Robert Martinez

the dupe flagging issue with Log4OM and WSJT-X during contests is almost always the contest module not being active when you think it is. Log4OM has a separate contest mode you have to explicitly enable and if you started logging before turning it on the dupe logic doesnt always catch stuff that came in before. at least thats been my experience with it N1MM is really the standard for contesting and i dont think anybodys seriously challenging that. but for day to day stuff its a bit spartan depending on what you want out of a logbook. i keep both installed and honestly its not that big a deal, theyre not fighting over resources or anything

im pretty new to this too but i hunted you might have been in my log actually haha. i was calling around on 20m that afternoon and worked someone on a K-4 reference. the pile ups on popular parks can get pretty intense from the hunter side too, sometimes i have to call 4 or 5 times before i get through and the activator is only running 5 or 10 watts so its impressive they can even pull my signal out.

yeah the rate thing you're describing is exactly why SO2R exists, you basically use radio 2 to keep working mults or snipe new stations while radio 1 holds the run frequency. even a mediocre SO2R setup beats just sitting there waiting. that said if your run is dying it might also just be a CQing technique thing — like how often are you calling, whats your exchange pacing, are you tail-ending efficiently. ive seen guys pick up 20-30 qsos/hr just tightening that up before going anywhere near SO2R complexity. not trying to talk you out of it, just saying there might be easier wins first depending on where the bottleneck actually is

the tech exam really isnt that bad. most people overthink it. i think i studied for like 10 days and i already had zero background in electronics. there are 35 questions and you need 26 right, so the pass threshold is pretty forgiving. hamstudy is what i used too, though i also printed out the question pool and read through it a couple times which sounds old fashioned but it worked for me. one thing i'd say is dont ignore the electrical safety and RF exposure questions, some folks skim those and they do show up. once you pass tech youll probably want to go for general pretty quick because it opens up so much more of the HF bands and thats where a lot of the interesting stuff happens. some people just do a cram session and take both exams on the same day at the same session, which you can do if you feel ready

6 contacts on your first activation is a solid start, dont sweat it. the cold hands setup problem is real and honestly doesnt fully go away, you just get faster at the specific motions after you've done it a dozen times. on the antenna question i've used both and switched to an EFHW about two years ago and haven't looked back for most summits. main reason is you only need one support point at the high end, so you can go vertical-ish or at a slope depending on what's available and it just works. the linked dipole is more predictable radiation pattern wise but for SOTA where you just need to make contacts and get down before the weather turns, the EFHW wins on setup speed. i use a 49:1 unun and about 66 feet of wire, throw the end over a branch or clip it to my trekking pole extended full height and im usually on the air in under 8 minutes from the pack. for logging i just use a small notepad and a golf pencil, transfer to the SOTA database when i get home. some people use the SOTA goat app or hamlog but paper hasnt failed me yet and theres something to be said for not draining your phone battery when youre trying to navigate back down

counterpoise got me too on my second time out. i keep a spare zip tied to the antenna now just in case. also 20m has been real good lately so sounds like it worked out despite the trouble

i cant speak to the 7610 specifically but have you looked at the Flex 6600 in that price range? totally different operating experience obviously since its SDR based and needs a PC but the panadapter and dual slice receivers blow anything icom makes out of the water imo. i know its not for everyone and some guys hate being tied to a computer in the shack but once you go down that road its hard to go back to a traditional rig. just throwing it out there since youre already thinking about spending that kind of money

so ive been at this whole CW thing for almost a year now and i started from zero, went through the Koch method with the G4FON trainer and got up to 13wpm pretty consistently. im able to copy most of what i hear but then around 13-14 it just falls apart and my brain kind of freezes up and i start counting dits and dahs again which is basically what you're NOT supposed to do right someone told me the plateau around 13 is really common and that you basically have to just push through it by listening at speeds faster than you can copy, like 17-18wpm, and just accept that youre going to miss stuff. does that actually work or is it just torture. ive been doing maybe 20-30 min a day on the software and some days i feel like im going backwards honestly my goal is 20wpm, just want to be able to have a real ragchew on HF without it being a complete disaster. any advice from people who have actually done this would be really appreciated

im in almost exactly the same boat as you were when you posted this, been lurking this thread for a week lol. one thing i did find out is that moon noise is actually a useful sanity check for your system, like if you can measure the Y factor when the antenna goes from cold sky to moon you know your receive chain is at least in the ballpark. i cant do that yet with my setup which kind of tells me something is probably off with my preamp or feedline loss or both. the digital modes thing is real though, i watched a livestream of someone working EME with a pair of 9 element yagis and like 200 watts and they were pulling out contacts. looked almost too easy but i know theres a ton of patience involved and timing the moon windows and all that.

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep running into this whole QSL confirmation thing and honestly its a little overwhelming. like every time i make a contact on HF the other op asks if im on LoTW or eQSL and sometimes they want a physical card too. i signed up for LoTW maybe a month after i got my ticket but the whole certificate request process was kind of a pain and i wasnt totally sure i did it right, but i think its working now because i can see some confirmations coming in. my question is basically — do i actually need to be on all three? i started collecting physical cards because it seemed cool and i have like 30 so far which i know isnt a lot but theyre fun to look at. but is it worth the hassle of maintaining eQSL on top of LoTW? seems like they confirm the same contacts. and what about people who still only do paper cards, do i need a QSL manager or can i just mail them myself for now? sorry if this is a dumb question, i just dont want to miss out on confirmations for awards down the road and im not even sure which awards i want to pursue yet

mode A vs B honestly doesnt matter much when you're starting out, most people end up on mode B eventually because it handles squeeze keying a little more naturally but at 13wpm youre not going to notice a difference. don't overthink that part. the paddle thing though — yeah a mushy paddle makes it harder to develop a feel for timing. you dont have to spend a lot, a Begali or Bencher is nice but a used Vibroplex paddle or even a decent clone in the $40-60 range from some of the smaller makers will be way better than the amazon stuff. the tension adjustment matters a lot. if the contacts have too much spring or slop in them your dits will bleed together and you'll build bad muscle memory without even realizing it. I'd try to find something with a cleaner action sooner rather than later if you can. keep going with lcwo though, the Koch method works if you stick with it. lots of people quit around character 10-12 when it starts feeling overwhelming, just push through that part

not embarrassing at all, took me a while to sort all this out too when i started chasing awards seriously. so DXCC and WAS are both ARRL awards but WAZ is CQ magazine's award, completely separate organization and separate fees for endorsements and everything. WAZ is 40 zones, you need one confirmed contact per zone. they're all worth chasing but they use different systems. for DXCC credits, yes LoTW is really the main thing now. paper cards still work but you have to physically mail them in or bring them to an approved card checker at a hamfest which is a pain. if someone works you and never confirms it either way then yeah that contact is just in limbo, nothing you can do about it except maybe try emailing them through QRZ and asking nicely. some guys respond, a lot dont. the beauty of LoTW is when both sides upload it matches automatically and boom, confirmed credit just appears in your account. definitely get yourself set up on LoTW first if you havent, that's step one honestly

yeah the 897 has a known issue with the driver transistors running hot over time, especially if the previous owner ever ran it without great airflow or pushed it hard on digital modes. the Q1001 and Q1002 area is worth checking -- you can measure the bias voltages on the driver stage without fully pulling the board and that'll at least tell you if you're losing drive before it ever gets to the finals. also worth checking the LPF relays if you havent already, a relay that's not fully switching can kill your output on specific bands without being obvious about it. i'd start there before assuming the PA section itself is toast. if you have a scope you can trace the drive level through the chain and find exactly where it's falling apart. without one you're kind of guessing but the relay thing is free to check and ive seen it catch people out before.

honestly the answer is kind of both, which i know is annoying to hear. my experience was that the vertical killed the dipole on DX paths where i needed a low angle but the dipole was way more useful for stateside stuff and anything under maybe 1500 miles. the noise floor on my vertical is also noticeably higher since its closer to the ground level junk clay soil isnt the worst but you really do need a proper radial system or youre just radiating into a lossy ground and wasting half your power. ive seen guys with 16 radials outperform guys with 60 because the 16 were actually a quarter wave and laid out properly. if you cant do at least 16-20 radials maybe the dipole isnt as much of a disadvantage as you think at 25 feet your inverted V is going to have a higher angle than a flat top dipole but its not terrible for 40m. if you can get the apex up to 35 or 40 feet youll notice a difference before you even think about switching to a vertical

so ive been going back and forth on this for like two months now and i keep landing in the same spot which is basically nowhere. my current setup is a pretty basic shack, got a decent ground mounted vertical outside and a longwire in the attic that i mostly use for 40m at night. right now im running an old Kenwood TS-440 that a friend gave me which honestly still works great but i want something modern with a built in tuner and ideally a waterfall display because i got addicted to using one at a club station. the IC-7300 seems like the obvious choice and pretty much everyone online says just get that but then i keep reading about the 991A covering VHF/UHF too and since i dont have a separate VHF rig that starts to sound appealing even though i barely operate 2m from home. the 7300 supposedly has better receive and the roofing filter situation is supposed to be cleaner but honestly i cant tell if that actually matters for the kind of casual HF operating i do which is mostly ragchewing and some PSK when im bored. has anyone actually used both or switched from one to the other, would love to hear if the 991A's VHF thing is actually useful day to day or if it just sounds good on paper

honestly I went through the exact same thing when I upgraded from a straight key to paddles. what finally helped me was using the Koch method practice software (I used G4FON) but specifically practicing just sending, not copying, just slowly squeezing out letters and listening to what the keyer actually produced versus what I thought I sent. you hear the mistakes differently when youre focused on output. also one thing nobody told me - make sure your sidetone pitch matches whatever youre using to copy. sounds weird but when my keyer tone was at 700hz and I was used to copying nets at 500hz my brain kept getting confused. small thing but it made a difference for me.

yeah this actually sounds like it could be the LPF switching relay for 40m. the 7300 uses switched low pass filters for different band segments and if the relay contact is dirty or has developed high resistance it'll eat your power on just that band. i had almost the exact same symptom on a friends radio except his was 20m. pulled the board, reflowed the relay solder joints and cleaned the contacts and it came right back. its a pretty common failure point on these radios after a few years especially if the radio has seen any humidity. if you have a service manual look at the LPF unit schematic, i think its around page 6-4 or so in the icom doc. the relays are through-hole so theyre not too bad to reflow even without hot air. worth checking before you start condemning finals anyway.

I've built several of these antennas. Check all your solder joints on the phasing coils - a poor connection will kill your impedance matching. Also verify the coil inductance matches the design values. The elements themselves are probably fine if you're on frequency.

honestly for 40 and 80m casual listening the v3 in direct sampling isnt as bad as people make it out to be if you get your antenna situation sorted first. ive pulled some decent dx on 40m with mine just messing around late at night. but i also have a proper end fed outside so thats probably doing most of the heavy lifting there. that said i did eventually get an RSP1A and its just... nicer. hard to put a number on it. the ui stuff doesnt bother me much since i was already using SDR++ for everything anyway and yeah it works fine like the other guy said. if you can find one used its an easier decision, new at full price id maybe think about it a bit more depending on how serious you are about it

so i just passed my general last month and got my sequential call assigned, which is fine but its kind of a mouthful and has a weird letter combo that i keep fumbling on CW. a friend told me i can apply for a vanity call and potentially get something shorter or at least easier to say/send. ive been reading the FCC ULS pages and honestly my eyes glazed over pretty quick. from what i can gather you basically submit an application for a specific callsign you want and then there's like a window period where it processes and if nobody else applied for the same one you get it? but if multiple people apply for the same call it goes to whoever has the higher license class or seniority or something? i might be totally wrong about that part. also do you have to wait a certain amount of time after getting your first call before you can apply for vanity or can you do it right away basically just trying to figure out if theres a strategy to this or if its just a lottery situation. any help appreciated, still pretty new to all this

yeah i did the same mod about two years ago on mine, pretty much identical experience. clipped the diode, buttoned it back up, everything normal. one thing i did notice — and this might be totally unrelated — is that the fan seems to kick on slightly more aggressively when i run it near the top of 10m for extended periods, but honestly that could just be summer temps in my shack i never really isolated the cause. the only other mod i've done that i'd actually recommend is the external speaker mod where you bypass the internal speaker amp and run it straight to a proper external amp. the internal speaker on the 7300 is pretty mediocre and even a cheap desktop speaker with a small amp makes a noticeable difference on weak SSB signals, like pulling voices out of the noise is just easier when the audio is cleaner. not technically a modification to the rig's innards but it changed how usable the radio feels day to day more than anything else ive done to it.

ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i keep hearing about all these different ways to confirm contacts and im honestly a little lost. like i set up a LoTW account a few weeks ago and uploaded my log from WSJT-X but i have no idea if i did it right because i only have like 3 confirmations and ive made way more contacts than that. also someone at my club mentioned eQSL and said some awards dont accept it but others do? and then theres just mailing physical cards which seems really cool but also like... expensive if youre doing it for every contact? i guess my main question is what do most people actually bother with day to day. do you do all three or just pick one. and is LoTW the gold standard or is that just what older hams say. not trying to be rude just genuinely curious how this all works in practice

the filter question is real and dont skimp on it. 4o3a or dunestar bandpass filters are the standard answer and yeah theyre not cheap but you will absolutely fry something or just have an unusable second receiver without them if the antennas are anywhere near each other. i ran without them once during a sprint just testing and the noise floor on the second radio was a disaster even with the yagis pointed different directions. on the rate question though, honestly the improvement depends a lot on where your operating is right now. if youre already running a pile and keeping the rate up, SO2R lets you use the dead time between CQs to hunt multipliers on radio 2, which is where a lot of the score differential comes from — its not always pure QSO rate, its the mults you snag without stopping your run frequency. if youre still at the stage where managing one radio during a run takes real concentration then adding a second one is going to hurt more than help. id say get a full contest season of solid single radio contesting where running feels almost automatic before you add the complexity.

Working on my second decade as an Elmer, I've seen too many good rigs get butchered by well-meaning hams who went beyond their skill level. Simple fixes like loose connections, bad solder joints, or broken knobs are fair game for the home shop. But when do you draw the line and send it to a professional? Looking for input from both sides - what repairs do you tackle yourself, and what makes you reach for the shipping box?

Fellow hams, I'm wrestling with QSL strategy in 2024. Postage costs keep rising, especially international, but I still love getting those colorful paper cards in the mail. Currently doing LoTW for awards and eQSL for quick confirmations. For those of you still doing paper cards: Are you being more selective about which contacts you QSL? Using the bureau more? I'm spending about $150/year on direct QSL postage and wondering if it's still worth it when digital systems give instant confirmation.