Contester

yeah no worries this tripped me up for a while too. DXwatch and the QRZ spot network do pull from some of the same AR-cluster nodes but they dont have identical coverage - DXwatch tends to aggregate a bit more broadly in my experience, especially for EU spots that sometimes dont make it into the QRZ feed as fast. so the duplicates you're seeing are real, its just the same spot echoing through different paths into each site.
for filtering - on DXwatch you can set band filters in the display settings and it'll stick between sessions once you're logged in. took me forever to find that. honestly once you get it filtered down to just 20 and 17 and whatever bands you actually work it becomes way more useful. the lag with HRD is pretty normal, some of those telnet cluster connections just have more latency depending on which node you connect to, try switching to a geographically closer one if you can.

so i've been running an IC-706MKIIG for probably 12 years now and it's served me well but the display was getting weird and i was tired of fiddling with it every time i wanted to do anything on 40m. picked up a used 7300 from a guy at our club's hamfest last month and honestly i dont know why i waited this long.
the waterfall alone is worth it for me, i can actually see whats happening on the band instead of just spinning the dial hoping to find something. noise reduction is noticeably better too, at least on 40 and 80 where i spend most of my time. my shack is nothing fancy, just an end fed halfwave into a 9:1 unun, MFJ tuner on the bench, feed the 7300 off a 30A regulated supply.
only gripe so far is the menu system takes some getting used to if you're coming from older icom stuff. been messing with the NR and NB settings trying to find a sweet spot. anyone else using one of these for mostly casual ssb work, wondering what settings people end up settling on for everyday use

yeah honestly same here, though im on a completely different setup so its probably not the same cause. been running JS8Call more than FT8 lately anyway partly because i like that you can actually have a conversation vs just exchanging signal reports and grid squares over and over. FT8 starts feeling like a video game after a while lol. but when i do fire up WSJT the decode numbers do feel a bit off compared to last year. could just be where we are in the solar cycle doing weird things to propagation patterns, 20m has been opening and closing at weird times lately

okay so i just got my technician like 6 weeks ago and ive been making contacts on 2m and also got on HF a couple times with my elmer's help. people keep asking me about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly im a little overwhelmed trying to figure out what all of it means and which one i actually need to bother with.
from what i understand LoTW is run by the ARRL and its like the official one for awards like DXCC? and eQSL is a different thing that more people use casually? and then paper cards are still a thing people send through the bureau or direct mail? i just dont want to miss out on confirming contacts that might matter later but also i dont want to spend a ton of money sending cards everywhere right now.
do most people do all three or just pick one? is there a reason to set up LoTW even if im not chasing awards yet?

HamAlert is the one to look at for sure, i just started using it a few weeks ago and its way better than refreshing DXwatch every 5 minutes lol. you can filter by band, mode, dxcc entity, even by whether you need it for a specific award. setup takes a bit of figuring out but theres a decent youtube walkthrough someone posted.
also dont overlook the QRZ logbook integration stuff if you already log there — it can show you what you still need which is handy when your trying to figure out if a spot is even worth bothering with

So I finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4829 if anyone knows it, and honestly it was kind of a mess but also really fun? I brought my KX2 and a end-fed half wave that I usually just toss up in the backyard and it worked fine at home but out in the field stringing it up in trees I realized I had no idea what I was doing with antenna placement. Spent like 25 minutes just getting it up and by then I was kind of flustered.
Anyway I only made 14 contacts in about an hour and a half which I know is not enough to count as a valid activation so I didnt even get to log it. Got on 40m and called CQ POTA for a while and got a few hunters coming back but then the frequency got busy and I kind of lost confidence and just started S&P which was probably the wrong move. I think my main problem was not having a real system, like I just showed up with gear and hoped for the road.
Anyone have tips for making those first 10 contacts faster? And is there a good way to spot yourself if youre solo and dont have cell service at the park? I saw something about the POTA app but wasnt sure if it works offline or needs data.

clublog is worth bookmarking too, especially for checking if a callsign is a new one for you. you can upload your adif and then when you look up a call it'll tell you right there if its a new entity or band slot. i stumbled onto that maybe a year into the hobby and wished someone had told me sooner. not exactly a cluster but it fits into the same workflow you're talking about.

yeah techs do get some HF privileges, its not just VHF/UHF. you get a small slice of 10 meters for phone around 28.3 to 28.5 MHz, and you can use CW on a few other bands like 40, 15, and 10 meters. the ARRL website actually has a pretty decent band plan chart that breaks it all down, way easier to read than the actual part 97 text honestly. just look up the ARRL frequency allocations page and it should make sense pretty quick.
the thing your club guy probably meant is that techs cant just go anywhere on HF, the privileges are limited to specific segments and specific modes. so you cant just fire up SSB on 40 meters for example, thats general and above territory. but youre not completely locked out of HF which some people think.

honestly it sounds mostly like a practice thing but the settings can definitely make it harder than it needs to be. when i was getting started my elmer told me the gap should be just wide enough that you dont get accidental contacts when you let go, like a business card thickness or a tiny bit more. tension is super personal but if youre fighting the paddle to squeeze it that's too tight, and if it feels floppy and you keep triggering it accidentally thats too loose. takes a few sessions to really dial in.
the bigger thing i'd say is drop your speed. seriously i know 18 feels like it's already slow but if your brain is scrambling to keep up your hands are gonna follow. i went back to like 12-13 wpm for a few weeks and it felt embarrassing but my fist cleaned up a lot. Koch method practice files on your pc with a program like RufzXP or just the LCWO site helped me more than anything else. once the characters are automatic at slow speed the speed comes back pretty naturally.

New to linear satellite operations and getting mixed advice about power levels. I understand the basic concept that transponder has limited output power and high power signals reduce downlink power available to other users, but looking for practical guidance.
What's considered appropriate EIRP for different satellites? Seeing recommendations from 5W to 25W EIRP depending on the bird. Also confused about SSB and CW operation through the 20-50 KHz transponder bandwidth - do I need to worry about adjacent channel interference like on HF?
Running FT-847 with home-brew 10el on 435 and commercial yagi on 145.