Kevin Park

I just got into the hobby like 4 months ago so I have no idea what the IC-905 even is but that 6 meter opening sounds awesome, I was actually on the air Tuesday night trying to make my first few contacts and didnt really know what was happening, just that suddenly people were EVERYWHERE on the band and i worked like 8 states which felt huge to me as a new tech. didnt realize until after that it was some kind of special propagation event. still learning all this stuff but moments like that make it really click why people love this hobby

Okay so i passed my technician a couple months ago and ive been listening to the local 2m repeater for a while now trying to figure out how it all works before i jump on. I think i understand the basics — you transmit on one frequency and it comes out on another — but the CTCSS thing is where i get lost. My radio shows a bunch of tone options and i looked up the repeater on the repeaterbook site and it says 100.0 Hz. So i set that and i can hear people fine, but i kerchunked it once just to see if i was hitting it and somebody came back pretty quick saying who just kerchunked the machine. I felt terrible and just stayed quiet. So like, what is the actual right way to get on a repeater for the first time? Do i just call CQ or is that weird on a repeater? And does the tone go on transmit only or both? I dont want to make people mad again before i even really get started here.

i had the exact same problem when i started and for me it turned out i was just squeezing the paddle too hard. like death gripping it. once i consciously relaxed my hand the whole thing clicked. sounds dumb but try practicing with just the lightest possible touch and see if that changes anything. also if you havent already check out the G4FON Koch trainer software, you can use it with a straight key or just keyboard but it really helped me internalize the rhythm before i worried too much about paddle technique. just a thought

oh man you picked a good one to start with, efhw and KX3 is basically the classic POTA kit. one thing that caught me off guard my first activation was just the logging pace when contacts start coming in fast — i use HAMRS on my phone and it's pretty slick once you get used to it but practice logging a few fake contacts before you go so your fingers know what to do. nothing worse than fumbling around when theres a pile calling you lol also bring more battery than you think you need

the taped connection will work but honestly it wont last as long as you'd think, especially if theres any movement in the wire when the wind picks up. moisture gets in there over time and you end up with a corroded connection that kills your efficiency before you even notice. the cutting board feedpoint plate idea is the right move, a lot of guys use that or a piece of PVC flat stock. drill a hole for the SO-239 and two holes for the wire legs to pass through or wrap around, then seal everything with self-amalg tape after. way more durable and if you ever need to take it down and put it back up it holds together properly. also on your balun, good on you for winding your own. the FT-240-43 is a solid choice for 40m. how many turns did you do? for a choke balun on 40 you want enough choking impedance to actually work, some people dont put enough turns and wonder why they're getting RF on the coax shield.

i just passed mine like three weeks ago so this is fresh for me lol. the transmission line stuff was the part that almost got me, the Smith chart questions in particular i kind of just memorized my way through those without fully understanding them which i know is not ideal but whatever it worked. the RF safety questions are actually pretty straightforward once you read through the material once or twice. the 40m extra segment alone made it worth it for me because thats where i do most of my digital modes and it gets real congested in the general portion sometimes. so yeah i'd say go for it, worst case you learn some stuff even if you dont pass right away

so ive been going to dayton on and off for like 12 years and honestly the last couple times the swap area felt pretty picked over by like 9am. used to be you could find real deals on old rigs and random parts but now its mostly guys asking ebay prices for stuff thats not even working. still thinking about making the trip just for the club meetups and running into people i only talk to on the air normally. anybody else going this year or have thoughts on whether its still worth the drive

this is really helpful to read honestly. im in the middle of doing my ICS 100 and 700 right now because our local ARES group requires them before you can even get on the call list and i keep second-guessing whether its worth all the time. hearing that it actually makes sense when you're in the middle of a real activation is kind of reassuring. did you use any particular net format at the shelter or was it just informal check-ins with the EOC?

Good question and yeah its a bit overwhelming at first. The short version is LoTW is basically essential if you want DXCC or most of the big ARRL awards, eQSL is separate and some awards programs like the EPC stuff use it, but theyre not interchangeable for most things. For physical cards — the tradition is you send one if you get one, or if someone sends you a card via the bureau you send one back. You don't have to send cards to every contact, especially if you're working a lot of stations. Most people just use the QSL bureau through their national society which keeps postage costs down. Sending cards direct is faster but gets expensive fast if you're working DX regularly. eQSL is dead simple to set up compared to LoTW honestly, just make sure you mark your account as Authenticity Guaranteed or a lot of people wont count the contacts. its worth doing both if you have the time, some older ops or guys in certain regions really only do one or the other.

Looking to upgrade my knowledge for the new 2026-2030 Technician question pool. The new question pool is available now, but I'm wondering what resources work best for understanding the concepts rather than just memorizing. I used HamStudy.org for my original tech license years ago, but curious about other platforms. What combination of study guides, practice tests, and videos helped you the most? Planning to take the exam in a few weeks and want to make sure I'm fully prepared!

Getting ready for my Technician exam and I'm seeing lots of study options out there. HamStudy.org seems popular, and Ham Radio Prep claims over 70,000 students have used their system. ARRL has their traditional materials too. What worked best for you folks when you were just starting out? Any specific resources you'd recommend or avoid? I know it's 35 questions with 26 needed to pass, but looking for the most effective way to prepare. Thanks for any guidance!

not a dumb question at all, took me a while to get comfortable with all of it too. the Q codes go back to like early telegraphy days, way before voice was even a thing, so theres a ton of them but honestly on the air you only hear maybe a dozen or so regularly. QSL means acknowledged or confirm, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural static/noise, QSB is fading signal, QRZ is who is calling me, QTH is your location. those are probably the big ones you'll hear most. 73 is the standard goodbye, means best regards basically, and 88 is love and kisses which you only really hear between close friends or sometimes between operators who are married to each other or whatever. ARRL has a full Q code list on their site if you want to go down the rabbit hole but honestly you'll just absorb the common ones pretty fast from listening.

the rtl-sdr v3 direct sampling always felt kinda half baked to me too, i used it for maybe two months before giving up on HF with it. went straight to an SDRplay RSP1A not the RSPdx and even that was a big jump. for wspr it works great, i just run it into SDR# with the audio piped to WSJT-X and it decodes fine on 40m. probably getting spots from 3000+ miles on a random wire in the attic so antenna matters more than people think with this stuff

im kind of in the same boat honestly so following this thread. one thing my elmer told me that stuck — he said dont learn to copy, learn to hear. took me a while to understand what he meant but i think its basically what the other guy said, stop translating and start recognizing. im still working on it too so no great advice from me but you're definitely not alone in this

I did mine about six months ago and used the ARRL Technician manual which was fine but honestly hamstudy dot org was way more useful just because it shows you the actual questions and tracks which ones you keep getting wrong. I think I studied maybe two weeks on and off and passed first try. The test itself felt easier than the practice ones which was a nice surprise. One thing nobody told me beforehand is you need to bring a government ID to the exam session so dont forget that like i almost did lol

id bring the HT honestly. 2m FM is honestly a lifesaver on some summits where HF propagation is being weird or you just need that 4th contact fast. yeah its a little extra weight but an HT is what, 6 ounces? worth it imo especially for your first time when youre already gonna be a little frazzled. also make sure your alert is on sotawatch not just self spotted -- alerts help chasers plan ahead

honest answer — yeah there's lower hanging fruit first. SO2R done right is probably a 10-15% rate improvement for a mid-tier station and setup but the overhead to get it working cleanly is substantial. if you're losing rate because your run frequency technique is soft or you're not multiplier hunting efficiently in the right windows, fix that first. the two radio thing really shines when you already have your single radio game dialed and you're just looking to squeeze the last bit out of the slow hours. that said the bandpass filter thing isn't as bad as it sounds if you're on different bands that are well separated. 20 and 40 with a decent set of filters like the Array Solutions or even the ICE bandpass filters, you can make it work without totally destroying your wallet. the audio mixing is honestly the harder thing to get comfortable with psychologically. running two decoders in your head at once takes practice and some people never really get comfortable with it. i ran SO2R for the first time seriously at CQWW a couple years ago and i probably lost as much time fumbling with the setup as i gained in rate the first 6 hours.

so ive been studying for my general and im looking at the band plan for 40 meters and honestly its pretty confusing. I see theres different parts for CW and phone and digital but like where exactly can I use my voice? I have a kenwood ts-480 and want to make sure im not going to accidentally transmit outside the band edges or something. also do I need to worry about region 2 vs other regions or is that just for contests?

so we finally ran a full scale simcom exercise with the county emergency management folks last saturday and honestly it was kind of humbling. we've been doing tabletop stuff for months and i thought we were pretty prepared but when you actually have to stand up nets, coordinate with served agencies, and handle simulated message traffic all at the same time things get messy real fast. the biggest thing that caught us off guard was just the sheer volume of ICS-213 traffic that started flowing once the scenario ramped up. we had two operators at the EOC and they were completely buried. nobody had really thought through how to prioritize incoming vs outgoing traffic in a realistic way, like we always kind of assumed it would be manageable but a real event isnt going to wait for you to catch up. also our backup power situation turned out to be more of a question mark than we expected. one of the guys had a generator that hadn't been tested in about a year and yeah, it didn't want to start. so that was a fun moment. lesson learned there for sure. curious if anyone else has run exercises recently and what suprised you most. we're trying to figure out what to focus on for training over the next few months before the next drill.

From a contesting perspective, we're very careful about band edges because operating right at the edge of a band or sub-band is like walking a tightrope over a pool of regulatory sharks - one small misstep and you could find yourself in dangerous waters. Better safe than sorry when there's an FCC notice at stake!

I always tell my students: create a set schedule every day, perhaps 30 minutes after dinner, and stick to it - you'll feel increasingly comfortable with the material. Understanding beats memorization every time. Focus on grasping Ohm's Law, frequency allocations, and basic circuit concepts first.

I worked a few Europeans on 15m yesterday afternoon around 1800Z with similar conditions! Don't give up on the high bands completely. The K-index has been nice and low (around 1-2) which helps a lot with stability.

nice, im jealous. been trying to find time to do my first one too. did you spot yourself on the pota app or did someone else spot you? that part confuses me a little, like do you have to have cell service at the park to do it yourself

yeah what he said about the igate direction is exactly right. i went through the same thing last year. also make sure your buddy's radio is set to respond to message acks, because without the acknowledgement packet coming back your radio is going to keep retrying and it might look like messages are sending but they never actually confirmed delivery. the D72 should handle that automatically but worth checking his settings too. RF messaging is honestly kind of finicky compared to just watching the map.

the timeout thing with RMS gateways on VHF is almost always either the gateway being legitimately offline or an audio level issue on your end. the signalink has a transmit level pot and a lot of people either crank it too high thinking more is better (its not, you'll overdrive the radio's audio input and smear everything) or they have it too low and the gateway just never decodes your connect request. id spend some time with something like direwolf on the receive side just to confirm you can actually decode packets off the air first, that way you know your receive chain works before troubleshooting transmit also pat is solid but make sure youre on a recent version, some older builds had weird issues with the VARA interface timing out before the handshake completed