James Davis

ok so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now mostly because my neighbor does it and it seems really cool but i have no idea where to start with the whole license thing. i know theres different levels or classes or whatever but i dont really understand the difference between them or which one i should go for first. do i need to know morse code? someone told me you dont anymore but i wasnt sure if that was still true. also how hard is the test actually, like is it something i can study for in a few weeks or does it take months. any advice would be great im kind of just lost here

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, worked some DX, did a few contests, and i keep seeing people talk about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and i honestly dont fully understand how they all fit together or if i even need all of them like i get the basic idea — you confirm the contact with the other station — but i dont understand why there are so many different systems or what the actual difference is in terms of what awards they count toward. i uploaded my log to LoTW like my elmer told me to but i only have a handful of confirmations so far and i dont know if im doing something wrong or if people just dont upload very often also the physical QSL card thing seems cool but i have no idea how the bureau works or if i should even bother setting that up. someone mentioned i need a buro address through my club? anyway if someone can just sort of explain how all this works together id really appreciate it, or just tell me which ones are actually worth bothering with

ok so i just upgraded to general last month and ive been trying to figure out where i can actually operate on 40 meters. i keep reading about the band plan and the frequency allocations but its like every source i look at says something slightly different. like is the band plan actually law or is it just a suggestion? and i keep hearing people say dont operate too close to the band edge but nobody really explains how close is too close. my radio shows me im on 7.195 and i think thats fine but someone in a net last week kind of implied i shouldnt be up that high? im probably overthinking this but i just dont want to step on anyone or worse transmit somewhere im not supposed to as a general class

yeah the 'set it faster' advice can really backfire if you havent got the basic muscle memory down yet. what worked for me back when i was learning was actually slowing way down and just sending individual characters over and over until they felt automatic — not thinking about dots and dashes at all, just the sound. Koch method kind of thing. also check your paddle tension and spacing. if the gap between the contacts is off it makes consistent sending really hard. took me forever to figure out that my cheap paddle was basically working against me because the contacts were so light that i was triggering accidental dits constantly. eventually i saved up for a decent set of Begali paddles and it was like night and day, but honestly even adjusting the tension and gap on a cheap set can help a lot before you spend money. dont give up, 8 months in is still early days for CW. most guys i know took a solid year before their sending felt natural.

im in a similar spot actually, been debating the same thing for months. one thing i havent seen mentioned much is fixed yagi orientation — like if you point it at where most of your interesting paths are, do you end up frustrated when something comes in from the wrong direction. i dont have an azimuth rotator and wasnt planning to get one, budget reasons mostly, so thats kind of holding me back from committing to a yagi setup.

so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4882 if anyone's familiar with it. i was nervous as heck going in because ive never done anything like this before — just been doing some casual HF from home for about 8 months. brought my FT-891 and a random wire antenna i threw up in a tree, ran it into a 9:1 unun and just hoped for the best honestly. ended up making 23 QSOs in about 2 hours which i guess is enough to count but i was kind of hoping for more. most of the contacts were on 40m, tried 20m for a while but it felt like nobody was hearing me. i was running about 50 watts. logged everything on paper because i couldnt figure out how to get the POTA app working on my phone before i left, which was kind of annoying. my question is — do you have to upload the log the same day or is there a grace period? and also is there a good way to let hunters know youre activating before you go out? i saw something about spotting but wasnt totally sure how it works. anyway it was a lot of fun and i definitely want to do more of these, already looking at a couple parks within driving distance

this is actually making me want to get more involved with our local ARES group. im still pretty new, only been licensed about 8 months, but ive been lurking on the club's emcomm nets and it does seem like a lot goes into it beyond just having a radio. do you need to know how to do formal traffic handling before you show up to something like this or is it more learn as you go? i wouldnt want to slow everyone down during an actual drill

so ive been doing SO2R for maybe three contests now and i still feel like im leaving serious rate on the table because i dont really have a feel for when to actually commit to working a station on radio 2 vs just staying on the run frequency on radio 1. like i get the theory, you're supposed to be S&P on radio 2 while running on radio 1, but in practice when a pileup builds on my run freq i feel like i miss the timing and either drop the qso on radio 2 midway or i respond too slow on radio 1 and someone else grabs the exchange. my setup is two K3s with the antenna switching sorted out finally (that took forever don't even get me started) and im using N1MM+ with the SO2R support turned on. the footswitch is set up for radio switching. i think the hardware side is mostly fine now. its really the operating rhythm im struggling with. is there like a mental framework you guys use for deciding when radio 2 is worth the attention? ive heard people say you should only be on radio 2 during the turnaround but that seems like it leaves a lot of operating time unused. also does anyone actually use the stereo headphone thing where you have each radio in one ear, i tried it and it felt like my brain was going to melt

oh man i remember this phase, it really is frustrating at first. a few things that might help — first the gap on a budget paddle is almost always way too tight from the factory, most people need to open it up more than they think. you want maybe a business card thickness on each side as a rough starting point and then fine tune from there. too tight and you get exactly what youre describing, letters mushing together because the contacts are too sensitive. as for mode A vs mode B, honestly for a beginner mode A is probably easier to work with because it stops the iambic sequence as soon as you release the paddles. mode B keeps going a little longer which trips people up. stick with A for now until your muscle memory gets better. also dont be discouraged, 13 wpm is a fine speed to start, just keep at it. the paddle technique stuff takes weeks to really click and a lot of it is just your hands learning what to do without you thinking about it. if you can swing it eventually, a better quality paddle makes a real difference but dont go crazy spending money until you know the cheap one is actually holding you back versus it just being the learning curve

so i've been wanting to do this for probably two years now and i finally just pulled the trigger on a QCX mini kit back in the spring, took me a few evenings to build it because i kept second-guessing my soldering on the tiny SMD bits, but got it done and it actually worked first time which honestly shocked me a little took it out to a park saturday with a simple end fed wire i threw up in a tree maybe 25 feet or so, running off a little 3ah lipo pack, and made four contacts on 40m in about an hour and a half. nothing crazy, two were in state, one was Ohio and one surprised me — a guy in Virginia which felt pretty good for 5 watts. everybody said my signal sounded clean which i was relieved about because i was a little worried about the audio from my paddle (its a cheap thing i got off amazon, not ideal) anyway just wanted to share because i feel like this whole QRP portable thing kind of clicked for me this weekend in a way it hadnt when i was just reading about it. the efficiency angle is what gets me — like theres something satisfying about making a contact knowing youre running less power than a nightlight basically. anyone else remember their first real QRP outing? curious what kit or rig you started with

yeah the 10m opening yesterday was real, i caught part of it too around 1600z, had a nice run to europe for maybe 45 minutes then it just died. that's kind of the nature of F2 propagation on 10, it can be incredible but it comes and goes fast and the gray line stuff adds another layer of complexity on top of it all. the honest answer to your question is that nobody predicts it perfectly, not even the pros. what i usually do is keep an eye on DXmaps and PSKreporter to see where signals are actually getting through in real time, that's way more useful day to day than trying to interpret the solar indices on your own. the SFI number gives you a rough idea of how ionized the F layer is but the K index is probably more immediately important because even a high flux day can be ruined by geomagnetic disturbance. basically if K is above 4 or 5, forget it on the high bands. if K is low and flux is above 150 or so, 10 and 12 are worth checking. but yeah you still have to actually go listen because the models only get you so far.

yeah LoTW is basically the go-to these days for DXCC credits, most serious DX stations upload pretty regularly so your old contacts might already have matches sitting there waiting for you. just create your LoTW account if you havent, install TQSL, and upload your log. when you get a match it shows up as a confirmed QSO and you can apply those toward DXCC. the paper QSL route still works and some guys prefer it especially for older or rarer entities where the station might not use LoTW, but for everyday stuff LoTW is way easier. and yeah WAS and WAZ are totally separate awards. WAS is all 50 states confirmed, WAZ is the 40 CQ zones around the world. contacts can absolutely count toward multiple awards simultaneously as long as the contact meets the rules for each one, so a QSO with a station in Texas might count for WAS if you needed Texas, and also contribute to your DXCC entity count if youre counting the US as an entity... well actually US is a bit of a special case but you get the idea. DXCC and WAS are both ARRL, WAZ is through CQ magazine. once you start going down this rabbit hole youll find there are a ton of awards out there, some people spend years chasing all of them.

ok so i just upgraded from tech to general last month and im trying to figure out the 40 meter band. i know theres phone and cw portions but every time i look it up i get a slightly different answer depending on the website. like one site says phone starts at 7.175 and another says 7.200 and i dont know which one is actually correct vs just a suggestion or whatever. also someone at my club mentioned something about staying away from band edges and i didnt really want to ask what they meant because i felt like i should already know. whats the deal with that, is it a legal thing or just a courtesy thing? i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt be

So ive been trying to figure out the best spot to mount my FT-7900 in my F-150 for about two weeks now and i keep going back and forth on it. Right now im leaning toward the dash area under the climate controls but the problem is there's not a ton of depth there and im worried about the connector on the back of the radio sticking into something or blocking the vent ducting. The other option i keep coming back to is a console mount between the seats but honestly i drive a lot and i dont want to be reaching sideways while im moving. Has anyone done a center console bracket setup in a newer F-150? The center console on these trucks is pretty chunky so im not sure if theres a good bracket out there or if i just need to fabricate something. Also running the power direct to the battery, not the fuse box. Is that the right call for a 50W VHF/UHF mobile or does it matter that much at that power level?

so i picked up a used FT-7900R a few weeks ago and spent last weekend getting it installed in my F-150. ran the power leads straight to the battery with an inline fuse on each lead, antenna is a Larsen NMO mount on the roof, coax down through the weather stripping on the door frame. honestly pretty proud of how clean it came out visually. but now when i key up or even just when the engine is running i get this whine that goes up and down with the RPMs. its not terrible but its definitely there and i know its not supposed to be. ive read a bunch of stuff about ferrite chokes and ground loops but im not 100% sure what im dealing with here. the radio itself is grounded to the chassis with a short strap near where the unit is mounted under the dash. power leads are about 6 feet long running along the firewall. anyone dealt with this before? is this an alternator whine thing or something else? and is the fix usually the ferrite beads on the power leads or do i need to do something more with grounding

yeah Field Day is kind of its own thing, our club does it every year and its more of a cookout that happens to have radio operating going on lol. dont get me wrong its fun and a great way to meet people in your local ham community but if you want to really sharpen your contesting chops CQ WW or even the ARRL DX contests are where youll learn more. that said Field Day is great for just getting comfortable in the chair and making a lot of contacts in a short time without the pressure of a real competition feeling so heavy. also if your club has experienced ops running it youll probably pick up tips just by watching. i did my first SOTA activation last spring and that kind of scratched a different itch entirely, very different from contest operating but man its addictive once you start. anyway for CQ WW just jump in, the first few hours are confusing for everyone but it clicks eventually.

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i still get confused about when youre supposed to use the NATO phonetic alphabet versus just saying the letter normally. like if someone asks me to confirm my callsign do i always spell it out phonetically or only sometimes? i feel like i hear people on repeaters just say their callsign normally and then other times people go full Alpha Bravo Charlie on everything and i cant figure out if theres a rule or if its just preference also is it weird if i use phonetics wrong, like if i accidentally say something thats not the standard word? i said Foxtrot correctly the other day and felt kind of proud of myself but then stumbled on November and just said N so idk. nobody said anything but still.

yeah 20m has definitely been doing that thing where it just refuses to cooperate and then randomly opens up like crazy. the geomag storm you mentioned knocked things around for a lot of folks, takes a day or two sometimes for the ionosphere to settle back down after the K index spikes. i usually give it 24-48 hours after a big disturbance before i expect anything reliable on the higher HF bands. the 10m stuff though, that sounds like it could genuinely be F2 propagation. we're climbing toward solar max and flux in the 140s is actually pretty solid for that. i had a couple of contacts into south america on 10m last week that surprised me too, like actual solid signals not just barely readable. worth keeping an eye on DXmaps or maybe the DX cluster to see what paths are opening up. if other people in your region are making contacts at the same time youre hearing stuff, its probably real F2 and not just local noise or Es.

good point about the NB, i had a similar issue during the recent FT5 pileup where my noise blanker was making things worse not better. switched it off and suddenly i could actually copy the DX through all the qrm. one thing i'd add — timing your call to end just slightly before the DX stops transmitting seems to help, at least on ssb. on cw its a little different. i think it keeps your call fresh in the rx at just the right moment but i cant really prove that, just feels like it from experience. also keeping your exchange super tight, no extra info just callsign period, makes a difference especially if propagation is marginal and youve only got a small window.

oh man yeah i remember that wall very well. 13wpm is almost like a psychological checkpoint as much as anything else. what worked for me was two things and i know everyone says different stuff but hear me out. first i stopped trying to copy every single character. like i was treating it as a test where i had to get 100% and the moment i missed something i'd get flustered. once i started just letting the missed ones go and staying in the flow it got way better. your brain needs to learn to keep moving, not stop and panic every time you dont catch something. second thing is i started listening to actual QSOs on 40m even when i couldnt copy most of it. just having real code in my ears every day, call signs, RST reports, the rhythm of a real exchange, it kind of wired things together in a way that the training software alone wasnt doing for me. took a few weeks but i noticed i started hearing words instead of letters somewhere in there and that was kind of the turning point. you're not doing anything wrong, its just one of those plateaus, everybody hits it around there

ok so i just passed my general a few weeks ago and got my sequential call assigned, which is fine, but ive been reading about vanity calls and now im kind of down a rabbit hole and cant figure out if theres actually a system to it or if its just whoever applies first wins. from what i understand the FCC has like different application windows based on your license class and whether youre a club or a silent key situation? so if im just a regular new general trying to get a 1x3 call in a district where i dont even live, am i basically at the back of the line behind everyone else? and how long does it usually take, like are we talking days or weeks before you find out if you got it or not. also someone in another thread mentioned using a vanity call filing service and i wasnt sure if thats worth it or if you can just do it yourself through the ULS. sorry if this is a well worn topic, just trying to wrap my head around it before i commit to a call i might not actually want long term

the 75 meter phone band is so worth it alone lol. i was a general for like three years before i upgraded and i kept hearing conversations just below where i could transmit and it was kind of annoying. passed the extra last spring, the impedance questions werent that bad once i just accepted i was gonna get maybe one or two wrong and move on. you only need like a 74% i think so theres some room to miss the ones that make no sense to you

so ive been playing around with DXwatch and the cluster on QRZ for a few weeks now and honestly im not sure im using them the way theyre meant to be used. like i'll see a spot come up on DXwatch for some rare DX station and by the time i tune to the frequency its either gone or theres a pile up so big i have no chance. is there some trick to this or am i just too slow? also i noticed the spots on QRZ and DXwatch dont always match up, sometimes one will show something the other doesnt, is that normal? i thought they were pulling from the same cluster network but maybe not. been using the ham radio apps on my phone too (HamSphere and one called DX Toolkit i think) to try and get alerts faster but still feel like im always a step behind everyone else. been licensed about 8 months, general class, running a 100w rig into a dipole up about 30 feet so nothing special but i did manage to work a few new entities last month so its not hopeless i guess

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, started taking DXCC seriously maybe 6 months ago. one thing i didnt realize at first is that LoTW confirmations from years back still count, like if the other station uploaded their log you might already have more confirmed than you think even from early QSOs you forgot about. worth checking if you havent already dug through all of it. the bureau QSL thing tripped me up too. took me a while to find a card checker locally but once i did it was pretty straightforward. just make sure your cards are legible and have all the right info on them or they can get rejected which is annoying.

yeah the phone logging thing drove me nuts at first too. i switched to a small paper log and then enter everything into the app after i get home, takes maybe 10 minutes and way less stressful while youre actually operating. some people swear by the apps but for me paper in the field just works better, especially when its cold and your fingers dont cooperate nice work on the activation though, 12 contacts is solid for a first time out. once you get the hang of it youll be knocking them out way faster