James Park

so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and everyone is throwing around all these QSL QRM QTH things and i kind of get what some of them mean from context but not really. like i know QSL has something to do with confirming a contact but then i see people say it like a question and also like a statement and it gets confusing fast. and then theres all the other stuff people say that isnt even Q codes, like 73 and 88 and OM and YL and i have no idea where all this comes from. is there like a master list somewhere or is this just something you pick up over time? i tried googling it but half the results are just people selling QSL cards which isnt helpful been licensed about 3 months, general class if that matters

WAS is probably the most approachable one to start with honestly, especially since you're already at 30 states just from casual operating. the tricky ones are usually the less populated states like Delaware, Rhode Island, sometimes Alaska and Hawaii depending on when you're on. 40m is great for WAS because you can work shorter distances and the regional stuff fills in nicely. once you get to maybe 40-45 states you might have to be more intentional about hunting the missing ones but it's totally doable with what you have. DXCC takes a bit more patience but 20-25 entities already is a solid start, i wouldnt ignore it either. just log everything and let LoTW do its thing. the credits pile up faster than you think especially during good propagation or when a rare one pops up and gets spotted on the DX cluster. WAZ i'd probably save for later, the zone map is a little weird at first and some zones are genuinely hard to fill even for experienced guys. there's a free zone map on the CQ website if you search around for it. main thing is just keep logging. you dont have to pick one and ignore the others, they all kind of happen in parallel if you stay active.

not done the contest logging thing specifically but i use a pi 4 for rig control and a small arduino mega handles all my antenna switching relay logic. works great and honestly once you get the serial comms figured out between them its not that complicated. i use a really simple byte protocol, just send a command byte from the pi and the arduino acks it, nothing exotic. one thing to watch with the zero w specifically — the wifi on it can cause weird timing hiccups if its doing a lot of network traffic at the same time as the serial stuff. ran into that. might be worth disabling the wifi power management mode, theres a simple command for it. or just use ethernet with a little adapter if your setup allows it.

so ive been running a dual band mag mount on the truck for a couple years now, works fine for hitting the local repeaters but i got into doing some simplex work and occasional satellite stuff and honestly the mag mount just doesnt cut it anymore. the NMO whip i have now is decent but i keep wondering if theres a better way to do this without going full roof penetration just yet. someone at the club mentioned doing a small 3 element yagi on a window mount for when im parked up doing portable ops, which actually sounds kinda interesting. but then someone else said just get a collinear with more gain and be done with it. like a tram 1185 or something in that range. my main issue is i want more punch on 2m for simplex out to maybe 30-40 miles when conditions are decent, and the current setup just isnt doing that reliably. anyone actually run a yagi from a vehicle, even just parked? feels a bit silly maybe but if it works it works

audio level is almost certainly your issue, that's the first thing to check with any TNC setup. the D710 has its own internal TNC so if youre using that it should be fine but if you've got an external one in the chain somewhere the deviation can be way off and nobody will decode you even though it sounds fine to your ears. what i'd do is grab a software decoder like Direwolf on a laptop, plug in a cheap USB audio dongle with an antenna or just hold it next to your radio, and see if it can decode your own packets. if Direwolf can't decode em then neither can the digipeaters. also double check that SQL is open when you're transmitting — the D710 can be weird about that sometimes depending on how it's configured.

yeah this is pretty much the exact workflow most people end up with honestly. N1MM for contests, something else for day to day. i use DXKeeper as my main log but same idea applies. after the contest you just export the ADIF from N1MM and import it into your main logger, most of them are smart enough to handle dupes if you set it up right, Log4OM definitely has dupe checking on import the WSJT-X to N1MM UDP thing actually works really well once you get it configured, you basically tell WSJT-X to send logged QSOs to N1MMs UDP port and N1MM picks them up automatically. just make sure the port numbers match, i think N1MM defaults to 2333 or something like that for the WSJT-X bridge but double check the N1MM manual because they updated it at some point. only thing is you want to make sure N1MM already has a contest open before you start logging in WSJT-X or the QSOs go into a weird limbo state

yeah the suffix only thing took me forever to accept because it feels so wrong when youre used to always giving your full callsign. but on a massive pileup the DX op really is just listening for unique sounds and your suffix is what sticks out. KD9 whatever, every KD9 prefix sounds the same in a crowd. also heard that some experienced ops will slightly offset their TX freq by maybe 50-100hz even within the split window to stand out acoustically from the wall of carriers — never tried it myself but the idea makes sense to me i guess. congrats on the FT5 that ones been on my list for ages

yeah the 13wpm wall is absolutely a real thing, i hit the exact same spot and spent probably 3 months spinning my wheels before something finally clicked. what worked for me was two things -- first i stopped trying to "study" code and just started listening to actual QSOs on 40m with the volume low while i was doing other stuff around the shack. not trying to copy everything, just letting it wash over me. sounds dumb but i think it retrains your brain to hear whole words instead of individual characters. the second thing was i cranked the character speed way up like to 25wpm but kept the farnsworth spacing really wide so i had more time between characters. that way your ear gets used to what fast characters actually sound like even if the overall pace is slow. G4FON lets you do that and so does the LCWO website. took me another couple months but i went from 13 to like 18 in what felt like a pretty short stretch once things started moving again. just dont give up and dont go back to counting, thats the killer

AO-27 is basically a zombie at this point, dont bother. hit SO-50 or wait for a good AO-91 pass. and yeah what the other guy said about the tone is spot on, got me too when i started. once you get your first contact on an FM bird honestly think about jumping to the linear transponders on something like FO-29 or AO-73 because the FM stuff gets old fast and working SSB through a sat is a completely different thing. way harder but way more satisfying

good to hear, ive been looking at these for a while but keep hesitating because honestly my FT-891 does everything i actually need it to do for portable and i keep telling myself i dont need a base rig right now. but then i see the waterfall and i start convincing myself otherwise. how does it handle on 10m when the band is actually open? thats where i feel like i really want something with a better front end than what ive got.

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and just starting to get into chasing DX more seriously. got my general in the spring and finally feel comfortable enough on HF that im not just randomly calling CQ and hoping for the best lol anyway a buddy at my club mentioned using DXwatch for cluster spots and i've been messing around with it but honestly i'm not sure im using it efficiently. like i'll see a spot come in for some rare entity and by the time i tune there the frequency is a wall of noise and i can't pull anything out. is that just pile-up reality or am i missing something about how to filter the spots so im seeing ones that are geographically relevant to my area? i tried the filter options but they're kinda confusing also someone said QRZ has spotting built in now? i use QRZ pretty much every day for lookups and logging but never noticed that. do people actually use that or is DXwatch/DXsummit the go-to for serious DX chasers

ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech) and just got my first HT, a Baofeng UV-5R, yeah yeah i know but its what i could afford right now. anyway i programmed in the local 2m repeater from repeaterbook and i can hear people on it just fine but when i transmit nobody responds and i dont think im actually hitting it. i looked it up and i think the issue might be the CTCSS tone? the repeater listing says it needs a 100.0 Hz tone to access it. i went into the menus and i think i set it but honestly the Baofeng menu system is a nightmare. i set the T-CTCS to 100.0 Hz but left R-CTCS off, is that right? or do i need both on? also whats the difference between T and R anyway, i kind of get the transmit part but why would i need a receive tone. and also kind of a separate question — whats the proper way to just check in or make sure youre getting out? like do i just say my callsign and wait or is there some specific thing i should say, dont want to be that guy who does something weird on a busy repeater

As someone who got started through a GOTA station, I can't recommend them enough! Having an experienced control op there made all the difference. We used simple exchanges and focused on making contacts fun rather than fast. Don't forget bonus points activities to increase your Field Day score!

oh dont worry about it honestly, everyone does that stuff when they first start checking into nets. the doubling thing happens to everybody, the timing just takes some practice especially if you're used to how things sound on a handheld versus a mobile or base rig where the audio is totally different. as for the format, it really does vary net to net. some nets are pretty formal and they want you to say your call, name, location, and whether you have traffic or announcements. other nets are super casual and just want to know you're there. best thing to do is just listen for a full cycle before you check in next time so you can hear how other people are doing it and just match that. net control usually doesn't mind if you ask either, most of them are happy to help especially with newer folks. you didn't do anything wrong, you just didn't know the local custom yet which is totally normal.

I've been seeing a lot of special event stations lately - the Titanic Memorial (EG1912T) from April 10-15, the Skywarn Youth N0A station for Severe Weather Awareness March 15-29, and W2A for World Autism Awareness Week. Do you folks actively chase these events? I'm curious if the certificates are worth pursuing or if they just end up in a drawer somewhere. Also wondering about the logging - do special event QSOs help with any major awards like WAS or DXCC, or are they purely commemorative? These stations generally operate for short periods with special vanity calls and commemorative QSL cards - seems like there might be some real collector value there.