Jessica Johnson

yeah what he said about the preamp placement is huge, i made the mistake of putting mine at the shack end first because i didnt want to deal with weatherproofing and my noise figure was embarrassing. moved it to the mast and it was like a completely different antenna. also if you're in the northern hemisphere check when the moon is at high declination, your windows where the moon is actually at a usable elevation for both you and the other station matter a lot more than i thought when i was getting started

one that trips up a lot of people is QSY, that just means change frequency. and QRO is the opposite of QRP, means high power. so if someone says they're going QRO you know they're cranking up the watts. i also see people mix up QRM and QRN constantly even guys who've been at it for years lol

Don't stress too much! Post a spot as soon as you're set up and the chasers will find you. Bring extra batteries and dress in layers - summits are always windier and colder than expected. You'll do fine!

yeah what he said about the preamp placement is huge, i learned that the hard way. i had maybe 3 feet of LMR400 between my preamp and the feedpoint and my noise figure was way worse than it should have been. moved it right to the boom and it made a noticeable difference on received signals. also dont underestimate the moon tracking software side of things. if your antenna isn't actually pointed at the moon within a degree or two you're throwing away gain for no reason. i use a green heron controller but there are cheaper options that work fine. some guys use Nova for Windows for tracking data and feed it to their rotor controller. anyway its a rabbit hole for sure but first EME initial is a pretty cool feeling, just be prepared to spend a lot of time staring at a waterfall

that greyline comment is spot on, that's honestly what got me hooked on QRP years ago. when you're running barefoot at 5w you start actually caring about stuff like that instead of just cranking power and hoping for the best. congrats on the first portable outing. for 20m vs 40m — depends what you're going for honestly. 40m is great for regional stuff especially later in the day but 20m when it's open can be absolutely wild with QRP, ive worked europe from the midwest with 4 watts on a dipole and nearly fell out of my chair. the tricky part with a 20m homebrew is the LPF needs to be a bit more precise and your layout matters more at those frequencies, stray capacitance etc. but if you're already building from scratch you've clearly got the patience for it so i'd say go for it. what did you use for your keyer? building or just a paddle into a standalone keyer?

I built one using the SA612 mixer about 2 years ago and it worked pretty well. The key is getting a good audio amp after the mixer - I used an LM386 but probably should have gone with something with more gain. Also make sure you have good shielding between the oscillator and mixer or you'll get all kinds of birdies. What kind of antenna you planning to use with it?

i did my first EME contact last year off a single 17el yagi and a solid state 500w amp, so it can be done. took me a while to get the az/el rotor situation sorted out, that was honestly the bigger headache than the antenna itself because you need accurate tracking or youre just pointing at sky. i used a cheap chinese az rotor and built my own elevation setup from scratch which was... an adventure. the software side with WSJT-X is pretty straightforward once you get your clock sync dialed in, that matters more than people realize, like even being a second or two off will mess up your decodes bad.

honestly the memorization approach works fine for the technician exam, i wont lie to you. the question pool is published and the actual test pulls straight from it so if you grind through all the questions enough times youll pass. HamStudy dot org is probably what most people use now, it tracks which questions you're weak on and focuses on those. i used it for maybe 3 weeks on my lunch breaks and passed without too much trouble. that said, actually understanding the basics helps later when you're trying to figure out why your antenna isnt working or whatever, so its not a waste to read through the ARRL Technician manual or Gordon West's book alongside the practice tests. but dont let that stop you from just sitting the exam, you can learn the real stuff after you have the ticket. find a local club near you too, they usually run license classes and the elmers there are way more helpful than anything you'll read online. VE sessions arent as scary as they sound either, it's just a multiple choice test in somebody's living room half the time

so ive been doing contests for about 3 years now, mostly SS and CQWW, single op single radio, and i keep reading about SO2R and watching guys on 3830 post these insane rates and im wondering if its actually worth getting into or if its one of those things that only pays off if youre already super competitive my current setup is a K3 into a hexbeam and a 40m wire, nothing fancy. i know SO2R means a second radio basically running simultaneously and doing multiplier hunting on the second radio while you CQ on the first but i guess my question is more like... how much of the rate improvement is from SO2R specifically vs just better antennas and operating skill. because i feel like i could still improve a lot just on operating technique before i drop another 2 grand on a second rig also the interlocking and audio switching stuff looks like a nightmare to set up correctly without RF getting into everything. anyone gone through that process and have opinions on whether its worth it for someone doing maybe 20-25 hours of a 48hr contest