Sarah Kim

so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 for about a year and a half now and it just logs to its own ADIF file which i then import into Log4OM every few weeks. works fine i guess but its kind of clunky and i keep forgetting to do the import so my log is always like a month behind reality. anyway someone at the club last night was telling me i should just switch everything over to N1MM and use it as my main logger with WSJT-X feeding into it in real time via the UDP thing. he does a lot of contesting so maybe thats why he likes it but im not really a contest guy, maybe one or two a year at most. i do more casual DX chasing and some parks on the air stuff. my question is basically — is N1MM actually worth learning for a non-contester? ive poked at it before and the interface feels like it was designed by someone who really really loves contests and nothing else. Log4OM feels more like a general purpose logging app. but if the WSJT-X integration is that much smoother in N1MM maybe its worth the hassle of learning it. also does Log4OM even do real time UDP from WSJT-X or do i have to keep doing the manual import thing? i honestly never looked into it that hard

yeah that SWR movement when you touch the coax is pretty classic common mode current problem, a 1:1 choke balun right at the feedpoint would sort that out. you dont necessarily need a fancy commercial one, you can wind like 8-10 turns of the feedline coax through a type 31 toroid and that'll do the job for most HF use. some guys just coil up the last few feet of coax at the feedpoint into a choke and that helps too, results vary though. the solder job sounds fine honestly as long as it's clean. liquid electrical tape is okay but it degrades after a season or two especially if you get real temperature swings. self amalgamating tape layered over regular vinyl tape is what most people use for outdoor feedpoints, seals really well and stays flexible. id redo that part before winter if you're in a cold climate. 1.4:1 on your first dipole is genuinely good, most people end up at 2:1 or worse and have to do a bunch of trimming. the inverted V configuration tends to shift resonance slightly compared to flat top so you got lucky with your initial cut.

so ive been a ham for about 8 months now and finally decided to take the plunge into CW. passed my extra a few months back and always thought id get around to learning morse eventually. well i bought a cheap chinese iambic paddle off ebay and been using it with the keyer built into my ft-891 and honestly my sending sounds like garbage. like letters are running together and i keep getting extra dits when i dont want them. i set the speed to 13 wpm because thats where im comfortable copying but the paddle tension feels really off. ive messed with the gap adjustment a little but im not sure if im doing it too tight or too loose. also not sure if i should be using mode A or mode B on the keyer, ive just had it on whatever the default was. any advice from people who actually went through this would be great because im starting to wonder if i should just practice more or if the paddle itself is the problem

i just passed mine two weeks ago so pretty fresh. the impedance and filter stuff does look scary at first but a lot of the actual exam questions are honestly not that bad once you see them in context. theres like maybe 5 or 6 questions where you really need to work through the math and the rest is just knowing the concept. dont stress it too much

i passed mine like 6 months ago and was in the exact same boat. i used the Gordon West study book which my club had a copy of and that helped me because i like reading but honestly i probably only needed the app. one thing i'll say is dont skip the electrical safety questions even if they seem obvious, theres a few trick ones about RF exposure that tripped me up in practice. the actual exam felt easier than the practice tests which was a nice surprise

yeah it pretty much becomes automatic after a while, i dont even think about it anymore. the general thing i was taught is you use phonetics when theres any chance of confusion — so on a clear local repeater with good signal you can usually just rattle off your call and people will catch it fine. but the moment conditions get sketchy or you're working someone far away or theres any QRM, phonetics are just way less likely to cause a repeat request. HF guys tend to default to phonetics all the time just out of habit because they spend so much time in marginal conditions. and honestly once it clicks in your brain you dont really forget them, it just takes a few months of regular operating. i had a little card taped to my desk for maybe the first six months, nothing wrong with that

im pretty much in the same boat as you, got my tech a few months back. what helped me was finding one of those laminated band charts, my elmer gave me one and i just keep it next to the radio. still havent fully wrapped my head around all of it tbh

Welcome to the rabbit hole, haha. Okay so the short version — LoTW is absolutely the way to go and yes your contacts can count toward multiple awards at once. Same QSO can count for DXCC, WAS, WAZ, whatever, as long as both sides have uploaded to LoTW and the match shows up. The ARRL processes DXCC credits through LoTW automatically once you apply, you dont have to do anything special per contact, just make sure you're uploading your logs regularly. For your older contacts it's not too late at all, as long as the other station uploaded their log to LoTW at some point after the contact, it'll match regardless of when. I had contacts from 2019 that matched up in 2022 when the other op finally uploaded. So go back and upload everything you have, even the messy early logs. WAZ is Worked All Zones, that's 40 CQ zones around the world, and yeah it's completely separate from DXCC which is country-based. Different award, different application, run by CQ magazine not ARRL. But again same contacts can count for both. My advice — get your LoTW account sorted first and start uploading consistently, everything else kind of falls into place once you can see your confirmed totals.

1.4:1 is honestly fine, dont sweat it. most rigs are happy with that and youre not going to notice any real difference in performance compared to a perfect 1:1. if youre running barefoot or modest power it just doesnt matter. you can always trim a little off each leg if it bothers you and get it closer but i wouldnt bother. the balun question is one of those rabbit holes that never ends on forums lol. short answer is a 1:1 choke balun or even just a few turns of coax wound up near the feedpoint will help keep rf off the coax shield and out of your shack. not strictly required but a lot of guys notice less rf in the shack interference once they add one. i use a ferrite choke on all my dipoles now just out of habit. 14 gauge stranded should be fine for that span as long as you have decent strain relief at the endpoints and the center. where people get in trouble is putting all the tension on the solder joint at the feedpoint. if you used an eye bolt or something to take the mechanical load separately from the electrical connection youll be in good shape.

yeah the cluster world is a little messy honestly, it evolved kind of organically over decades so theres no one clean system. the short version is that DXwatch, the QRZ spot feed, DX Summit, and a bunch of others are all pulling from what people call the DX cluster network — a bunch of interconnected nodes that share spots with each other. but theyre not perfectly synchronized in real time so you do get those little delays between sites, totally normal for filtering on DXwatch there should be a band filter right at the top of the page, might look slightly different depending on whether youre on mobile or desktop. you can set it to just show 20 and 40 and it'll remember your preference for a while. if youre using a logging program like Log4OM or even just the free version of DXKeeper those can connect directly to a cluster node and you get spots piped right in, which is way more useful once you get the hang of it the app i find myself reaching for most is the DX Toolkit app, nothing fancy but it lets me glance at spots fast when im not at the rig. and of course QRZ is handy because you can click a callsign and immediately see the entity, DXCC status, other ops comments etc. once it all clicks together its pretty addictive, fair warning

Honestly for just casual HF listening the v4 in direct sampling mode is probably fine to start with. I ran mine that way for a while before i eventually got an RSP1A and yeah the SDRplay is noticeably cleaner, better dynamic range, and the tuning is smoother — but if youre just wanting to hear 40m SSB and some broadcast shortwave, the dongle will get you there for free basically since you already have it. Throw a decent antenna at it first because that makes way more difference than the receiver on HF. The SDRplay really starts to shine if you have any strong local signals causing interference because the front end handles overload a lot better than the rtl chipset. If you dont have that problem yet you might not even notice the difference.

the solar question is pretty easy to ballpark -- a 100w panel will keep you comfortable if you're not running the amp all day. i run a 100w rigid panel with a victron MPPT controller and it handles my ic-7300 just fine at 50-100w output during field day type conditions, as long as you have some sun obviously. cloudy days are a different story and thats when your battery capacity matters more. 20ah is fine for overnight but if you're looking at multi-day stuff maybe think about a second battery you can parallel in. on the antenna thing -- i actually moved away from the buddipole for go-kit use. not that it's bad but when things are chaotic and you're tired you want something brain-dead simple. i cut a linked dipole for 40/20/10 and have it rolled up on a winder with some paracord guys and a fiberglass mast. takes maybe 8 minutes to get it in the air and it just works. end feds are popular too, especially the 49:1 type, but you will want to make sure your rig handles the tuner load okay. the 857 has a decent internal tuner so you might be fine. one thing i don't see on your list -- headlamps and a power strip with a cigarette lighter adapter? sounds dumb but at 2am in a EOC with bad overhead lighting you'll thank yourself.

so ive been building this direct conversion receiver for 40 meters based loosely on the old Neophyte design but i swapped out a few parts because i couldnt source the originals and honestly i thought i knew what i was doing. it receives fine, i can hear stations no problem, but theres this low hum in the audio that follows the signal — like it gets louder when im tuned to a strong station and quieter on a dead frequency. at first i thought it was just 60hz from the power supply so i threw a bigger filter cap on the rail but that didnt really do anything. the audio stage is built around an lm386 which i know everybody has opinions about but i had a handful of them and its what i used. i wonder if its picking up something through the gain pins, ive heard those chips can be finicky. or maybe its something with my VFO leaking back somehow? i dunno. the whole thing is built on a piece of copper clad with ugly style construction, no enclosure yet because i wanted to get it working first. maybe thats the issue, just picking up everything with no shielding. anyone dealt with this before? im not sure if its a grounding thing or the chip or what. kind of at a loss here.

yeah i caught part of that opening too, was working 28.400 and logged about a dozen south american stations in maybe 45 minutes which for a wednesday afternoon is pretty decent. missed the ZL completely but a buddy of mine two counties over said he worked a couple JA stations which i was jealous of. solar flux has been creeping up again so im thinking we might get a few more of these before the month is out. on the IC-905, ive been watching that one for a while. the 10ghz capability is what gets me even if the transverter approach adds cost and complexity. talked to a guy at a club meeting who said his dealer told him late next month is realistic but who knows. those things slip constantly. the 23cm and 13cm bands are still pretty quiet around here so it would be nice to have more people with gear that can do those freqs. no idea which hamfest they were talking about on your repeater, there are like three or four in that region in the fall season. might be the one in Davenport but im guessing.

congrats on the first one, 23 contacts is a solid debut honestly. a lot of people struggle to get to 10 on their first outing especially if conditions are rough or the park is in a weird spot with a lot of trees blocking take off angle. the IC-705 is a great little radio for this kind of thing, i used one for about a year before i switched to a KX2 just for the weight savings since i started doing more hiking activations. one thing that helped me early on was writing the park reference on a piece of tape and sticking it right on the radio. sounds dumb but when youre nervous and trying to manage a pile up its really easy to blank on stuff like that. also get in the habit of announcing it on air every few contacts, the hunters appreciate it and it keeps you honest about logging it correctly. welcome to the rabbit hole by the way, my park count is embarrassing at this point