Michael Anderson

ran into the exact same relay noise issue last winter. ended up just buying like 6 of the TE connectivity RF relays off ebay, think they were PE4259 or something similar, not cheap but not crazy either and they're actually rated for RF. the arduino side of it is easy, the RF plumbing is where you spend all your time. also if youre using a mega you might as well throw a small ethernet shield on there and ditch the serial/python thing entirely — just serve a basic webpage from the arduino and hit it from the shack PC or your phone. i did that and its way more flexible, can pull up the antenna selector from anywhere on the network. took maybe an afternoon to get it working with the wiznet library.

yeah same here in ohio, 40m has been pretty junky after sunset the last few days. i blamed my feedline at first lol but checked everything and its fine. just noisy. i did catch a decent run of stations around 7.240 last night for maybe 20 minutes then it just fell apart. the tube rig thing is real though, you can always tell, something about the way the signal breathes

I used Morse Mania app to start - it turns learning into an engaging game that makes the process enjoyable and effective. Set your practice tool to 25-30 WPM character speed to train your ear to recognize sound patterns, not individual dits and dahs. The key is daily practice, even if just 10-15 minutes.

does it happen faster when the shack is warm? asking because mine did something similar and it was literally just a cold solder joint on the pa board that would open up once things got to temperature. took forever to find because it looked totally fine visually. had to reflow basically the whole pa section before i found it with a thermal camera a buddy let me borrow.

yeah hamstudy is what most people use these days. there used to be this thing called QRZ practice exams too which i still like but honestly any of the major ones pull from the same pool so it doesnt matter much. the Gordon West book is what i studied from back when i did mine and i liked having an actual book to flip through but plenty of people just do it online now and do fine. one thing i'd say is dont wait too long once you feel ready, find a local club doing a testing session and just go sit for it. ARRL website has a tool to find exam sessions near you. the club people running the VE sessions are usually pretty friendly, its not some intimidating DMV situation or anything like that

not dumb questions at all, this is exactly the kind of thing people dont think about until they're scrambling at 2am during an actual activation. i went through the same thing a few years back. honestly the way i think about it is just start with what you'd need to make one contact on HF and one on VHF and work backwards from there. for me that ended up being my IC-7300 (though some guys use a smaller radio like the 705 or a Xiegu for portability), a power supply or battery, some kind of antenna that doesnt require a tower to deploy, and all the cables and adapters to connect it all. the cables thing is where people get burned — you show up somewhere and realize you left the right-angle PL-259 adapter at home and now you cant hook anything up. for the container i use a rolling duffel bag for the main stuff and a smaller sling bag for consumables and paperwork. pelican cases are great but heavy. i dont bring my own power anymore because our county EOC has a generator and a big battery bank but i always carry a small 20ah lifepo4 just in case because generators fail. also bring a headlamp, snacks, and your favorite headset because those chairs at EOCs are not comfortable and youre gonna be there a while

yeah the pixie was my first build too actually, did mine on 80m. the drift drove me a bit crazy at first but i kind of learned to just retune every few minutes and it became normal. i think theres something to be said for learning on a radio that forces you to really pay attention. im curious what antenna you were running when you made that ohio contact? ive been trying to figure out if my problem is the radio or my wire antenna situation because i havent had as much luck