Jennifer Adams

same boat as you a while back lol. one thing that helped me was just downloading the actual part 97 PDF and ctrl+F searching for "Technician" — cuts through a lot of the noise. also the ARRL band plan chart is way more readable. dont overthink the power limits for now, just focus on knowing where you're allowed to be frequency wise first.

i just did this like two months ago so pretty fresh for me lol. i used hamstudy and also watched some youtube videos when i hit stuff i didnt understand, there's a few channels that explain the electrical theory parts way better than just reading the questions. the antenna and propagation questions tripped me up at first but once it clicks it clicks. dont stress too much about fully understanding everything before the test, some of it makes more sense once you actually get on the air and start using stuff.

your understanding of the architecture is basically right, its a store and forward system so the message hits an RMS gateway over RF, that gateway forwards it to one of the CMS servers over internet, and then whoever youre sending to either connects to any gateway anywhere in the world and polls the CMS for new mail, or if theyre set up with a Telnet connection they might get it another way. the CMS is really the hub of the whole thing.
for your actual issue though id check the pat logs more carefully, there should be something in there about why the session is terminating early. run it with verbose logging if you can. 144.990 is a common winlink packet freq so that part sounds fine. one other thing -- some gateways are picky about the SSID you connect with, try with and without an SSID and see if that changes anything.

A typical ARES training calendar includes monthly simulated emergency tests, quarterly field exercises, and periodic workshops. The online courses are just the foundation - the real learning happens during nets and drills. Don't let the paperwork intimidate you from getting started!

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for working new entities and all that but honestly after a while it feels like youre just clicking a waterfall and not actually talking to anyone. i get that thats kind of the point but i started getting curious about JS8Call because people kept mentioning it in the weak signal context and i figured it was basically the same thing but with text.
turns out its actually pretty different in practice. the timing structure is more relaxed, you can send longer messages, and theres this store-and-forward relay thing that i still dont fully understand but it seems like guys are using it for some kind of resilient messaging network? anyway i set it up on my IC-7300 with the usual USB audio and CAT stuff i already had running for WSJT-X and it came up pretty easy.
my question is more about the activity levels though. i tune around on 40m and sometimes the JS8Call frequencies feel pretty dead compared to the FT8 circus. is it just time of day or is the mode genuinely less populated in certain regions. also curious if anyone actually has conversations on it or if its mostly just beacon-type stuff

nice work getting it up, 14 gauge stranded is what i used on my first one too. the only thing id add is make sure your connections at the feedpoint are actually weatherproofed if its gonna stay up long term, i skipped that step once and had a totally weird SWR reading a few months later that turned out to just be corrosion at the solder joint. self fusing tape works great for wrapping the whole feedpoint area once youre happy with how it tunes.

room acoustics caught me off guard when i first started caring about this stuff. i was getting reports of this weird echo-y quality to my audio and i couldnt figure it out for weeks. turned out i had the mic pointed somewhat toward a flat wall about 3 feet away and was basically getting a tiny slap back. moved the whole setup around and it went away. sounds like a minor thing but on SSB where the bandwidth is already limited those kinds of artifacts really stand out.
also one thing worth trying if you havent — record yourself using the monitor function on the 7300 or just loop it through an SDR nearby and listen critically. hearing yourself the way others hear you is kind of jarring the first time but its the fastest way to actually diagnose whats wrong instead of guessing.

Your setup should work fine for getting started! For 2 meters, it's 60-C, or 60-second t/r sequence and sub-mode C. The K1JT Quick Start Guide to Q65 recommends the following t/r sequences and sub-modes. I'd recommend jumping straight to Q65-60C on 144.170 MHz rather than starting with the older JT65 mode - it's more sensitive and better suited for today's EME activity.

I'm planning the same mod on my FT-897! Some guys have done internal RTL-SDR installations with IF tap amplifier+filter boards - creates a really clean setup with no external dongles.

so its been a pretty slow week for me radio wise, been monitoring 40m for the past couple hours and barely heard anything worth calling into. got a couple of weak stations from somewhere in the midwest but the qsb was brutal and i lost em both before we even exchanged names. not complaining exactly just feels like one of those nights where the band is technically open but nobody's really home, you know what i mean. anyway im just leaving the rig on in the background while i putter around the shack. maybe ill try 80m later when it gets darker and see if the ragchewers are out. anybody else having a similar night or is it just my part of the country thats dead right now

Your setup should work fine for getting started! For 2 meters, it's 60-C, or 60-second t/r sequence and sub-mode C. The K1JT Quick Start Guide to Q65 recommends the following t/r sequences and sub-modes. I'd recommend jumping straight to Q65-60C on 144.170 MHz rather than starting with the older JT65 mode - it's more sensitive and better suited for today's EME activity.

Your setup should work fine for getting started! For 2 meters, it's 60-C, or 60-second t/r sequence and sub-mode C. The K1JT Quick Start Guide to Q65 recommends the following t/r sequences and sub-modes. I'd recommend jumping straight to Q65-60C on 144.170 MHz rather than starting with the older JT65 mode - it's more sensitive and better suited for today's EME activity.