatever.
as for getting on -- yeah just key up, say your callsign, and maybe something like "[your call] listening" or "monitoring" and see if anyone comes back. some repeaters are just quiet a lot of the time though, doesnt mean youre doing anything wrong. try it a few times at different times of day, evenings tend to be more active around here at least.

i just passed mine like two months ago so this is fresh. hamstudy.org was really all i used tbh, did maybe an hour a day for like two and a half weeks and felt ready. the practice exams on there are formatted exactly like the real thing which helped a lot mentally.
one thing i wish someone told me — when you show up to the exam session it goes way faster than you expect. i think i finished in like 12 minutes. so dont psych yourself out about it

what coax you running to that mag mount? because thats where i'd look first. those whips usually come with RG-58 which at 2m is gonna eat a couple db before you even get started, especially if the run is long or its an old cable with any moisture in it. i replaced the coax on my setup and it made a noticeable difference on marginal paths.
also where exactly is the mag mount sitting on the vehicle matters a lot more than people think. dead center of the roof is ideal but most people stick it wherever is convenient and then wonder why the pattern is messed up. anyway worth checking those basics before spending money on a new antenna.

For what it's worth, I've been running my IC-2730A for two years now with 10AWG wire direct to battery and it's been rock solid. The radio manual specifies the current draw - mine pulls about 13 amps on high power. Don't forget the inline fuse near the battery terminal!

same boat as you were about a year ago lol. honestly what helped me most was just recording myself sending and listening back, its brutal but you hear exactly where the spacing goes wrong. also Chuck Adams K7QO has free code courses online that really helped me with the rhythm side of things. dont worry too much about the keyer modes yet, thats kind of a rabbit hole

You can even make paddles from paperclips, wood blocks, and scrap parts - I've seen some amazing homebrew keys! But honestly, for your first paddle, get something commercially made with good reviews. The muscle memory you develop early is important, so having consistent, reliable contacts matters more than fancy materials.