Michael Brown

not dumb questions at all, this stuff is genuinely confusing the first time through so for DXCC — yes those LoTW confirmations are just sitting there accumulating and thats actually fine. when you're ready to apply you go into your ARRL account and there's a section for DXCC awards where you can submit. it basically pulls your LoTW confirmations and you pay the one time application fee and then after that adding new band/mode endorsements is pretty cheap. the credits dont expire or anything so no rush WAS and WAZ are totally separate things though. WAZ is run by CQ Magazine not ARRL so it's a completely different system, different log submission, different fees. some guys chase all three simultaneously which honestly sounds exhausting but once you get the bug you kind of do. i'd focus on DXCC first since you're already building confirmed QSOs in LoTW, get that one rolling and then see how you feel about adding WAZ to the mix one thing that tripped me up early on — make sure the other station is also uploading to LoTW because a QSO confirmed only on QRZ or eQSL doesn't count toward DXCC the same way. LoTW confirmations are what the ARRL wants for the online system

so ive been putting this off for like two months but i finally sat down last weekend and built a 40m center-fed dipole from scratch. used some 14 gauge stranded wire i had laying around from an old extension cord i stripped down, and a PL-259 connector i had in the junk box. center insulator is just a piece of pvc i drilled holes through and used some wire ties to secure everything. nothing fancy. cut each leg to around 33.5 feet based on the 468/f formula for 7.150 which is roughly where i want to operate. havent put it up yet because im second guessing myself on a few things. first, the wire i used is stranded and i read somewhere that stranded vs solid can affect the resonant length slightly? im not sure how much that actually matters in practice. second, my feedline situation is kind of a mess — i only have about 35 feet of RG-8X to get from the antenna down to the shack and i dont have a 1:1 balun on hand. should i be worried about feedline radiation without one or will it mostly be okay for now just to get on the air and test it. i do have an MFJ-269 so i can check the swr before i connect anything to the radio. the plan is to run it as an inverted V with the center at about 30 feet using my fiberglass push-up mast. ends will probably be at like 8-10 feet off the ground because thats just what the yard allows. open to any suggestions before i haul everything outside

RTTY is still worth a look if you havent tried it, especially during contests. totally different vibe from FT8 — its noisy and old fashioned and i kind of love it for that reason. not gonna help you have a ragchew either but its satisfying in a different way than clicking through FT8 QSOs. just throwing that out there since you mentioned wanting more than FT8.

so ive been going back and forth on this for a while now. i travel a lot for work and the idea of being able to hit my IC-7300 from a hotel room or whatever is really appealing. i already have a pretty stable fiber connection at home so bandwidth isnt really the issue. ive looked at RemoteHams and the RCForb server/client setup and it seems solid but i keep reading about people just rolling their own thing with a raspberry pi and some combination of VPN plus rigctld and fldigi or whatever. the RemoteHams SDR remote stuff also caught my eye — seems like you can share your station or access other peoples rigs which is kind of a cool concept actually. my main concern is latency when it comes to SSB phone. like CW or digital modes i imagine are more forgiving but trying to have an actual QSO on voice with a half second delay sounds rough. anyone running RemoteHams for serious SSB work and how bad is it really? also curious if anyone has set up internet linking through something like this and tied it into an echolink node or similar — seems like that could get complicated fast. not trying to overthink it but i also dont want to spend a weekend configuring stuff only to find out the audio is unusable from a hotel wifi

so i finally got my technician about three weeks ago and ive been listening to the local 2m repeater net on thursday nights. everyone seems to know exactly what to do and when to do it and i feel like if i tried to check in i would mess everything up somehow. like the net control guy goes through everything so fast and people just say their callsign and sometimes a number or something and its all very quick. ive been reading a bit online but i cant really find a clear explanation of what youre supposed to say when you check in and whether there are like rules about when you can talk or if you have to wait to be called on. also one time somebody said QRZ after check-ins were done and i have no idea what that was about. is there a good way to just kind of ease into this or should i just go for it and probably sound dumb the first time

the position beacons and APRS messages are two different animals even though they travel on the same 144.390 frequency. one thing to check is whether your igate is actually two-way capable — a lot of igates out there are receive-only, meaning they'll pull your packets off RF and push them to the APRS-IS network but they wont inject anything back down to RF for you. so messages sent to you from the internet side just never make it back over the air to your TNC. go to aprs.fi, find your nearest igate and click on it. if it says something like "IGate, TX capable" or shows two-way operation then thats fine. but if its just listed as a receive gate you're kind of in a dead end for incoming messages unless theres another two-way igate in range. the messaging between two RF-only stations should still work if you're both in range of a digipeater, but thats a different path than going through the internet side.

yeah get on the air at 10, seriously just do it. i was terrified my first few qsos and i think i was like 8 wpm lol. the worst that happens is someone blasts back at you fast and you just send QRS? and they slow down or they dont and you move on. nobody cares. the slow speed portion of 40m around 7.050 or so is usually pretty friendly

Had to miss HamCation this year and really wanted to work the W1AW/4 special event station they operate during show hours. I'm working on WAS and could really use Florida for a new state confirmation. Are there other major hamfests or special events coming up that typically run W1AW portable operations? I saw there was a Severe Weather Awareness event with N0A on multiple HF bands and FT8 recently. Looking for more opportunities like that - especially anything running on 20 or 40 meters during evening hours when I can actually get on the air. These stations generally operate for a short time and have special QSL cards which makes them even more appealing!

honestly the general exam isnt that scary, i was worried too but ended up passing with only about three weeks of studying. the question pool is bigger than tech obviously but a lot of it is stuff you already kind of understand from operating. the main new stuff is propagation, some extra circuit theory, and operating rules for the HF bands. hamstudy.org is what i used, just drilled the questions every day for a bit and it clicked pretty fast. as for privileges, general doesnt give you everything — extra class gets you the last few slices of some bands — but you get a huge chunk of 40m 20m 15m and 10m for phone which is where most of the action is anyway. 20m especially you can work the whole world on a decent afternoon. once you pass you'll wonder why you waited so long, 2m repeaters are great but theres nothing like making a contact across the atlantic on 20 with a wire antenna in your backyard

yeah i go every year, swap meet is still pretty good honestly. last year i found a old Kenwood TS-430 that just needed a new final, guy wanted 40 bucks for it. you never really know what shows up on those tables. the talks and presentations are kinda hit or miss but the flea market alone is worth it imo. bring cash, a lot of the old timers dont do venmo or whatever

Just passed my Tech exam and ready to get my first handheld! I keep seeing debates about starting with a Baofeng UV-5R vs spending more on a Yaesu FT-65R. The price difference is huge ($25 vs $120), but I want something reliable that won't frustrate me as I learn. Will I regret going cheap, or is the Baofeng fine to get started? Also wondering about programming - heard these things can be tricky to set up without software?

Thanks for sharing this! I got my license last month and was wondering if I should participate in SET next year. Sounds like even newer hams can contribute and learn a lot. Did you use HF or mostly VHF/UHF?

Welcome to digital keyboard communications! Try RTTY, PSK, and Olivia in FLDigi for typed conversations. JS8Call activity is lighter than FT8 - check 7.078MHz on 40m or 14.078MHz on 20m during US evening hours. Also monitor JS8Call groups.io for activity announcements.

Just passed my Tech exam last week and finally got my callsign! I've been listening to the local Monday night net for a few weeks, but I'm still nervous about checking in for the first time. Misspeaking, forgetting part of a callsign, or keying up at the wrong time happens to everyone at some point. The important thing to remember is that mistakes are part of the learning process. Any tips for a new ham on net etiquette? The net control operator will ask for ham radio operators (or stations) to check in. Net control will specify the information needed for check in. Generally, check ins are limited to basic information such as call sign and location.

so i passed my tech exam about three weeks ago and ive been lurking here trying to figure out what handheld to buy first. everyone seems to have a different opinion and honestly the more i read the more confused i get. some people swear by the baofeng UV-5R because its cheap and you can program it with chirp, other people act like youre an idiot if you dont spend $200+ on a yaesu or kenwood right off the bat. my plan is mostly to hit the local 2m and 70cm repeaters, maybe do some simplex if theres activity around here, and eventually get into APRS maybe. i dont really need anything crazy. budget is probably under $150 but i could stretch a little if it actually matters. anyone have thoughts on like the baofeng UV-9R pro vs the yaesu FT-65 or maybe the TYT stuff? im just trying to not make a stupid first purchase

An ideal SSB signal shows spectrum from about 70 Hz to 2700 Hz, relatively flat throughout the passband, with no energy outside this range for best readability. Most contest receivers use 2.4 to 1.8 kHz filtering, so energy above 2500 Hz is wasted and mainly disturbs others. I recommend setting high-pass to 100Hz to avoid puffing sounds - too much bass makes you muddy and wastes power. What bandwidth settings do others find optimal for different conditions? I'm curious about narrow vs wide for weak signal work.

Yeah I noticed that too. Pretty sure the net moved to thursdays now but dont quote me on that. Check the club website, they might have updated the schedule. Also band has been pretty rough in the evenings lately, especially with all the solar activity we've been having

Your buddy is right, you are overthinking it haha. 5 watts is fine, I've done hundreds of activations with 5w and a wire antenna and rarely struggle to get the 4 contacts you need. The chasers are hungry, trust me, once you self spot on sotawatch you'll have a pileup going before you even get your logging sorted out. One thing I would say — don't wait too long to spot yourself. Some activators get up there and kind of fiddle around getting set up and by the time they call CQ the early morning chasers have moved on. Just get the antenna up, make sure you're roughly on frequency, and get your spot in. Even if you're not 100% ready it gets people tuning to you. Oh and bring more water than you think you need, learned that one the hard way on a warm day last spring. Good luck tomorrow, hope the propagation cooperates.

so ive been running N1MM for contests for a few years now and it's basically second nature at this point, but for everyday QSOs and general logging i always felt like it was kind of overkill and not really designed for casual use. a buddy at the club mentioned Log4OM and i downloaded it but havent really dug in yet. my main thing is i want something that plays nice with WSJT-X since i do a fair amount of FT8 and FT4, and i also want it to not be a pain to import my old ADIF logs from previous years. N1MM obviously handles contest logging like nothing else but outside of that i find myself just kind of ignoring half the features. does Log4OM actually do the WSJT-X UDP feed properly or is there always some weirdness with the port settings? i tried setting it up once and something wasnt connecting right, might have been a firewall thing on my end but not sure. also curious if anyone just sticks with N1MM for everything including non-contest logging, or if that feels weird to anyone else besides me

so i finally got around to joining our local ARES group and theres a drill this saturday morning. EC said to bring my HT and be ready for some message passing but honestly im not sure what that means exactly. ive been licensed for about 8 months but mostly just ragchew on 2m repeaters anyone remember their first drill? dont want to look like a complete newbie even though i kinda am when it comes to emergency stuff

so ive been messing around with a cheap RTL-SDR v3 dongle for a few months now, mostly listening to aircraft and some weather satellites, and honestly it blew my mind how much you can do with a $30 piece of plastic. but ive been eyeing the SDRplay RSPdx for a while now and the price difference is pretty significant. like we're talking 10x the cost roughly. my main interest at this point is HF — i want to get into MW DX and maybe some shortwave utility stuff, possibly some ham bands once i actually pass my ticket. the RTL-SDR does okay on HF with the direct sampling mod but it feels kinda noisy and the dynamic range seems to fall apart when there's a strong local AM station nearby. i ran SDR# and then tried SDRuno and honestly SDRuno felt more polished to me but that might just be because i'm used to it now. so the question is — does the RSPdx actually make a noticeable difference on crowded HF bands or am i just going to be paying for specs on paper that i wont really hear in practice. anyone gone from one to the other and can give me a real world take on it

Anyone else planning to work the W1AW/3 special event next month? We will be active on all amateur bands and modes to make contacts including digital and VOIP modes. This looks like a great opportunity to test our Field Day setup and get some contacts before the big weekend. The exchange is just name and state/province. I'm hoping to catch them on 20 meters CW and maybe try some of the digital modes my club has been experimenting with. 40m CW around 7.02520m SSB around 14.280PSK31 on 14.070 Anyone know if they'll be running any special nets during the event?

your club guy is basically right. as a tech you get voice privileges on 10m between 28.300 and 28.500 MHz, and theres also a small chunk of 40m and 15m for CW only i think, 7.025 to 7.125 and 21.025 to 21.200 or something close to that, dont quote me exactly on those numbers go look at the ARRL band plan. but yeah the meat of your operating is gonna be VHF/UHF. 2 meters and 70cm are your playground for now. as for a simpler version of part 97, honestly the ARRL website has a pretty readable breakdown of it, way better than staring at the CFR. just search ARRL technician privileges and youll find a chart that makes way more sense than the actual regulation text

hey everyone, got my tech license about 6 months ago and been thinking about putting together a go kit for emergencies. i keep seeing everyone talk about having one ready but honestly not sure where to start. do i need a fancy portable radio or can i use my mobile rig with a battery pack? also what about antennas... seems like theres a million options and im getting overwhelmed. any advice would be great, trying to be prepared but dont want to go overboard on the budget

Been there! Drop your effective speed to 3 WPM for a few days while keeping character speed at 18. The Koch method works but sometimes we need to take a step back. Once you hit 90% consistently for a few sessions, bump it back up to 5.