John Williams

Are you using proper decoupling capacitors on the Si5351 power pins? Also, make sure you have adequate shielding between the VFO and receiver sections. Sometimes a simple metal partition helps immensely.

Made that exact change last year on my 43-foot vertical. Elevated four radials at 12 feet, each cut for quarter-wave on 40m. The difference was immediately noticeable - quieter noise floor and lower ground losses. S-meter readings from my regular nets improved by about 1/2 to 1 S-unit, and several DX stations commented on cleaner audio. The elevated system definitely reduced ground coupling effects.

HackRF guy here, i'll be the other side of this. got mine mainly because i wanted to experiment with transmitting low power stuff and do some replay testing on my own systems (garage door opener type stuff, nothing sketchy). for that its awesome. but if you just want to listen, honestly the SDRplay wins on receive quality, the HackRF noise figure isnt its strong suit. one thing nobody mentions enough is the software side — SDRuno is tied to SDRplay obviously but if you want to use the HackRF with SDR# or GQRX or whatever its pretty painless. both work fine with GNU Radio if you ever go down that rabbit hole which... fair warning, you will lose a weekend.

so ive been running an inverted V for 40m for about two years now, apex at maybe 35 feet off a single mast in the backyard. works okay but ive always wondered if i'm leaving something on the table by not having a flat top dipole. the thing is getting both ends up to 35 feet is basically impossible where im at — trees on one side, house on the other, and my wife already thinks the yard looks like a radio shack exploded out there. i did read somewhere that the inverted V has a slightly higher angle of radiation which isnt great for DX but honestly most of what i work is domestic stuff, some ragchews into canada and the caribbean. so maybe it doesnt matter that much for what im actually doing. the SWR is pretty flat across most of the band with a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint which surprised me a bit when i first put it up. anyone actually done a side by side comparison or have some real world experience with this? not looking for antenna modeling software answers, i can run EZNEC myself, more curious what people actually noticed on the air

the rhythm thing is real, 100%. took me forever to figure that out. i used to just throw my call out every time the DX came back to someone and it was basically useless. now i actually sit on a specific frequency in the split and wait, and yeah sometimes it takes a while but when it clicks it feels obvious in hindsight. the 40m EU interference problem is rough and honestly i dont think theres a great answer unless you have a really good directional antenna. ive got a 4-square for 40 and pointing it southeast helps a lot but the sheer number of european stations calling makes it a mess a lot of the time. tail-ending works sometimes if the band cooperates but its hit or miss. honestly sometimes walking away and trying again in a different part of the gray line window is the move rather than bashing away for two hours.

Using the Fair-Rite core in my POTA setup with excellent results. No saturation issues even during contest weekends running digital modes. The smaller form factor fits perfectly in a 3x2x1 enclosure versus needing the bulky 4x4x2 box.

I went through this exact thing last spring. ended up building a simple painters pole mast on the far end and it works ok but the inverted V was honestly fine. the main thing I noticed going flat was 80m seemed to open up a bit more consistently, 40 i couldnt really tell a difference with my ears. take that for what its worth, im not running any fancy measurement gear just a swr meter and opinions

Yeah this happened to me too with a kit i built last year. turned out the voltage regulator was getting warm and wasting power even though everything seemed normal. might want to check if anything is running hotter than it should be. also some of these qrp rigs have pretty optimistic power consumption specs from the manufacturer

so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about cw and how great it is and i want to learn but every time i look it up i get totally different advice and i dont know where to start. some people say learn with a straight key, some say paddle right away, some say dont even touch a key until you can copy in your head. theres like a million apps and websites and i have no idea which ones are actually good vs just whatever comes up first in google. i can recognize maybe like 5 letters but that took me forever and im not even sure i learned them the right way. does anyone have a method that actually worked for them, like a specific order to learn the letters or something

oh man i was in the exact same spot like a year ago. what finally got me started was just picking one net and committing to checking in every week even if i just gave my callsign and signal report and said nothing else. after a few weeks the net control started recognizing my call and it felt way less intimidating. the 10-10 nets on 28.380 or so are fun if 10 meters is open, and theres usually some activity on 14.300 area when conditions are decent. but honestly just google your state plus "amateur radio net schedule" and you'll probably find a local or regional one that meets on 40 or 80 and thats probably the easiest starting point. special event stations are a different thing but once you get comfortable on nets those are fun to hunt down too

was in the same boat not that long ago lol. the 10m phone segment is where i spent most of my time before i upgraded, when the band is open its actually pretty fun. just watch where you're transmitting and you'll be fine, nobody's going to come after you for an honest mistake as a new licensee as long as youre not doing something obviously wrong repeatedly

honestly the "always use phonetics" advice is good when youre starting out because it just avoids confusion, especially on HF where conditions can make calls hard to copy. on a local 2m repeater with people you talk to every week yeah most folks just say their call normally because everyone already knows who you are. as for mixing up the words, nobody is going to yell at you over it. the whole point is clarity so if you blank on Golf and say George instead the world isnt going to end. that said its worth just drilling the standard ones because after a while they become totally automatic and you stop thinking about it. i used to stumble on November and Uniform for some reason but now i dont even think about it. just takes time.

so i've been working on a direct conversion receiver for 40m for probably the last three months, mostly following the Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur book with a few mods i found on some blog i can't find anymore. got it mostly working last weekend and i can actually hear SSB which is pretty exciting for a first build. the problem is there's this persistent hum in the audio that i can't seem to kill. it's there whether the antenna is connected or not and it doesn't really change with the volume control which makes me think it's getting in after the audio amp stage or maybe the power supply is just garbage. i'm running it off a wall wart right now, one of those old switching ones i had lying around. probably the problem right there honestly. sensitivity seems decent, i can hear plenty of stations but the hum is pretty annoying on weak signals. anyone dealt with this on a DC receiver build? i've tried adding some filter caps across the supply rails but it didn't really help much. wondering if i need to just build a linear regulator board for it or if there's something else i should be checking first.

Every ham should have a multimeter and know how to use it. Multimeter use is a practical skill not only for ham radio but also around the house for general power and wiring work. I'm upgrading my test bench and considering whether to invest in a quality DMM or stick with my old analog VOM. Two basic types of multimeters are used in amateur radio work: Analog and digital. Old-school analog meters feature a needle which moves over a reference scale and require visual interpretation of the value. These work well for a few applications such as when the signal being monitored is changing, as the moving needle highlights the change. For general troubleshooting of modern solid-state rigs, what are the advantages of each type? You can trace many station problems to those signals and settings, often without using any test equipment more sophisticated than a voltmeter.

congrats. dont worry too much about the callsign thing, everyody forgets at first. once it becomes habit you wont even think about it. whats your setup right now, just the baofeng or did you get a proper radio yet?

I'm getting unexpected SWR readings on my new Diamond X510HDM collinear. At 2 meters I'm seeing 2.1:1 at 146.520 and 1.8:1 at 147.000, which seems high for this antenna. At 70cm it's closer to spec at 1.4:1 around 445 MHz. Has anyone experienced similar issues with the X510HDM? I'm using RG-8X with proper PL-259 connectors, antenna is mounted at 25 feet on a push-up mast with good ground radials. The installation looks clean and weatherproofing is proper. Any thoughts on what might be causing the elevated 2M SWR?

100ah lithium should honestly last longer than a few hours with an 857 unless you're running it wide open on transmit constantly, whats your typical duty cycle looking like? if you're doing a lot of net check-ins and monitoring it should stretch pretty far. that said yeah for 24hr you want charging capability regardless. i just use a 30 amp shore power style setup with a good charger and run off grid solar when i can but generators make more sense for a lot of activations especially in wooded areas or bad weather. cant really comment on the predator specifically but ive heard mixed things. one guy in our section had one and said he returned it after one field day because of the noise but another dude uses one all the time with no complaints so who knows, setup probably matters a lot

1.4:1 on 40m is totally fine, honestly dont overthink that part. most rigs will tune that without even blinking and the losses are negligible. the inverted-v will shift resonance a bit lower compared to a flat dipole yeah, closer spacing of the ends changes the effective electrical length slightly. if your resonant dip is at 7.080 and you want it around 7.150-7.200 for general use, trim a few inches off each leg at a time and recheck. go slow, easier to take off than add back. as for weatherproofing, do NOT skip it in the PNW. electrical tape alone will eventually wick moisture and you'll wonder why your SWR went weird in six months. self amalgamating tape is the way to go, wrap the coax connection good and it'll last years. coax seal is fine too but gets messy. i just do a layer of self-amalg and call it done.

the bandpass filter isolation question is actually the thing that bit me worst when I first tried SO2R. I had what I thought was decent isolation but I was getting enough IMD from the second transmitter that my receive audio on the run radio was getting crunchy during exchanges and I was copying calls wrong which killed my rate way more than any strategy mistake. worth doing a proper isolation test before your next contest if you havent, just key up one radio and listen carefully on the other at various power levels. you want at least 60-70dB between them depending on band separation. on your actual question about when it helps — i think the honest answer is it depends a lot on your antenna situation more than your operating speed. if your antennas have really different takeoff angles or youre on bands that have genuinely different propagation windows then the second radio is finding contacts that just arent available on your run band at all. thats free points. if youre basically pointing two similar antennas at similar paths then yeah you're mostly just making your life harder

finally going to try my first summit tomorrow morning. got my ft-817nd and a 20m dipole, extra battery pack, logbook etc. been looking at W6/SC-001 since its only about an hour drive and not too crazy of a hike. im probably overthinking this but what obvious thing am i going to forget that will make me kick myself? also do you really need to stay for the full 30 minutes or can you pack up once you get your 4 contacts?

so i finally dragged myself out to do my first SOTA activation last weekend, W4V/SH-002 if anyone knows the area. packed way too much gear like an idiot, ended up hauling a full sized dipole, the kx2, spare batteries, the whole mess. took me forever to get up there and by the time i set up i only had maybe 40 minutes before i had to head back down because my buddy wasnt feeling the hike anymore lol managed to get 6 contacts on 40m and scraped together one more on 20 to qualify but it was close. the dipole kept sagging on one side because i forgot extra cordage and had to use my shoelace at one point. anyway it worked and i got the activation but man i really need to rethink the kit before i go back out anyone else do their first one and totally overpack? feels like everyone online makes it look so easy

so ive been playing around with DXwatch and the cluster spots on QRZ for a few weeks now and honestly im still not totally sure im using these efficiently. like i get the basic idea, someone spots a station, it shows up on the cluster, you tune there and try to work them. but theres so much noise in the spots sometimes, dupes, busted calls, spots that are like 4 hours old showing up for some reason. also on QRZ when i look at a callsign theres that little cluster activity section and sometimes it shows stuff that doesnt match what im seeing on DXwatch at all. are these pulling from different sources or is there a delay or something? i tried looking it up but couldnt find a straight answer anywhere. im running a fairly basic setup, ic-7300 into a dipole, so im not exactly a DXpedition killer here but id still like to chase some new ones when they pop up. any tips on how you guys actually use these tools day to day would be really appreciated. maybe im overthinking it

oh man do NOT be intimidated by CQ WW, seriously it is one of the best experiences you can have even with a modest setup. yeah the bands get absolutely packed and the big gun stations will be running pile-ups you cant break through, but just working the contest in search and pounce mode is totally valid and you will rack up contacts and new countries faster than almost anything else you can do. your 7300 and a dipole on 40m will do just fine, 40m during CQ WW is wall to wall signals from everywhere. the thing i tell people new to contesting is just to not stress about your score, especially the first time. just get on, work what you can hear, log it all, and submit your log even if its small. every log submission helps with cross-checking for the big ops. and yeah SOTA is its own separate thing, more of an award program slash operating activity than a traditional contest but there are SOTA specific events like activator weekends that come up. check the SOTA reflector for that stuff. but for your first real contest season id say CQ WW SSB is probably end of october, then CQ WW CW in november if you're into that, and SS is in there too. plenty to keep you busy. just get on and have fun with it

yeah the latency thing with RCForb is something you kind of just have to accept to a point. 15 up should be plenty, i run my remote on a 12mb connection without too many issues. the bigger culprit in my experience is usually jitter not raw bandwidth, especially on wifi at both ends. if you can hardwire at least the home server end you'll notice a difference pretty quick. for the buffer settings open the server configuration and look under the audio tab, theres a slider for buffer size and i keep mine down around 100ms which helps a lot. going lower than that gets sketchy depending on how stable your connection is. also make sure you're not running any other heavy traffic on that home machine while you're connected, even background windows updates can mess things up more than you'd expect. honestly for digital modes i just use a separate RDP session into the shack PC and run WSJT-X that way, the RemoteHams audio path adds complexity you dont really need for FT8 since you're not monitoring in real time anyway

yeah totally comes with time, dont stress it. honestly most folks have a cheat sheet somewhere near the rig when they first start, nothing wrong with that. i had one taped to my desk for probably the first six months and now i dont even think about it. as for when to use phonetics, the general idea is you use them when there might be confusion or the signal isnt great. like if someone asks for your call and conditions are clear you might just say the letters but if theres any qrm or youre not sure they got it right, phonetics are the way to go. on a lot of nets they just expect phonetics for callsigns as a matter of habit because it avoids having to repeat yourself. some letters are just really hard to distinguish on the air, b and d and e and g especially