John Anderson

the birdie at 1050 is almost certainly what you think it is - LO feedthrough or a mixing product getting back into somewhere it shouldnt. copper tape over cardboard is gonna do basically nothing for RF shielding at 10.7 MHz, you really need a proper tin or copper box. even a cut up sardine can soldered together works better than tape on cardboard. worth spending a weekend fabbing something real before chasing anything else because you wont really know what youre looking at until the shielding is sorted. on the ceramic filters - yes the impedance matching absolutely matters. most of those surplus 455 filters want to see something like 330 to 2k ohms depending on the type and if youre just dropping them inline without matching networks youre gonna get insertion loss and the passband shape will be all wrong. look up the part number if you can find any markings and see what the datasheet says. murata used to have good docs on their old filters even the discontinued ones. if you cant find specs just try a few different termination resistor values and see what sounds best on a known station, its not super scientific but it gets you in the ballpark.

i tried something similar a couple years back with a different remote software and honestly the SDR side of it was what impressed me most — being able to just grab a slice of spectrum and look at whats happening before you transmit is kind of a game changer when youre doing this remotely and cant just walk over and check the antenna or whatever. my setup never got fully stable but that was more a networking issue on my end than anything with the software itself i think. one thing i'll say is make sure whatever router is out at your dad's place supports proper QoS if you do add the linking node. nothing worse than your echolink audio eating your rig's audio path during a pileup lol

yeah the docs are kind of a mess if you don't already know what you're doing, which is pretty ironic. ok so to answer your main question — you do NOT need to run your own RMS gateway just to use Winlink. You're the client, you connect to gateways other people are already running. Think of it like wifi, you dont need to run a hotspot just to browse the internet. For the session types: Pactor is the old reliable but you need a dedicated modem (SCS or similar) which costs real money. Winmor is basically deprecated at this point, dont bother. VARA HF is what you want, it's software based so your Signalink handles it, and the free version works fine to start though the paid version does improve throughput. With an IC-7300 and Signalink you're actually well set up for this, better than a lot of people starting out. What you do is open Winlink Express, go to Session, pick VARA HF, then it'll scan for nearby gateways or you can pick one manually from the channel list. Just make sure your audio levels are set right on the Signalink or you'll get all kinds of weird issues. The RF power on the 7300 I usually set pretty conservatively, like 25-30 watts, don't need to blast it.

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about chasing DXCC and WAS and WAZ and honestly i thought i had a handle on it but the more i read the more confused i get. like i understand DXCC is working 100 countries (entities i guess?) but then someone on the repeater told me not all contacts count the same way depending on band and mode and now my head is spinning. i worked a guy in Japan last week on 20m SSB and i was pretty excited about that, but now im wondering if i need to be logging stuff differently or submitting something somewhere or what. do you have to use LoTW for all of this or can you still do paper QSLs? and is there like a priority order people usually go after these awards or do most people just pick one and focus on it also does starting DXCC automatically mean youre working toward WAS at the same time or are those tracked completely separately. sorry if these are dumb questions im just trying to figure out where to even start

i tried SO2R for the first time in cqww last year and tbh i made a mess of it lol. had two radios going but i kept losing my run frequency on radio 1 because i was so focused on tuning around on radio 2 that i forgot to keep sending CQ. ended up just turning the second radio off halfway through and going back to single radio. probably cost me more QSOs than it made me. think the lesson for me was you really have to practice the divided attention thing outside of a contest first, like just get comfortable monitoring two bands casually before you try to do it competitively. also footswitch for PTT is kind of mandatory if youre doing phone, you cant be reaching for two different transmit buttons under pressure. anyway your instinct about the dead air is probably right, that was my problem too before anything else

yeah what the previous person said is pretty much it. also just worth knowing that stepping on someone occasionally is not a big deal, everyone does it and net controls are generally pretty patient people. the ones running nets have heard it all and they're usually happy to have new folks checking in. one thing i'd add is if you do accidentally double with someone just wait, let the other station finish and then try again when net control asks if there were any additional check-ins, they almost always do a second call at the end. i've been doing this 12 years and still occasionally misjudge the timing on a busy net night

so this has been driving me absolutely nuts for the past couple weeks. my 7300 randomly drops TX power mid-over, like ill be 100 watts one second and then just nothing, not even a carrier, and then it comes back. sometimes its just a split second dip, other times it cuts out for maybe 2-3 seconds and comes back on its own. doesnt seem to matter what band im on, had it happen on 40 and 20 both, and also doesnt seem related to SWR cause the antenna hasnt changed and the meter looks fine right before it happens. first thing i suspected was the PA finals doing something thermal so i cracked the lid and ran it for a while watching with my infrared thermometer, nothing looks obviously wrong, temps seem normal. also swapped the power cable and checked all the connectors at the back cause i figured maybe a bad connection somewhere, no change. the radio was fine for two years and just started doing this out of nowhere which is what makes me think its not a design issue, something has actually changed or is failing. anyone dealt with anything like this before? im kind of at a loss for next steps without just throwing it at Icom service which id rather not do if i can help it.

i tried running both for a while and eventually just got frustrated keeping them in sync so i went back to N1MM for everything including the digital stuff. the WSJT-X integration in N1MM actually works fine once you get the UDP port set right, i think a lot of people trip over that initial setup and then assume its broken when its just a config thing. granted the UI is not pretty and if youre coming at it fresh Log4OM probably feels more modern. but for me contest muscle memory matters and i didnt want two different workflows in my head.

yeah that opening was something else, i saw spots coming in on the cluster around 1400z and jumped on — worked about 30 countries in maybe 90 minutes which is just crazy for a Tuesday afternoon. propagation has been genuinely excellent this fall, pskreporter is lighting up like christmas on 10 and 12m almost every day now. feels like 2001 all over again for those of us who remember that peak. on the FT-710, ive had mine since spring and overall im pretty happy with it. the main thing i noticed compared to my old FT-991A is the dynamic range is noticeably better in contests when everyones piled up close together. one thing that bugged me early on was the menu system takes a little getting used to but after a few weeks it becomes second nature. the built in ATU is decent for light work. if your buddy is coming from a mid-tier radio he'll probably really like it, if hes coming from a 7610 or something he might miss a few things

welcome to the hobby first of all, congrats on passing the tech exam. so the vanity system is a little confusing at first but once you understand the group structure it makes more sense. basically callsigns are divided into groups A through D based on license class — group A is for extras with short 1x2 or 2x1 calls, group B is for extras and advanced class with 1x3 calls, group C is for general class 1x3 calls, and group D is for technicians and novices which gets you a 1x3 in your district. since you're a tech right now you can apply for group D calls, which yes are the 1x3 format you probably already have. so if you want a shorter or more memorable call you'd need to upgrade to at least general to open up more options. that said if there's a specific 1x3 call in your area that you really like and its available you can absolutely apply for it now, some people do that just to get a call that's easier to say phonetically. the 18 day waiting period is still the current rule as far as I know — the FCC holds applications for 18 days and if nobody else applies for the same call during that window it gets granted. if multiple people apply for the same call it goes to whoever has the higher license class, then by date the license was issued I think. AE7XX dot info has a good vanity tracker if you want to see whats available and watch the process in real time.

im kind of in the same boat so watching this thread. i've been using the Morse Trainer app on my phone and it's fine but i feel like i need more variety. gonna try the Farnsworth thing you mentioned, never really understood what that setting was for until just now lol

honestly the best thing i ever did was just get on during the expedition's off-peak hours. sounds obvious but like if VP6R is on at 0200z and most of NA is asleep the pileup goes from impossible to just hard. i work nights sometimes so this actually helps me lol. also dont underestimate just having a decent antenna — i spent so long blaming technique when really my dipole was doing me no favors. put up a 3 element yagi last spring and suddenly i was getting through pileups i had no business getting through

okay so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, tech class, and ive been trying to figure out exactly what im allowed to do. i read through some of part 97 but honestly its kind of hard to parse if youre not used to reading legal documents or whatever they are. my main confusion is around HF. i know techs get some HF privileges but i cant figure out exactly which bands and which modes. like can i do SSB on 10 meters or is it only CW? and then someone at my club told me something about 40 meters but i thought that was general and above only. also what about digital modes, does that count separate from phone and CW privileges? i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt be, just trying to stay legal and figure this out properly before i start experimenting more. is there like a simple breakdown somewhere that isnt just the raw FCC text

you're not doing anything wrong, honestly the ID thing trips up a lot of newer folks. FCC rules say you have to ID at least every ten minutes during a communication and at the end, so you dont need to throw your callsign in every single transmission if you're going back and forth quickly. on a fast-moving net, most people just ID when they first check in and then again at the end when they sign off. net control will usually tell you if they need more than that. as for doubling, yeah it happens to everyone. if you realize you doubled with someone, just wait for them to finish, then say your call and that you had doubled with the other station and go ahead with what you needed to say. net control usually appreciates you acknowledging it rather than just barreling through. the trick with listening is to give it a good two or three seconds after you think the frequency is clear before you key up, especially on a repeater because sometimes the tail takes a second to drop. sounds like you're paying attention though, youll get the hang of it pretty quick

i missed the opening completely, was at work ugh. this is why i need a remote setup i keep saying it but never actually do anything about it lol not sure about the 710 myself im kind of waiting to see if Icom does anything new in that price range before i commit to anything. heard some rumors but who knows, theres always rumors. the IC-7300 is still such a solid benchmark its hard to know what would actually be worth upgrading to unless youre moving up to like the 7610 territory

interesting, i have an 897D not the 857 but they're pretty similar internally from what i understand. been meaning to do the TCXO swap for a while. does it require any realignment after or does it just drop in and work? i dont have a signal generator at home so if it needs cal work thats kind of a pain for me

yeah the doppler thing on linear sats trips everyone up at first. what you want to do is tune your downlink by ear to keep your signal where it should be, and let gpredict handle the uplink correction. the reason is your ears are faster than any software update loop for finding yourself in the passband. gpredict's rig control is good but there's always a little lag. 5 watts into an arrow is actually plenty, honestly sometimes too much depending on the elevation. the sats with linear transponders are designed to be self-regulating in a sense — if everyone cranks power the transponder just gets saturated and everybody loses. so yeah less is more. i usually start around 2-3 watts and only go up if i really can't hear my downlink, and even then i'm suspicious it's a pointing issue not a power issue. the arrow is pretty directional so small movements matter a lot especially at low elevations.

yeah what he said about N1MM, thats what basically everyone uses. i'd also say dont worry too much about the multiplier stuff your first time, just try to make contacts and get comfortable with the fast pace of contest exchanges. some ops will be going really fast and might not even wait for you to finish before they move on, thats just how it goes during a big contest like WW. you'll get used to it. good luck this weekend

145 is pretty decent flux honestly, you were probably right on the edge of a decent opening. the thing people dont always tell beginners is that solar flux is kind of like a general indicator of conditions but it doesnt tell you everything — you also gotta pay attention to the K-index because if that spikes up it can wipe out what would otherwise be a great day even with high flux. basically high flux AND low K is the sweet spot. for real-time stuff i'd check pskreporter or dxmaps like you mentioned, but also just tune around and listen before you start calling CQ. if you can hear europe on 10m, they can probably hear you. if the band sounds dead and you're not hearing anything coming through, CQing into the void for 45 minutes wont help much. your dipole at 25 feet should be fine for working DX when conditions cooperate, dont let anyone talk you into spending money on antennas before you've had a few good openings to work with first

im pretty new to this too but i started chasing before i activated and one thing i noticed is that the spots on SOTAwatch move really fast, like sometimes an activator is only on a frequency for 10-15 minutes before they move or lose signal so if youre self spotting it really does make a difference for getting pileups. also the time zone on SOTAwatch tripped me up too, i think it defaults to UTC so just make sure your alert is in the right zone or chasers show up looking for you an hour off lol. looking forward to trying my own activation soon

You've basically got the right idea already. When net control says "any additional check-ins" or something similar, yeah that's your window. Just say your callsign nice and clear, phonetics if it's a noisy night, and wait for them to acknowledge you. They'll usually ask if you have traffic or announcements and you can just say "no traffic, checking in" or however the local net does it — they'll let you know if there's a specific format they prefer. And no, checking in without traffic is completely normal. That's actually kind of the whole point of a lot of these nets — just to make sure everyone's gear is working and people are active. Net control wants to hear from people, that's why they run the thing. Don't worry about wasting airtime, a callsign and "no traffic" takes about 4 seconds. The person you heard keying up mid-net was probably either late checking in and the NCS acknowledged them, or yeah maybe jumping in at a bad time. Happens. Just listen for a few more weeks and you'll start to feel the rhythm of how your particular net flows, they're all a little different.

oh man im jealous, my antenna situation is kind of a mess right now so ive mostly just been listening. did hear a VK on 15m last week which was cool even if i couldnt work him. what kind of wire dipole are you running, just a regular flattop or something fancier?

I'm in the same boat as you! Got my license 3 months ago and still learning. What helped me was making flashcards for the most common ones and listening to CW practice sessions even though I don't know morse yet. Many abbreviations were devised as a result of the widespread use of Morse code, where it is necessary to send as few letters as possible. It's starting to click!

the 817 and an sdr dongle is kind of a rough combo for this because your eyes are in two different places and its hard to react fast enough. i used that setup for a while and switched to using the 817 for downlink monitoring too just so both VFOs are in one place. also gpredict has a radio control window where you can assign uplink and downlink separately and tell it the transponder is inverting — thats the key setting most people miss when they first set it up. once you enable that it should be correcting both sides with the right sign. good luck, AO-73 is a fun one when it all clicks

so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and i keep hearing people throw around all these codes on the air and i mostly just nod along but i dont really know what half of them mean. like i know QSL is something about confirming but is it confirming you heard them or confirming the contact or both? and then theres QRM vs QRN and i always mix those up. also people say 73 at the end of every conversation which i looked up and apparently means best regards but nobody ever explained WHY its 73 specifically, like why not just say best regards. and what is QTH, is that just your location? someone told me QSY means change frequency but ive also heard it used in a way that didnt seem like that. theres also stuff like OM and YL that i see written in logs and on qrz pages. im not looking for an exhaustive list or anything just the ones that actually come up in normal conversation so i dont feel completely lost