Ahmed Hassan

so ive been doing POTA for about a year now and someone at the club mentioned WWFF and i looked into it a bit and it seems similar but with a lot more international flavor? like theres hunters all over europe and japan who really go after these nature reference contacts. anyway i signed up on the wwff.cc site and im planning to activate a local wildlife refuge next weekend, KFF-something, i have to look up the exact reference number. my question is really just - is the operating style much different from POTA? i know for POTA you just need 10 contacts to validate but for WWFF i read its 44 contacts for a full activation? that seems like a lot more. im running a KX2 with a linked dipole so i should be fine on HF but i just dont want to show up and not understand how it works. do i need to spot myself the same way, like on POTA net or whatever? any tips from people who have done both would be great

no hard rule in the FCC regs about which phonetics you use, its just convention really. the NATO/ITU phonetics exist because they were designed to be understood across language barriers and in bad conditions, like the words were literally chosen because they sound distinct even when a signal is weak or distorted. "november" vs "nancy" -- november is going to punch through noise better in most cases because its less common and the syllables land differently. that said plenty of old timers use whatever they grew up with and it works fine on a clear 20m contact. where it starts to matter is when you're in a pileup or the band is rough and you really need the other op to get your callsign right. ive had guys give me a "lima" when i said my call and the other station came back with something completely wrong because they used a weird phonetic that sounded like another letter on a bad band. just stick with NATO, youll be glad you did when conditions get ugly

yeah 10m has been crazy good, i worked a station in south africa on a wire dipole last weekend with like 50 watts and he came back first call. first call. on a dipole. i almost fell out of my chair. the SFI has been hovering up in the 200s which i havent seen in a long time, definitely feeling like we're getting close to the cycle peak or at least near it. on the IC-905 thing, my buddy has one and says the rx on 2.4 ghz is surprisingly decent but he's still working out the antenna situation for the higher bands. its a cool radio for sure but not cheap, gonna wait and see if prices settle a bit before i pull the trigger.

the generator RFI thing is almost always a grounding issue in my experience. run a good ground from the generator frame to an actual stake in the ground and bond your radio chassis to the same point. also helps to run the coax away from the power cables at 90 degrees if you can manage it. i use a honda eu2200i and it's genuinely pretty quiet RF-wise once everything is properly bonded, way better than the cheap inverter units even when those claim to be pure sine wave. for the battery side of things you might look at adding a second 50ah pack rather than one big one, easier to distribute the weight if you're humping it anywhere. and honestly if your exercise is 6 hours at moderate duty cycle you should be okay with 100ah if you're not running 100w the whole time. what's your average tx cycle looking like

oh man i remember feeling exactly like this when i first started. the tuesday night net is probably fine honestly. traffic nets can seem formal but most of the time the net control is super patient especially if you mention youre new. what usually happens is the net control calls for check-ins, you just key up and say your callsign phonetically, they acknowledge you, and then you either pass traffic if you have any or just say no traffic and youre basically done. easy as that most of the time. the casual ragchew nets are good too if you want something with less structure but traffic nets are actually great for learning proper procedure because everything is kind of scripted if that makes sense. as for special event stations those are completely separate from nets — theyre usually set up to commemorate something like a historical anniversary or a big event and people contact them to get a special QSL card or certificate. you can definitely work them as a new ham, its just a regular contact. some of them are on for a weekend some are on for weeks. w1aw portables and those kinds of things show up in the ARRL calendar if you want to look ahead at whats coming

honestly the extra portions on 40m are noticeably cleaner during contest weekends, that alone kinda sold me on it after getting fed up with QRM during sweepstakes. but yeah the theory stuff, some of it is genuinely interesting once it clicks. i actually learned more about how my antenna system really works just from going through the question pool seriously instead of just memorizing answers. the filter stuff seemed pointless at first but it helped me understand why my old rig had that weird intermod problem i could never figure out. whether thats worth weeks of studying is totally up to you though, some people just want to operate and thats fine too.

so ive been running SSB on 40m for a few months now and keep getting reports that my audio sounds muffled or like im in a tunnel. running an IC-7300 into a dipole, nothing exotic. the radio has the built in compressor and i honestly dont know if i have it set right or if thats even the problem. ive tried tweaking the mic gain but every time i turn it up to where the ALC is doing something the reports get worse not better. someone on the local net told me to check my TX bandwidth settings which i hadnt even thought about. had it set to wide because i figured more bandwidth = better audio but maybe thats the issue with filter rolloff or something? i dunno. also using the stock hm-219 hand mic that came with the radio. wondering if thats part of it. any of you guys run the 7300 and have a baseline you can share for mic gain, the TX bandwidth, and compressor settings? or at least tell me if im on the right track here

yeah what he said about the preamp placement is huge. i made the mistake of having mine about 6 feet of coax from the feed before i moved it and the difference was noticeable even on terrestrial weak signal stuff. on EME it would have been even worse. also if you havent already, spending time on the WSJT-X user group reflector or the moon-net mailing list is worth it, theres a ton of archived info and people there are generally pretty helpful to newcomers as long as you do some reading first before asking stuff thats already been covered a hundred times. my first EME QSO was with a big gun in europe and honestly i was shocked it worked at all with my setup at the time, 4x17el and maybe 400w. so dont get discouraged before you even try.

yeah debriefs really do vary a lot by group, from what ive seen. some ECs are really good about it and do a proper after-action review within a day or two while everything is fresh, others kind of just move on. the groups that take it seriously tend to get better over time because you're actually identifying what broke down and what worked well. if your EC didnt do a formal one you could always just write up your own notes and share them with the group, sometimes that prompts others to do the same and it becomes a thing. i started doing that after my second activation years ago and it actually helped me remember details that would have been totally gone a week later. also congrats on your first real activation, 14 hours at the EOC for a flood event is no joke. Winlink over VARA is kind of the workhorse now isnt it, glad it mostly cooperated for you.

the IC-9700 is honestly a solid starting point, better than what a lot of guys had when they made their first EME contacts. single yagi 2m EME is definitely doable with JT65, people call it "big gun" versus "single yagi" operation but you can work the big stations. dont expect a ton of random contacts but the dedicated EME guys will work you. for the antenna you really want something in the 12-15 element range if you can swing it, the difference between a 9el and say a 15el M2 or similar is significant on a mode where every tenth of a dB matters. and yeah the preamp at the feedpoint is not optional in my opinion, it IS the system basically. you want something like an SSB electronics or a Kuhne unit with a noise figure under 0.5 dB, running coax from the antenna to a preamp in the shack will just kill you on receive. the moon path loss is around 252 dB on 2m, theres no margin to waste anywhere. for tracking — i ran manual az/el for about a year and it was tedious but workable for JT65 since you have 47 seconds per sequence. eventually i got a small rotator setup going with ham-lib and it made life a lot easier. if you're the kind of person who enjoys fiddling with software integration stuff its actually kind of fun to set up

It's not a rule, at least not in the US for normal amateur operation. The FCC doesn't mandate NATO phonetics, they just require that you identify with your callsign. How you spell it out is up to you. That said there's a reason the NATO alphabet became standard — it was specifically designed so each word sounds distinct even through heavy noise and distortion, like Alpha and Bravo don't get confused the way A and B might over a crackly path. The "D for Dog" thing is old phonetics, that was actually the US military standard before NATO replaced it in the 50s. You'll occasionally hear old timers use Dog or Easy or Fox and nobody's going to key up and correct you mid-QSO. But if you're trying to get a callsign across on a pile-up or a weak signal, Delta is going to serve you a lot better than Dog just because more people will recognize it instantly without thinking. Don't stress about it too much. The point is to be understood. If someone can't copy your call and you spell it out clearly, mission accomplished regardless of which phonetics you used.

so ive been running SSB on 40m for a few months now and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds either too bassy or like im talking through a cardboard box. im using a stock mic that came with the radio (its a Yaesu FT-891) and i havent touched the EQ settings really at all. a few guys on the local net have been patient enough to give me honest feedback and the consensus is it just sounds kinda muffled. i did read somewhere that the default mic gain on a lot of these radios is set way too hot out of the box and youre supposed to dial it back and then let the speech processor or compressor do more of the lifting, but honestly im not totally sure i understand the right way to do that without just making things worse. also someone told me to look into the bandwidth settings, something about 2.4kHz being too narrow or too wide for voice i cant remember which. anyone dealt with this and figured out a decent starting point for SSB audio on this radio or just in general?

CQ WW SSB is honestly a great one to jump into even as a newer op. yes it gets busy, like really busy on Saturday morning you'll wonder what hit you, but that chaos is kind of the fun part once you get used to it. with the ic-7300 you're in good shape, that rig has a solid built-in contest filter setup if you dig into the menus a bit. my suggestion would be dont try to run your own frequency right away, just search and pounce for the first several hours until you get a feel for the exchange and the pace. the CQ WW exchange is pretty simple — 59 and your zone number — so that part wont trip you up. just get the zone map printed out or pulled up on a second screen because youll need to know the other stations zone and some people send it fast. SOTA is completely separate from contest stuff, different program entirely. you can chase SOTA activations for points toward your own SOTA chaser total but it doesnt interact with CQ WW at all. some people do try to squeeze SOTA activations around contest weekends just for fun but theyre really different activities.

im pretty new to POTA too but one thing i learned the hard way is write down the park reference and your freq on a little card before you go out so when you self spot youre not fumbling with your phone trying to remember if its K-4801 or K-8401 or whatever. sounds dumb but when youre nervous and fiddling with gear its easy to mess up and then your spot goes to the wrong park

okay so I passed my technician exam about three weeks ago and my license just showed up in the ULS database yesterday. I've been reading about vanity callsigns and I'm kind of confused about the whole thing. like I understand that you can apply for a specific call that you want, but I don't totally get the sequential part — does that mean the FCC just assigns you whatever comes next in line before you can even think about getting a vanity? my uncle who's been a ham for like 30 years told me I should just wait and get whatever sequential call gets assigned first and then apply for a vanity after, but then I also read somewhere that you can apply for a vanity right away after getting licensed? I dont want to mess anything up or like... cause problems with my initial license. also wondering if there's a fee now since I heard that changed a few years back. any help appreciated, this is all a little overwhelming honestly

so ive been messing around with an RTL-SDR v3 dongle for about 8 months now and honestly its been great for what it is, i use SDR# mostly and sometimes GQRX on linux when im on the laptop. started with just scanning trunked P25 stuff and ADS-B but now im getting more into HF with the direct sampling mod and thats where things start to fall apart a bit the noise floor on direct sampling is just... not great. i know its a limitation of the hardware, its a $25 dongle what do i expect. but ive been looking at the SDRplay RSP1B and its sitting around $120 which is honestly not bad. my question is whether the jump in dynamic range and the better frontend filtering actually translates to something noticeable on HF or if im just going to spend the money and be kind of disappointed i mostly do 40m and 80m listening, some MW DX when conditions are right, and ive been wanting to try some WSPR decoding. anybody gone from RTL-SDR to RSP1B specifically and noticed a real difference? not looking for the RSP2 or RSPdx right now, budget is what it is

nice work getting out there. i did my first one last spring and was also surprised how fast it came together once i got spotted. one tip that helped me was downloading the POTA app on my phone and self-spotting from the field, its way easier than trying to do it through the website on mobile. also if you can swing it, bringing a small notebook just to log callsigns and signal reports by hand is way less stressful than trying to do digital logging while also handling the radio and the antenna. i type up the log when i get home.

The thing that bit me on my first real deployment was power. I had the radio, I had the battery, but I didn't have a way to charge the battery once it ran down and we ended up being out there a lot longer than anyone expected. Now I keep a small folding solar panel strapped to the outside of my kit and a decent PWM charge controller zip-tied inside. Not glamorous but it's saved me twice. Also — headlamp. Sounds dumb but if you're operating at night or in a building with no power you'll be very glad you have it. And spare batteries for the headlamp. I also toss in a cheap handheld weather radio just in case I need situational awareness without tying up my main rig. After about four or five ARES activations my kit is completely different from what I started with, honestly half the original stuff got pulled out and replaced with more practical stuff.

so ive been chasing SOTA for about 8 months now and finally decided to just go do an activation myself. picked a 2-pointer near me, W4T/SU-064 i think, nothing crazy but its a real hike and i figure a lower point summit is a good place to start without totally embarrassing myself up there my plan is to bring the KX2 with a random wire antenna and just see what happens. ive read the rules about needing 4 contacts to qualify it and staying in the activation zone which i think is within 25 meters vertical of the actual summit, but honestly a lot of this still feels kind of fuzzy to me. like do i need to pre-announce it on SOTAwatch before i go up? and whats the deal with the self-spotting thing, can i just text someone to spot me or do i need cell signal to do it myself through the app also any tips for just general portable ops on a summit would be great. first time operating somewhere without a table and a chair and all my usual stuff lol

yeah im in the same boat kind of, well i started about 6 months ago so a little ahead of you maybe. the app thing is real, i went through like 3 different ones before i stuck with anything. what helped me was finding a youtube channel that does slow code practice, just copying real words and callsigns, feels more like actual radio than just random letters. also theres a thing called the CW Academy that a lot of people talk about, its free i think and they pair you with an advisor and do zoom sessions. i havent done it myself but ive heard good things on here and on reddit. the main thing i'd say is dont worry about sending yet, just focus on copying for now, thats what i was told anyway

honestly the tech exam is pretty manageable even without any electronics background. the question pool is public, all the actual questions that can appear on the test are available online, so theres no surprises. I used HamStudy dot org when I was studying and just did practice tests over and over until I was consistently hitting like 85% or better, then I went and took the real thing. took me maybe 2-3 weeks of casual studying in the evenings. the exam itself is 35 questions and you need 26 right to pass so theres a decent margin. dont stress too much about understanding every single concept deeply, some of the questions you can just memorize the answer and move on. the electrical theory section trips some people up but even that isnt too bad once you see the same questions a few times in practice.

i just took mine in march and passed first try, the math questions look scarier than they are tbh. like for the reactance stuff you really only need like three or four formulas and they give you enough context in the question to figure out which one. i was way more worried going in than i needed to be. just do a ton of practice tests and when you get something wrong look up why, dont just move on.

yeah i had almost exactly this on a 7300 about a year ago, different story behind it but same symptom. turned out one of the PA transistors was partially degraded — not dead, just running out of steam early. what happens is the remaining devices compensate a bit so you get output, just not full output, and the rig has no idea anything is wrong so no fault code. icom's protection is pretty good at catching hard failures but a soft degradation like that it kind of just rolls with. before you go pulling transistors though id check the bias voltage on the PA stage first. there's a trimmer in there and if someone fiddled with it previously trying to fix something else you might just need to readjust it back to spec. the service manual has the procedure, you'll need a wattmeter and a bit of patience. if bias is way off that could explain the low output without any dramatic failure mode. worth checking before ordering parts.

first thing id check is that NMO adapter connection at the base of the antenna — those can look fine and still have a bad connection. also how big is your ground plane? if you mounted it off center or near the edge of the roof it can mess with the radiation pattern and affect SWR especially on the higher frequencies. 70cm is way more sensitive to that stuff than 2m is. my first mobile install i had a similar reading and it turned out the center pin on one of my PL-259s wasnt fully seated into the SO-239 on the radio. just wiggle the coax near each connector end while watching the SWR and see if it changes at all, that usually points you right to the problem.

so ive been running an old TS-450S for like 8 years and i kept telling myself i didnt need to upgrade but after borrowing a buddy's 7300 at a field day event last summer i just couldnt go back. finally ordered one in january and its been sitting on my desk for about 3 weeks now. first impression is obviously the screen, like everyone says. the panadapter alone has changed how i operate, i actually find myself just watching the band for a few minutes before i even key up which i never did before. the filtering is stupid good compared to what i was used to, especially crowded 40m conditions on weekday evenings when everyone and their grandmother is on. one thing that did throw me off is the touch interface when youre wearing gloves or have cold hands in the shack in winter, it gets kind of annoying. my shack is in the garage and it gets cold. not a dealbreaker but worth mentioning. also took me a while to figure out the scope settings so it wasnt just a smear of noise, there are a bunch of ref level and speed adjustments that make a huge difference once you dial them in. anyone else made a similar jump from older iron to something with a built in panadapter? curious how long it took you to really feel at home with it