Bob Wilson

so ive been going back and forth on this for a few months now. i have a pretty flat suburban lot, maybe 60x120 feet, and right now im running a 40m dipole up about 30 feet in an inverted V configuration. it works ok but im never really sure if im leaving signal on the table compared to a vertical, especially for dx. the thing is ive read all the stuff about verticals needing a good radial system to be worth anything, and my soil out here in the midwest is supposedly decent but not amazing. i laid down 16 radials when i put up a buddipole experiment a while back and it seemed alright but nothing blew me away. a buddy of mine (kd9 something, cant remember his suffix) swears by his trap vertical for 40 and 80 and says he works eu regularly with it but hes also got like 32 radials buried. basically asking if anyone has actually done a real side by side comparison, like switching between the two antennas on the same band same conditions. not looking for antenna modeler output, ive seen the nec plots. just real world impressions from people who have actually tried both.

yeah the suffix only thing on SSB is kinda controversial but i've heard serious DXers say the same thing. if the op just needs to pull one unique string out of noise, shorter is sometimes better. that said ive also heard DX ops complain that partial calls make logging a mess so i go back and forth on it depending on how the pile sounds. my biggest improvement honestly was just getting better at copying the dx station itself. sounds obvious but i used to be so focused on when to transmit that i wasnt really listening carefully to who he was coming back to, what his pattern was, whether he was doing any kind of QSY or listening window shift. once i started treating it more like actually paying attention to the other side of the qso things clicked a lot faster. also helps to know if the DXpedition has posted an operating schedule or preferred frequencies on the cluster or their website because sometimes they shift bands at predictable times and the pileup thins way out in the first few minutes on a new band.

im in roughly the same boat tbh, been doing SO-50 for a few months and just started messing with FO-29 last week. honestly just dive in, the first few passes you wont work anyone but you'll figure out the doppler feel pretty fast. i was surprised how manageable it was just tuning by ear once i got the rough frequencies dialed in before the pass. gpredict is solid for predictions, i just use it for that and do the tuning manually for now.

I have both units and can confirm the RSP1A absolutely destroys the HackRF on receive sensitivity across VHF/UHF. The HackRF noise figure is pretty terrible without an LNA. If you're not using the TX capability, the RSP1A is a much better choice for monitoring applications.

so ive been noticing 17m and 15m have been doing some really strange things the past couple weeks. some days i wake up and the solar flux is sitting around 180 and i think ok today should be great, fire up the radio and i cant raise anything in europe to save my life. then other days flux is like 155 and im working japan and australia back to back on 100 watts. i dont totally get what im missing here. i know solar flux isnt the whole picture, the A and K index stuff matters too right? but even when those look decent it seems hit or miss. had a buddy tell me to pay more attention to what time of day i was trying and honestly that helped a little but still feels random. is there some resource you guys actually use that helps you predict when the good openings will happen or do you just kind of check the cluster and hope for the best

Just got my Tech license a month ago and I'm making my first HF contacts! I keep hearing about LoTW and eQSL for confirming QSOs digitally, but I'm really confused about which system I should use. Are they both free? Do I need both? I'd love to work toward some awards eventually but don't want to miss out on confirmations because I picked the wrong system. Also saw some mentions of QRZ logbook - is that different from these two? Any guidance from you elmers would be really appreciated!

yeah the pota/wwff crossover confusion is real, i do both and i mix up the spotters constantly. some refs are actually in both databases which makes it even more confusing but double counting the QSOs is fine as long as you log them right for each program. glad it worked out anyway, sometiems a pota hunter will work you even on a wwff spot if the bands are good haha

Go with 2m for your first EME band - the activity level makes a huge difference for learning. Yes, 70cm has better path loss characteristics, but you'll find far more patient elmers and regular activity on 144MHz. Start with digital modes like Q65 to build confidence before attempting CW.

yeah the minutes thing gets people all the time. APRS uses DDmm.mmN format which is degrees then decimal minutes, not degrees minutes seconds. so if you're used to entering coordinates as like 45 30 00 N you'd put that in as 4530.00N not 45.3000N or whatever. if those get swapped around you end up miles away from where you actually are. also double check that you have the correct hemisphere — W for west longitude is obvious but i've seen people accidentally put E and end up in Europe or somewhere. the D710 menu for position entry is a little clunky imo, easy to tab past something without realizing it.

so ive been going back and forth on this for a while now. i have an IC-7300 thats been sitting pretty much stock since i got it two years ago and ive been reading about the MARS/CAP mod to open up the TX range a bit. i know you just move a couple of jumpers inside and thats basically it but i guess my question is more about whether people have noticed any actual performance difference or if its just kind of a nice-to-have thing you do and then never use. i'm mostly an HF guy, work some 40 and 20m, occasionally play around on 17. not doing any MARS or EMCOMM work right now but i kind of like the idea of having the flexibility if i ever need it. also i heard some people do this just to allow slight out-of-band tuning which can matter when you're near a band edge and the rig starts limiting power. is that actually a thing or am i misremembering something i read on eham. and yes i know it voids the warranty, mine is way out of warranty anyway so thats not a concern. just want to hear from people who've actually done it rather than the usual "consult your local regulations" type responses

on my Silverado I used the factory grommet on the drivers side, there was already a small hole in it from the factory where nothing was routed. I took a coat hanger, heated the tip slightly and just poked through. ran my PL-259 end through first. worked great, put some self-amalgamating tape around it after to keep moisture out. honestly the grommet route is the way to go if you can find one with space. just take your time and feel around in there with a flashlight before you commit. some trucks have a plastic plug thats separate from the main grommet too, worth checking both sides.

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, took forever to pick a summit because i kept second guessing the difficulty rating and whether my legs could handle it with a full pack. ended up doing a pretty easy one just to get the feel for it. brought my ft-818 and a linked dipole i built from some youtube video and honestly the whole setup worked way better than i expected the bad part was i forgot to check the alerts page so literally nobody was expecting me and i had to call CQ for like 20 minutes before i got my first contact. felt like forever on a cold hillside. eventually got my 4 QSOs and called it but man i need to figure out that whole self spotting thing before next time

yeah i did almost exactly this about two years ago, ran into the same questions. the cheap relay boards are fine electrically but you might want to pot them or at least keep the arduino physically away from the RF path. mine caused zero interference but i also have the control box mounted outside next to the switch box and the arduino is inside a grounded metal enclosure i cobbled together from an old project box. the serial run to the shack is cat5 which works fine. as for pi vs arduino — honestly i ended up moving to a pi zero W for exactly the reason you said, the web interface thing is really useful especially when youre in the middle of a pileup and dont want to mess with anything else. flask makes it stupid easy to throw together a basic antenna selector page. i can pull it up on my phone or any browser in the house. only real downside is the pi takes 30 seconds to boot if power gets interrupted, arduino is instant on which matters if you have a UPS situation or something. one thing i wish i had done from the start is put some coax relays in there instead of just switching the feedline grounds with the relay board logic. depends on your power level though, if youre running barefoot or low power the module relays are probably fine.

This is so true - I made this mistake early on and accidentally interrupted a traffic net. Now I always listen for a full minute, especially on HF where weak signals might not be immediately obvious. On HF, lower your squelch to make sure there isn't a weak conversation going on, or ask 'Is this frequency in use?'

so ive been running a flat top 40m dipole for a couple years now, center at about 35 feet with the ends drooping a bit because my yard just isnt big enough to keep it fully horizontal. basically turning into an inverted V anyway but not on purpose. got me thinking whether i should just commit to an actual inverted V with the apex higher and let the ends come down at a proper angle instead of this half-baked compromise im dealing with now. the thing is my tallest support is a pine tree at maybe 45 feet, so if i pull the center up there and run the legs out at like 45 degrees im wondering how much i lose in terms of the lower angle radiation versus just fighting to keep the flat top as flat as i can. i do mostly domestic stuff on 40, some casual contesting, not really chasing DX hard so the low angle stuff matters less to me i think. anybody actually done a side by side or modeled this out? i messed around in EZNEC a while back but i dont really trust my own inputs enough to draw conclusions from it

just got my tech ticket last month and im in the middle of doing almost the exact same thing in my jeep so this is really helpful to read. i was also just using the cig lighter plug because i didnt want to run wires but i guess i should just do it right. did you use any kind of split loom or conduit for the wire run to the battery or just ran it bare?

this is actually what got me interested in getting my general and doing more than just local repeater stuff. i went to one of these exercises as kind of an observer before i upgraded and watching the experienced operators handle all that pressure was honestly intimidating but also really cool to see. i guess my question reading your post is how do you even get plugged into the ARES group in your area? i registered on the arrl site a while back but never really heard anything back from anyone locally. maybe i'm doing something wrong

welcome to the addiction haha. seriously though 12 contacts on your first activation with an antenna you were fighting the whole time is actually pretty solid. dont sweat the SWR too much, the KX2s tuner is pretty forgiving and honestly a lot of hunters will dig you out even if your signal isnt perfect. for the dry ground thing a lot of people just go with more radials, like even 4 or 5 short ones laid on the ground helps more than you'd think. i also started bringing a small piece of chicken wire i can lay flat under the feedpoint which sounds ridiculous but it actually works. the other thing i'd say is just get comfortable with the self-spotting workflow before you go out, because fumbling with the phone while trying to tune and log is real and it trips people up. sounds like you figured it out though. what parks are near you? there might be some easier antenna situations than what you dealt with

yeah this happened to me too when i first got my tech license. turns out i had the menu set to TSQ instead of just T. TSQ means your radio only opens up when it hears that tone from the repeater, but T just transmits the tone which is what you want for repeater access. check your manual for the difference between tone encode and tone squelch. you probably want just tone encode turned on

I'm torn between these two rigs for my POTA setup. The IC-705 seems perfect for backpack portable with its small size and VHF/UHF coverage, but the 10W limit worries me for weak band conditions. The FT-891 gives me 100W on HF which should punch through better, but it's heavier and no VHF coverage. Those of you who've used both - which has worked better for getting your 10 contacts? Does the extra power of the 891 make a real difference, or is 10W from the 705 usually enough with a decent antenna?

had basically the same issue last year. turned out my SSID was conflicting with another mobile station in the area running the same callsign-9. aprs.fi was showing the other guy and my packets were getting dropped as dupes by the igate. changed to -7 and suddenly i started showing up consistently. probably not your exact problem but worth at least pulling up aprs.fi and checking if there's another station with your callsign anywhere nearby doing something weird.

i went through this exact same thing like 6 weeks ago, had my tech for almost a year and finally just decided to go for it. took me maybe 3 weeks of studying, maybe less. the electrical theory questions are the ones i had to actually look up and understand a bit because just memorizing felt wrong to me but you can totally just memorize them if you want and still pass one thing i wasnt expecting is how much of the exam is about operating rules and band privileges, like which frequencies you can use as a general vs extra, that stuff. its not hard its just a lot to keep straight. passed with an 85 i think been on 40m almost every evening since and its honestly addicting, made contacts with a guy in Germany last week just running like 50 watts into a dipole in my backyard. definitely worth doing

im still on 40 most nights lol. 7.255 area usually. maybe we just keep missing eachother. conditions have been kinda up and down since that big solar flux spike last month, my noise floor went nuts for like three days and i basically gave up for a while

i was in the exact same spot like six months ago and i remember that first check-in feeling. for nets i ended up just lurking on a few different repeaters at different times until i stumbled on ones that were active, kind of old fashioned way of doing it but it worked. there's also an app called repeaterbook that sometimes has notes about nets tied to specific repeaters which helped me a bit. the special event thing is really fun once you get into it. i worked a handful during field day weekend and a few lighthouse ones and its a good way to just get comfortable making contacts without the pressure of a big contest pileup or whatever.

yeah messaging on APRS is kind of the unloved stepchild of the whole system lol. works great when it works but theres so many places it can fall apart. one thing i ran into on my D710 was that i had the TNC set to the wrong mode, think it was in kiss mode or something from when i was experimenting with a raspberry pi setup and i never put it back properly. radio was beaconing fine because that was going through a different path but the message handling was all messed up. also just generally RF congestion can kill acks, if your packet collides enough times the remote station just gives up retrying. not much you can do about that except maybe try a shorter path if youre in a busy area