Mike Thompson

I went to that one two years ago but skipped last year. Honestly the vendor tables were getting a little thin, lot of the same old stuff you see every time. Still worth going for the people watching and catching up with folks you only see at these things. The fox hunt is new though, might make it more interesting. What time does it start, do you know?

the EU2200i is actually really clean, honda's inverter output is about as good as you're gonna get without going to a pure sine inverter battery setup. ive run my 7300 off one for a full weekend at a hamfest and the noise floor was fine, S1 at worst on 40m and that was probably more from the other vendors nearby. just keep the generator downwind and as far from the antenna feedline as you can manage, like 30-40 feet if the extension cord allows it. ferrite on the power cable going to the radio helps too, i run a couple of snap-ons near the radio end. for the dipole, honestly a linked dipole on a single rope between two trees is hard to beat for fast deployment if you already know your tie-off points. i use the sotabeams band hopper and it goes up in maybe 15 minutes once youre comfortable with it. the buddipole is fine but yeah it takes longer to tune and if someone bumps it youre back to square one. if trees are available just go with wire.

honestly its just feel and experience. on a local repeater where everyone knows your call there's no real reason to phonetic the whole thing every time, most guys just say their call sign normal and move on. HF is a totally different animal especially when band conditions are rough or you're working a pileup, then you pretty much have to use NATO phonetics or you're just wasting everyones time including your own. the way i think about it is, use phonetics any time there's a real chance of confusion. DX, noisy band, weak signal, working someone you've never talked to. otherwise use your judgement. and yeah whiskey yankee is a real trap, i've said "Whiskey Yankee" when i meant "Yankee Whiskey" more than once, usually around midnight during a contest. the brain just stops working after a while

the ALC going nuts on one band but not another is a pretty classic sign that something in the PA stage took a hit. on the 7300 the finals are band-switched and there's driver circuitry that's not entirely shared across all bands, so a partial failure can absolutely show up like what you're describing. the increased fan activity tracks too — if one of the transistors is running hot or biased wrong it'll generate more heat at lower power than it should. honestly before you ship it anywhere i'd pull the top cover off and just look. you're not going to fix it without a scope and signal generator but you might see a scorched component, a cracked board trace near the PA area, or a burned resistor. sometimes lightning damage is obvious once you look. also check around the antenna connector on the board itself, not just the coax — the center pin connection on the pcb can arc internally and look totally fine from the outside. if you do end up sending it in, Icom's service network isn't terrible but it's not fast either. there are a couple of independent shops that specialize in Icom gear and honestly might be a better bet depending on where you are. either way get a repair estimate first because sometimes on a rig that's taken a surge hit the repair quote comes back ugly.

Dont stress too much, the 44 QSO minimum is the real deal for a valid activation but honestly if you set up on a decent band during a reasonable time of day and spot yourself on the WWFF spotter page youll get there faster than you think. The hunters are out there and they jump on new references pretty quick. Definitely announce the reference on the air, something like your callsign then portable and the KFF reference after each contact or every few contacts at least. That way people logging the hunters side can confirm it. The WWFF log submission is just a standard ADIF file so whatever logging software you use should handle it fine, just make sure youre capturing date time frequency mode and callsign at minimum. 14.244 is a good choice for a weekend, thats kind of the informal WWFF and nature activation gathering spot on 20m SSB. Have fun with it, first activation is always a bit chaotic but thats part of it.

yeah the net control thing is basically your answer right there. when propagation is rough or theres noise people really do struggle to copy individual letters and having those specific words just cuts through better. i still mess up occasionally and say something random like Victor for V when im tired but mostly muscle memory kicks in. theres a printable reference card on the ARRL site if you want something to stick near the radio while youre still learning it

so ive been messing around with an RTL-SDR v3 for about a year now, mostly just scanning around on SDR# and doing some ADS-B stuff, and i keep seeing people talk about the SDRplay units like they're some massive upgrade. the RSP1A is like $120 or so right now i think, and my RTL dongle cost me like $30. is the difference really that noticeable for general HF/VHF use or is it more of a niche thing where it only matters if youre doing specific stuff. i mostly listen around 40m and some shortwave broadcast stuff, and the RTL with the upconverter has been okay but not great. noise floor seems high and i feel like im missing weak signals that i should probably be hearing. not sure if thats an antenna problem or the SDR itself. running it into SDR# with the standard settings, havent really dug into the gain staging much tbh. anyone gone through this same upgrade path and have an honest take on it

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and just starting to get into actually chasing DX instead of just ragchewing on the local repeater. someone at our club mentioned using DXwatch and QRZ together and i set both up but honestly im not totally sure im using them the most efficient way like on DXwatch i can see spots coming in but sometimes the same station shows up 4 or 5 times and i cant tell if those are all different people spotting the same guy or if its like, network duplicates or whatever. and then QRZ has that little cluster tab but it seems to lag behind DXwatch by a few minutes sometimes? or maybe im imagining that also is there a way to filter out the digital modes on those lists because right now im seeing a ton of FT8 spots and im mostly interested in SSB. not that theres anything wrong with FT8 just not what im focusing on right now. any tips from people who actually use these regularly would be great

yeah same thing happened to me last week, completely missed it because I had the squelch set too tight and didn't notice until a buddy texted me. By the time I got on it was already fading. Ugh. One of these days I'll actually be ready when a good opening hits. On the IC-905 thing, I saw a review video on youtube from a guy who got an early unit and it looked pretty impressive but he was having some issues with the remote head cable or something, might have just been a setup problem though. I dunno, the price point is pretty steep for me right now.

so we have a county-level activation drill coming up in about 3 weeks and im trying to nail down the power situation before we get out there. last time we ran everything off a honda eu2200i and it was fine but one of the other operators kept complaining about noise on 40m and i honestly couldnt tell if it was the genny or his radio or what. we never really figured it out. this time around i want to try running the HF station off a lifepo4 pack instead, got a 100ah battleborn that i use for portable ops, and just keep the generator for the VHF/UHF stuff and the laptop. but im not sure if 100ah is going to cut it for a full 8 hour deployment if were running an ic-7300 at maybe 50-75w most of the time. i did some rough math and it seems like it should be okay but i never trust my own math on this stuff. also the antenna situation — last drill we threw up a linked dipole on a 31ft jackite pole and it worked okay but takedown took forever when we had to move. anyone running something faster to deploy for HF field work? ive been eyeing those EFHW matchbox setups but not sure if the performance tradeoff is worth it for emergency use. want reliable not just convenient

yeah the dual antenna setup with a coax switch is actually pretty common and works fine, i ran that exact config for a while with an x300 and a homebrew 5el yagi on 2m. the switch itself isnt really the weak link as long as you get a decent one — i used a daiwa cs-201 and never had issues even at 50w. the SO-239 thing youre worried about is a non issue honestly. that said 55 miles on 2m with 50w and a decent collinear should work more days than not depending on the terrain between you and the repeater. have you checked what the path looks like on something like heywhatsthat or even just google earth with elevation profiles? sometimes its one ridge or a building cluster thats the culprit and a few more feet of height on the collinear does more than a yagi pointed at a slightly wrong angle. id check the path first before committing to the yagi route

im kind of in the same boat as you, been at it for maybe 4 months now and just got on the air for real contacts last month which was terrifying lol. one thing that helped me a lot was just listening to actual qsos on 40m even before i could copy everything. like just having it in the background while i was doing other stuff. your brain starts to pick up the rhythm without you even really trying. also the MFJ paddles have a bit of a reputation for the tension going loose over time but for learning its probably fine, mine works ok. good luck with it, it really is satisfying once stuff starts clicking

Both have their place! DXCC is by far the top certificate among DXers and most DX clubs require it for full membership. But WAZ gives you a better understanding of global propagation patterns. Why not chase both? Following the typical progression of WAS, WAC, then DXCC is still solid advice for new DXers.

cant speak to Log4OM specifically but just wanted to say N1MM really isnt meant for casual logging and i think a lot of people try to force it into that role because theyve already learned it. ive seen guys run like three different logging programs depending on what theyre doing and honestly thats not as crazy as it sounds as long as your master log is in one place. ADIF is pretty portable these days.

maybe its just me but ive been getting on 40 most evenings this past couple weeks and its just dead. like i remember a few years back youd tune around and find half a dozen ragchews going on no problem, now i spin the dial for 20 minutes and find maybe one guy calling CQ and nobody answering him. not sure if its the time of year or solar conditions or what but something feels off. been a ham since 98 and i dont remember it being this quiet in the fall usually

yeah the FCC band plan chart is really what you want, ARRL has a pretty readable version on their website that color codes it by license class. the part 97 language is written for lawyers basically, not for people who just want to get on the air. for 40 meters specifically, technicians only get CW privileges on a small slice down at the bottom, like 7.025 to 7.125 i think, something like that. as a general you have a much bigger chunk for phone, i want to say it starts around 7.175 going up. the key thing to just burn into your head is that extra class ops have the lower parts of most bands and general/tech are pushed a bit higher. once you know that pattern it starts to make more sense. just keep the chart open on your phone for a while until it clicks

yeah that happens, dont sweat it. the first few times out you're still figuring out your system and what works. i'd say get a dedicated GPS unit or at least download the offline maps before you go because phone batteries are just not reliable out there. also 40m past noon on a weekend can be rough, have you tried 20m for SOTA? you'd be surprised how many chasers are sitting on 14.285 and nearby just waiting for spots to pop up. also four contacts is not bad for a first go honestly, you were close. just means you have to go back which isnt the worst thing

Oh man I was exactly where you are about two years ago, stuck at 13 for like four months and ready to give up. The thing that finally broke me through was honestly just stopping trying to copy every single character. I know that sounds backwards but hear me out — when you miss a letter just put a dash or a dot on paper and keep going. Do NOT stop your brain to figure out what you missed because that's what kills you, you end up two words behind and then you've lost the thread completely. The other thing is 20-30 minutes once a day might not be enough for this particular speed plateau. I switched to three shorter sessions, like 10-12 minutes each spread through the day, and something clicked pretty fast after that. Something about how the brain consolidates the patterns when you give it breaks. Also try listening to actual on-air QSOs on 40m or 20m even if you cant copy them, just let the rhythm wash over you for a bit. Your brain starts to absorb the cadence without you even realizing it. Hang in there, 20wpm is totally doable.

i literally just did this last month so feel free to ask me stuff. the exam felt about the same difficulty as tech to me, maybe slightly harder but not by a lot. i used hamStudy almost exclusively and just kept drilling the questions until i was consistently hitting like 85% or higher on the practice tests and then i went and sat for it. passed with a 30/35 i think. one thing that tripped me up was the operating procedures stuff, like which part of the band you're supposed to be on for phone vs digital vs CW, theres a band plan chart in the ARRL book that helped a lot. and yeah you'll want an HF rig, there's no getting around that. i picked up a used TS-480 and its been great for getting started.

had almost the exact same situation a couple years ago, went with the inverted V and dont regret it. one thing though — if you ever want to try 80m, cut the dipole for 40 and then just add a loading coil or use a tuner for 80, works surprisingly decent. i use mine on 4 bands with a tuner and the inverted V shape actually helps it load up on the other bands reasonably well. not optimal but like you said everything is a compromise anyway

yeah the gordon west book is good but i remember thinking it had a lot of extra stuff that wasnt really on the test when i took mine last year. the practice questions are what really matters. i think i did like 10 or 15 full practice tests in the last few days before mine and just made sure i wasnt getting below like 85% consistently before i went in. the electrical formulas like ohms law and the power formula do show up but theres only a few variations of those questions so once you can do P=IE and rearrange it youre fine. the part that tripped me up was some of the antenna stuff and what the different license privileges actually are. like knowing that as a tech you get full HF privileges on 10 meters is one of those things i kept forgetting. anyway just keep at the practice tests and youll be alright, the real exam felt easier than the practice ones to me honestly.

the VAC instability thing you mentioned is real, i fought that for months. turned out my buffer settings were too aggressive and windows audio was doing weird things after sleep cycles. ended up writing a little batch script that restarts the VAC service every morning at 4am which sounds dumb but honestly just fixed it. not a real solution but you know how it goes. havent done the AllStar hybrid thing myself so cant help much there but id be curious how it turns out if you get it working

so ive been a tech for about a year and a half and i keep hearing people talk about CW and how its this whole other world of operating and honestly it sounds really cool but also completely intimidating. i dont even know the alphabet yet. like zero. i tried downloading one of those apps a while back and it just felt like noise to me, couldnt tell the dits from the dahs at all really. is there like a good order to learn the letters or do you just throw yourself at all 26 at once? and how long did it take you guys before you could actually copy anything resembling a word. i have no idea if im being realistic expecting to hold a QSO within like 6 months or if thats way too optimistic. also not sure if i should be using an app or actual audio recordings or what. any pointers appreciated

yeah the 10m opening you're talking about I think hit pretty wide, I was working the east coast from out here in Colorado and signals were genuinely loud, like S7-S9 on some of them. One guy from Brazil was absolutely booming in, had a nice little ragchew with him for maybe 15 minutes before it started fading. We're definitely climbing toward the solar max so expect more of that. On the IC-905 I havent seen one in person but a buddy who went to Dayton last year said Icom had one on display and it looked seriously impressive for the upper bands. The modular design thing is what gets me, being able to add different RF units for different band ranges is clever. Price wise I think its sitting around $2500 depending on configuration which yeah thats a lot but for what it does on 1.2 gig and above its probably fair if you're into that weak signal microwave stuff. I'm not rich enough to find out personally lol

Just passed my Tech 2 weeks ago! I used both - HamStudy for drilling weak areas and the ARRL book for understanding WHY answers were correct. Don't schedule until you're consistently scoring above 88% on 15+ practice tests. That buffer saved me when I got nervous during the actual exam.