David Park

yeah 10m has been like that all season honestly, dont get too frustrated by it. what youre describing with the Japan contact and then the band dying is actually pretty classic for sporadic-E combined with F2 propagation at this point in the cycle. they can stack sometimes and give you these incredible short windows that feel almost random. the solar flux thing is real though -- anything above like 150 and 10m starts getting interesting, but the K-index matters just as much if not more. if the K-index spikes above 4 or 5 after a CME, all bets are off and even a high flux day can be garbage for DX. i usually check both before i sit down for a session. DXmaps.com is also really useful for seeing in real time where the openings actually are instead of just guessing from the indices. that qrp Japan contact is seriously impressive by the way, save that one in your log and brag about it a little, you earned it.

yeah the UDP thing in WSJT-X is the way to go, works with basically everything including N1MM. in N1MM you go into the config and enable the secondary radio UDP broadcast i think, or maybe its under the WSJT-X specific settings, been a while since i set it up. once its going the spots just appear in N1MM in real time during the contest which is honestly great for the assisted categories. but honest opinion for non-contest use N1MM is kind of clunky. its not bad its just clearly not designed with everyday rag chew logging in mind. ive heard good things about Log4OM but never used it myself so cant really compare directly

yeah 12 miles on 2m shouldnt be the issue at all, sounds like a TNC config thing like the other guy said. one thing i dont see mentioned - are you running split frequencies or simplex? some of those local RMS nodes are on odd splits and if your offset is even slightly wrong you might be getting into the gateway but its not quite hearing you clean enough to hold the session together the whole way through. just worth double checking the exact freq and offset in Winlink Express matches what the RMS is actually on, the Winlink maps arent always 100% current on the technical details.

yeah that band-specific power drop usually points to either the LPF switching or something in the driver chain. the 857 uses switched low pass filters for different bands and if one of those relays is corroded or not fully seating you can get weird insertion loss on just that band. worth pulling the covers and checking if the relay for the 40m LPF is actually clicking when you transmit — you can usually hear them with everything quiet. if the relay checks out then id be looking at the pre-driver stage, there's a small transistor in the exciter board that can degrade and lose gain in a specific frequency range, its not super common but it does happen especially in rigs that have seen a lot of use or been transported a lot. do you have a service manual? the Yaesu one for the 857D is actually pretty good for tracing the signal path. check the voltages on the PA board while youre in there too, a drooping supply rail on just that section would also do this.

I'm upgrading my satellite station for serious linear transponder work and need reliable computer control for my IC-9100. Currently torn between SatPC32 (which can control both radio and rotator) and Gpredict (which uses Hamlib for rig/rotor control). My main concern is accurate Doppler compensation during passes. Linear transponders require simultaneous frequency adjustments - decreasing uplink while increasing downlink as satellite approaches. I've heard SatPC32's UI doesn't scale well on high-resolution monitors but it seems purpose-built for this application. Anyone running either package with an IC-9100 for linear birds? Looking for real-world experience with tracking accuracy and CAT control reliability.

the CW latency thing is just kind of a reality with any IP-based control setup, doesnt matter how fat your pipe is, jitter is the killer not raw bandwidth. what codec are you using for the audio path? if youre on something like OPUS try bumping the bitrate and lowering the frame size, smaller frames means less buffering and the jitter gets a bit more predictable. some guys also just use a keyer at the remote end and send timing data instead of actual audio which helps a lot but thats more complicated to set up on the SDR integration question i got HDSDR working alongside RemoteHams on my station using virtual audio cable to pipe the IQ stream around but honestly its a bit of a house of cards, if one thing crashes it tends to take everything with it. the built in waterfall in RemoteHams isnt amazing but its stable and for remote ops i kinda value stable over pretty

Pro tip: Listen to the repeater during commute hours (morning/evening) when it's most active. Jump in with "KC1XYZ monitoring" when there's a lull in conversation. Local hams love helping new folks and will probably ask about your setup and how long you've been licensed. You've got this!

im kind of in the same boat as you, started about 6 months ago and just recently broke through the 13wpm mark which felt huge. one thing that actually helped me a lot besides lcwo was just listening to actual qsos on the air even when i could only catch maybe 30% of it. something about real cw with real fists is different than the computer generated stuff and i think it helped my brain adapt. there are some good websdr frequencies where you can just tune around and listen. also someone on here recommended just.learn.morse i think its called, or maybe it was morse mania, one of those phone apps where you practice common words instead of random letter strings. once i started doing that my copying speed jumped pretty noticeably because i wasnt processing every letter anymore, just recognizing whole chunks at once. might be worth trying if you havent already

Gordon West Extra book plus Ham Radio Prep app worked great for me. Actually learn the material instead of just memorizing - too many operators just memorize and it shows on the air. The theory might seem heavy but it really helps you understand what's happening in your circuits.

My trusty Kenwood TS-590 is giving me fits - getting full 100W output on 6 meters but only ~60W on all HF bands. Power supply shows steady 13.8V on the meter, but I suspect voltage drop under TX load. Has anyone else encountered this classic TS-590 power feed problem? I'm measuring 13.68V at the rig during 40m transmit, which seems marginal for the finals. Planning to check fuse holders and power pole connectors next, but wondering if there are other common culprits in the DC feed path.

Planning my first moonbounce attempt with a single M2 20EL 2M7 Yagi (14.8 dBic) and 400W into a 0.5 dB NF preamp. Running IC-9700 with WSJT-X using JT65 mode designed specifically for EME. Question: Is 80W setup with 12-15 dBi Yagi really adequate for JT65 contacts, or should I bump up to 800W? Also, any recommendations for sky noise monitoring to keep below 500°K during passes?

so ive been doing contests for a few years now, mostly CQWW and SS, running single op on 100w with a tribander and a wire for 40/80. consistently getting somewhere in the 500-800 QSO range for a full weekend effort which i know isnt spectacular but im happy with it. been reading a lot about SO2R lately and wondering if its actually worth setting up for someone at my level or if im better off just focusing on rate optimization on a single radio first. my main bottleneck honestly seems to be the times when i finish a run frequency and the band goes dead on me — i end up spending like 10-15 minutes just SandP-ing around trying to find a new run spot or a new mult. i figure thats where a second radio would help but the filtering and interference issues between two rigs running simultaneously seems like a whole rabbit hole i dont want to fall into without knowing if its actually going to move the needle. anyone gone through this decision point? did SO2R actually improve your scores meaningfully or did you spend more time managing the setup than operating

If a station exhibited this type of signal over the course of a contest or generated complaints from participants, it could be subject to disqualification. You're borderline but not terrible. Try reducing COMP to level 1 or 2 and remeasure. The SM-30 is a good mic for that rig.

so ive had this 857 for about 6 years, bought it used and it's been rock solid until maybe a month ago. started noticing weak signals on 20m that i was previously hearing just fine, at first i thought it was band conditions but its definitely the radio. checked the antenna with my analyzer and SWR looks normal, tried a dummy load just to rule things out and the issue persists. transmit power on all bands reads what it should on my wattmeter so the PA seems okay. the weird part is HF is noticeably worse but VHF/UHF on the same radio seems about the same as it always was. like 2m sounds fine. so im thinking its something in the HF receive chain specifically. i poked around a bit looking for anything obviously wrong, no burnt smell, no visible component damage. havent touched the front end yet because i dont want to make things worse without a plan. anyone dealt with something like this on a 857 or similar yaesu? wondering if the RF amp stage or maybe one of the band pass filter relays could be the culprit. i have a decent bench setup, analog and digital meters, soldering station, but im not experienced enough to know where to probe first without a schematic roadmap.

i was in the exact same spot about 8 months ago and ended up going with the baofeng uv-k5 which is a slightly newer one and i think it was like 30 bucks. its been fine for hitting repeaters, i got chirp set up after watching a youtube video and had all my local ones programmed in an afternoon. no complaints really for what i paid. flat area should be fine, line of sight matters more than anything and most repeaters are up on towers or hills anyway so youll probably reach more than you think with even 4-5 watts

I'm comparing two portable setups for SOTA activations and would like some input from operators with field experience. Currently using a quarter-wave vertical with four radials on 20 meters, but considering switching to a vertical dipole (center-fed) to eliminate ground plane requirements. The vertical GP has been solid, but laying radials on rocky summits is a pain. Has anyone done A/B comparisons between these two configurations at similar heights? I'm particularly interested in real-world performance differences and setup time considerations.

yeah wind is the enemy out there, i've had activations where i just gave up on a linked dipole entirely and went with a random wire and a 9:1 unun just to get something in the air fast. not as efficient but when its 40 degrees and gusting you just wanna get your 4 contacts and get off the hill. 6 contacts is solid for a first activation honestly, some people struggle to get to 4. what summit did you do?

yeah im going, got a table reserved already actually. bringing a ton of stuff i need to get rid of, some old coax, a couple handhelds that work fine just dont use em anymore, maybe an old MFJ tuner. the breakfast thing i think is still on but you might wanna check the clubs website cause last year the time changed and a bunch of people missed it including me lol

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, summit was only a 4 pointer but the hike nearly killed me because i packed way too much gear. brought the ft-818 plus the 857 as a backup (why did i do this to myself), full size dipole, about 400 feet of coax i never even used, a folding chair, food for like 3 days... it was a 2 mile hike and i was dying by the time i got to the top. anyway once i got set up i only had like 45 mins before a storm rolled in so i was rushing around trying to get the antenna up with a fishing pole and the whole thing just kept falling over. managed to get 6 contacts on 40m SSB which technically counts but i was hoping for way more. had to pack up fast and hike out in the rain. next time im bringing just the 818 and an endfed and thats it

Trying to configure my RTL-SDR dongle with RemoteHams server and RCForb Client software for receive-only remote operations. Sdr radio talks "ts2000" code on comport but having issues getting the virtual CAT interface to work properly with the server setup. Anyone successfully integrated RTL-SDR with RemoteHams? Looking at the manual but the radio selection dropdown doesn't show RTL-SDR as an option. Virtual Remote uses a dummy radio but need proper frequency control.

so I've been doing POTA for about a year now and someone at our club mentioned WWFF last month and i finally looked into it properly this week. seems like a really cool program and theres actually a designated nature reserve about 20 minutes from my house that has a WWFF reference (KFF I think? or maybe it's the international one, still figuring out the numbering system tbh). anyway im planning my first activation for next saturday, planning to run SSB on 40m with maybe some 20m if conditions look decent. I've done maybe 30 POTA activations so the operating side doesn't scare me too much but WWFF seems to have some different rules around the logging and submission process and im not totally sure how it all works. do i need to pre-announce it somewhere specific, or can i just show up and operate and submit the log after? also is the 44 QSO requirement real or did i misread that any tips from folks who've done both POTA and WWFF would be really appreciated, especially if theres anything that tripped you up the first time

so ive been using N1MM pretty much since i got my ticket a few years back, mostly because thats what the club guys told me to use for contests and i just never switched away from it for everyday logging either. it works fine but honestly the interface feels like its from 2003 and i keep hearing people talk about Log4OM like its way more modern and easier to deal with for day to day stuff. main thing im wondering about is how it plays with WSJT-X. right now my setup is N1MM running alongside WSJT-X and they talk to each other okay through the UDP broadcast thing but it took me like two weekends to get it configured right and i still dont fully understand why it works. does Log4OM handle that integration any cleaner or is it gonna be the same headache just with a different interface? also for contests, i know N1MM is basically the gold standard and i wouldnt switch that out, but does anyone run Log4OM for everyday and then just fire up N1MM when a contest weekend comes around? seems like it could get messy with duplicate checking across two different log files unless theres a way to sync them that i dont know about.

40 miles to a 2m gateway is pushing it depending on terrain, thats not nothing. I'd honestly fire up the RMS gateway map and see if theres anything closer or maybe look at whether the gateway you're hitting has any notes on it — some of them are running on questionable hardware or have known issues and nobody's updated the listing. Also check if that node even shows recent activity, sometimes they're listed but basically dead. For what its worth I had a similar headache when I first set up and it turned out I had the wrong COM port selected for PTT, the radio was keying but with like a 200ms delay and the gateway was already done waiting. Stupid thing to miss but it took me forever to figure out. ARDOP is way more forgiving of timing weirdness than VARA in my experience even if it's slower.

I've been using the IC-705 for SOTA activations all year. The goal is to have a backpack portable station that can cover HF through 70 cm on the most popular bands and modes including CW, SSB, FM and FT8. The LDG tuner adds about 8 oz but gives you so much flexibility with wire antennas.

yeah i was in the exact same spot like a year ago lol. just do it, worst case you step on someone and say oops. the people running these local nets are usually pretty patient with new folks checking in for the first time. i remember the first time i checked in my voice was all shaky and i forgot to give my grid square when this particular net asks for it and the NCS guy just asked me again real calm like, no big deal. just jump in next week