Steve Anderson

ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, got my technician and just upgraded to general last week actually. been hanging around the local club and doing some HF now and everyone just throws around all these abbreviations constantly, like QSL, QRZ, QRM, QSB and a bunch of others i cant keep track of. i know QSL is like a confirmation card thing but thats about it honestly.
is there like a definitive list somewhere or do people just kind of pick these up over time? also what does 73 mean, i see that everywhere too. and someone said 88 to a lady on the air and i didnt know what that was either. feel kinda dumb asking but i figure someone here has been through this before

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing different things from different people about how to confirm contacts and honestly im more confused now than when i started. like some guys at the club say LoTW is the only thing that matters for DXCC and others say eQSL is fine and then my elmer keeps sending me actual paper cards in the mail which is cool but also feels like a lot of effort for something that just sits in a box
so i guess my question is what does everyone actually use day to day and is there a reason to bother with more than one system? i set up a LoTW account a few weeks ago and uploaded some logs but i have no idea if im doing it right because nothing seems to be confirming. also does eQSL cost money? i saw something about different membership levels
sorry if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure out the whole QSL thing before i get too far behind on logging

i just passed mine two months ago so this is pretty fresh. i brute forced maybe 60% of it and actually tried to understand the other 40% and that felt like a decent balance. the transistor biasing questions and some of the filter rolloff stuff i just flat out memorized because i couldnt make heads or tails of the theory behind them in a reasonable amount of time. no shame in that, the exam doesnt care how you got there
the extra subbands thing honestly the biggest deal for me was just having it done, like the credential felt complete if that makes sense. i dont think my actual on air experience changed dramatically the week after i passed but knowing i can operate anywhere feels good

Don't give up! Circuit design is all about experimenting with methods that work for you and that you can understand. Try building it on copper clad board first to minimize parasitics. The switching waveform at the drain is critical - scope it if you can.

My first hamfest was intimidating but everyone was super friendly. Look for the forums and exhibits too, not just the flea market. I learned more in one day than months of YouTube videos. Have fun!

yeah same thing happend to me when i started, couldnt remember anything i was supposed to say. honestly the repeater guys have heard it all before so dont sweat it. i upgradd to general about 6 months after getting my tech and thats where things really got fun, you can actually talk to people farther out on HF. anyway welcome aboard

had almost the exact same thing happen to my 7300 last year, different cause but same symptom. mine turned out to be one of the finals was partially blown, like it wasnt totally dead but it wasnt pulling its weight either. rig still transmitted fine, sounded ok, just low power. had to send it in because i wasnt comfortable replacing finals on that board myself, the SMD work on those things is not fun. just something to keep in mind if the bias adjustment doesnt fix it.

i went through the same thing when i upgraded, part 97 reads like stereo instructions from 1987 honestly. one thing that helped me was just downloading the actual ARRL privileges chart as a PDF and comparing it side by side with what 97.301 says. they match up but the ARRL version is way less painful to parse.
also dont stress too much about accidentally stepping on an extra-class-only segment right away, people will generally just let you know if you're in the wrong spot, at least on 40m. just be aware and you'll be fine.

ok so i just upgraded to general a few weeks ago and im still trying to wrap my head around the frequency allocations. i know generals get more privileges but every time i look at the band plan chart it just kind of blurs together for me. specifically on 40 meters, like i know there's a phone portion and a cw portion but where does one actually start and the other end? and how close to the band edge is too close? i've heard people say you should never transmit right at the edge but nobody really explains why or how far away you should stay. is 7.125 ok for ssb or is that still too low? i feel like i keep second guessing myself before i even key up

so i passed my general back in the spring and immediately started working on code because honestly thats the main reason i got into ham radio in the first place, the idea of CW just seemed really cool to me. started with the Koch method using lcwo.net and got up to about 13wpm pretty fast, like within the first couple months i was copying most characters okay at 13.
but now im completely stuck. every time i try to push to 15 i just fall apart, miss letters, lose the whole word, then panic and miss the next three. ive been practicing maybe 20-30 minutes a day which i thought was enough but maybe not? i dont know if its a technique problem or just need more time or what. someone told me i might have hit the 'plateau' that everyone talks about. is that a real thing or just an excuse lol
for context im starting to hear some of the common words as whole sounds now which i think is good? but single letters im still kind of sounding out in my head which slows me down. any advice from people who went through this would be really appreciated

I'd recommend getting radio programming software and cable so you can more easily program repeater and memory channels - makes the HT much easier to use since you can simply toggle through your stored channels. Search for RT Systems (commercial, easy to use) or CHIRP (freeware, less friendly) for your specific model.