John Anderson

yeah what he said about the sidebands is the big thing people forget. on lsb your signal goes DOWN in frequency from your dial reading, so if youre on 7.178 your voice is actually occupying somewhere around 7.175 to 7.178 depending on how you talk. so you could be right on the edge without realizing it. i made that mistake early on and someone was nice enough to point it out instead of just complaining about me honestly just dont stress too much about the exact edges when youre starting out, just stay somewhere in the middle of your phone allocation and youll be fine. you can get more precise about it once you get comfortable just making contacts

so i just got my technician license about three weeks ago and ive been listening to the local 2m net on tuesday evenings but i really dont know the right way to actually check in. like i know you just say your callsign but is there a specific moment you're supposed to do it, do you wait for the net control to ask for check-ins and then just throw your call out there? and what if two people transmit at the same time, does someone have priority? also i heard someone on the net say they were a "mobile" and someone else said "portable" and i wasnt sure if that changes anything or if its just for information. my radio is a baofeng uv-5r which i know isnt everyone's favorite but it gets into the local repeater fine so im just using it for now until i figure out what i actually want. anyway any advice for a newbie trying not to embarrass himself on his first real transmission would be appreciated

so ive been trying to get into CW seriously for the past couple months and finally bought a decent set of paddles (Begali Spark) to replace the cheap bencher clone i was using. the keyer built into my radio is a Yaesu FT-991A and i keep messing up my sending. like i know the characters in my head but when i actually try to send them under any kind of pressure they come out all wrong or mushy sounding. i think part of it might be my paddle tension or spacing but ive messed with those settings so many times i honestly cant tell anymore what feels right vs what just feels familiar. i run about 18wpm which is maybe too fast for where my hand skills are right now. does anyone have like a baseline for paddle gap and tension when youre still getting comfortable with iambic? or is this more of a practice problem than a hardware problem

the ground thing is real, dont underestimate it. under the seat bolt is usually fine as long as theres good metal-to-metal contact and you scraped off any paint or coating where the lug sits. a lot of noise problems in mobile installs trace right back to a bad ground, either high resistance or a ground loop from running the ground too far from the radio. some guys run both power leads all the way to the battery and swear by it, personally i do the same, positive with fuse close to the battery and negative straight to the battery negative post, keeps everything clean. the Tram 1185 is a decent antenna, nothing fancy but solid for local work. if people are saying you sound noisy it might be worth checking if the noise follows your engine RPM, that classic alternator whine usually means you need a ferrite choke on the power leads or possibly a filter on the line. also make sure that NMO mount has a good ground plane connection, sometimes the threads dont bite all the way and the coax shield ends up floating a little

so ive been trying to get Winlink working properly for the past couple weeks and i think i finally have most of it figured out but there's still this one issue thats been bugging me. my setup is a IC-7300 into a SignaLink USB, running Winlink Express on windows 10. i can connect to an RMS gateway fine most of the time, but randomly mid-transfer the session just drops. no error message that makes any sense, just disconnects. happens on both Vara HF and Pactor if i switch to that mode, so i dont think its a modem thing. the gateway im hitting is about 180 miles away which should be totally fine for the band conditions we've been having, and i can see the S-meter staying steady so its not like im losing the signal. i checked my audio levels a bunch of times and they look okay in the vara waterfall. just wondering if anyone else has run into this or if there's something obvious im missing in the session setup. i mostly wanted this for EMCOMM purposes, our group is trying to get a local RMS gateway going too but i wanted to get client-side working first before i start messing with the server side stuff.

hamstudy is what everyone recommends and for good reason but i'll also say the ham radio prep app is pretty solid if you want something on your phone during a commute or whatever. i used both when i was studying for my tech a couple years ago and passed first try so cant complain. one thing id say is dont ignore the rules and regulations questions because there are a decent number of them and theyre actually pretty easy points if you just read through them once. stuff like what frequencies technicians can use, proper ID procedures, that kind of thing. easy to get right with just a little attention.

so i've been a general class for about 8 months now and i got assigned this sequential call that's just kind of blah, nothing wrong with it but it's long and hard to say on the air especially when i'm doing cw and it's like four letters in the suffix. i started looking into the vanity call process on the FCC ULS and honestly the whole thing is more confusing than i expected. from what i can piece together there's this application window that opens up and if multiple people apply for the same call it goes into a kind of random selection? or is it first come first served? i've seen both things said on different sites and i cant figure out which is actually true. also i noticed some calls that i thought were available just disappeared from the available list before i even had a chance to apply, which was frustrating. does anyone know how the timing actually works, like when do calls become available after a ham passes away or lets their license lapse? i want to apply for a 1x2 in my district if i can find one thats actually open. any help appreciated, this whole process feels like trying to read tea leaves

oh man i remember that exact feeling, sitting there with my hand on the PTT button too nervous to key up. honestly the net control has heard every variation of check-in you can imagine and they're almost always super patient with new folks. for a basic traffic or rag chew net you really just give your callsign phonetically when they ask for check-ins, thats it. something like "Whiskey One Example, mobile" or just your callsign and maybe your first name if they're asking for that. the net control will usually tell you what they want at the start of the net so listen to that part carefully. after you check in most nets will either come back to you with a brief exchange or just acknowledge you and move on depending on what kind of net it is. a lot of them just do a quick round of signal reports and that's the whole thing, maybe 10 minutes total. for finding nets, the ARRL net directory is the big one people use but honestly the best nets ive found were from just talking to local club members. your local repeater club probably runs a few you dont even know about yet

ok so i just upgraded from tech to general last month and im still trying to figure out where i can actually transmit on 40 meters. i keep reading about the band plan but then i also see stuff about the actual FCC allocations and they dont always seem to match up? like the band plan shows certain modes in certain spots but is that legally required or just like a gentlemans agreement thing also whats the deal with operating near the band edges, my elmer told me to stay away from them but didnt really explain why. is it a legal thing or just courtesy or what. sorry if this is a dumb question im just trying to not step on anyone or do something wrong

so ive been licensed about four months now (technician, studying for general) and i keep hearing people talk about nets and checking in but i honestly dont fully understand how it all works in practice. like i know the basic concept, you tune to a frequency, wait for the net control to call for check-ins, and you give your call sign. but when i tried last tuesday on our local 2m repeater net i just kept hearing conversations already happening and wasnt sure if i missed the check-in window or what. also somebody at my club mentioned special event stations and how you can get certificates for contacting them? that sounds really cool but i have no idea where to find out when those are happening. is there like a central calendar or do people just post about them in places like this? sorry if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure out where to start

this is driving me nuts tbh. started with some youtube videos then tried that lcwo site for awhile. can get through most of the koch lessons but when i try actual qsos or even just copying call signs i freeze up and miss everything tried using different apps on my phone too but cant seem to break through this wall. im getting all the letters fine when they come one at a time but put them together in words and my brain just stops working. anyone else had this problem or am i just hopeless lol also whats the deal with farnsworth vs just regular speed - every app seems to have different settings and im confused which one to use