John Anderson

Amateur Radio Operators choosing to check in should address NC with his/her call sign followed immediately by the operator's call sign. There is no need to 'unkey' between calling the NC and identifying yourself. I just say "Net Control this is KB1XYZ" and that's it. Keep it simple!

the noise floor thing on 40 is real but i dont think its the radio. when i first set mine up i was convinced there was something wrong with the preamp or the AGC settings or whatever and spent like two weeks messing with the RF gain and the NR and NB settings. turned out my neighbor had put in one of those EV chargers in october and it just destroys 40 in the evenings when hes plugged in. nothing i could do about it, i just work 40 earlier in the afternoon now. your OCF setup sounds reasonable though, 35 feet is fine. id check whether the noise tracks with time of day or day of week before blaming the rig. the 7300 rx is genuinely good, not quite at the level of some of the higher end stuff but more than capable for most ops.

so ive been running APRS for a few months now, mostly just for tracking when i go out portable, and the position beacons work fine i can see myself on aprs.fi no problem. but whenever i try to send a message to another station — whether theyre on RF or just APRS-IS — i get nothing back, no ack, nothing. its like the messages just disappear. running a TM-D710A into a comet antenna on the roof, path is set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which i thought was pretty standard. the radio is NOT connected to the internet, just pure RF into the local digi network. there are a few igates in range, i can see them on the map. just really confused why my position gets gated but the messages seem to get eaten somewhere along the way. anybody run into this before or have any idea what im doing wrong

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

oh man yeah that wall you're talking about is completely real, almost everyone hits it around 5-7wpm. the problem is exactly what you described — your brain is still decoding individual dits and dahs instead of hearing the whole character as a sound. its like reading letter by letter instead of seeing the whole word at once. the thing that finally worked for me was bumping the character speed way up even while keeping the overall word speed slow. on LCWO you can set the farnsworth timing so the letters come at like 18-20wpm but with long gaps between them. your brain is forced to hear the character as one chunk of sound instead of counting elements. feels weird at first and your copy rate will drop but stick with it for a few weeks and something just kind of... unlocks. also honestly just listening to actual QSOs on 40m or 20m even if you cant copy much of it yet helps a lot. just having it on in the background while youre doing something else. dont stress it, 4 months is nothing in the grand scheme of CW learning

yeah the full list is overwhelming, dont even worry about memorizing all of it. in day to day operating you really only bump into maybe a dozen or so regularly. QSL means confirmed or acknowledged, QRZ is who is calling me, QTH is location, QRM is interference from other stations, QSB is fading signal, QRN is static/natural noise, QSY means change frequency, QRP is low power, and QRO is high power. thats honestly most of what youll hear on a typical HF contact. 73 just means best regards, been that way since the telegraph days. 88 is hugs and kisses, mostly used between close friends on the air. some guys also say things like FB which stands for fine business meaning like great or well done, and OM which is old man — just a friendly term for any male ham regardless of age. it sounds weird at first but you get used to it fast. just listen for a few weeks and itll all click naturally, i promise you wont need to drill flashcards or anything like that

the mode A vs mode B thing trips up a lot of people and honestly even experienced CW ops argue about which one feels better. quick version: Mode B will add a trailing element when you release the paddle at certain points in a squeeze, Mode A doesn't. most folks who learned on a bug or a straight key find Mode A more predictable because it stops exactly when you let go. try switching to Mode A first and see if that clears up the doubling on your C's and K's before you mess with anything else. also worth checking your paddle tension and contact gap — if the contacts are too sensitive the keyer might be seeing phantom closures, especially if your technique is still developing and you're resting your fingers on the paddles between characters. that was my issue for about the first year of my iambic adventure, drove me absolutely nuts.

so we've got a countywide simulated emergency exercise coming up next saturday and im trying to nail down my portable setup before then. ive done these before but this time they want us to be fully self-sufficient for 12 hours minimum, no shore power, no nothing. my normal go-kit is built around an IC-7300 and i usually just run it off a 100ah lifepo4 battery which honestly lasts me all day for normal HF work but they're saying we might need to run digipeater duties on top of voice and i'm not sure the battery alone is gonna cut it. so i picked up a small honda EU2200i a while back for camping and i'm thinking about using that to keep the battery topped off rather than running the radio directly off it — just feels cleaner to me and avoids any noise issues. has anyone run a setup like that in the field, like generator charges battery and radio runs off battery the whole time? or am i overcomplicating this. also the antenna situation — the site we're assigned to is basically a flat gravel parking lot next to a community center, no trees, nothing to tie off to. i have a 31ft fiberglass pushup mast and was thinking end-fed halfwave for 40m since thats the primary net frequency. any thoughts on counterpoise or ground radials in that situation, gravel isnt exactly ideal for a ground mounted vertical.

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 putting this off for like two years and finally just did it last weekend. cut a basic half wave dipole for 40m, used 14 gauge stranded wire i had laying around from an old extension cord project, nothing fancy. center insulator is just a piece of scrap polycarbonate i drilled out and the end insulators are those cheap ceramic dog bone ones from the hardware store. ran the feedline down at about a 45 degree angle which i know isnt ideal but thats just how the yard worked out. got it up about 28 feet at the center, ends are drooping a bit so its more of an inverted V shape than a true flat top. SWR came in around 1.4:1 at my target frequency which honestly i was pretty happy with given how rough the build was. my question is about the feedpoint connection. right now ive just got the coax center and shield twisted around the wire ends and wrapped in self amalgamating tape. it seems fine but im wondering if i should solder it or if theres some better way to do this. also the whole thing is kind of pulling sideways in the wind and im not sure if my center support is strong enough long term. anyone deal with this before?

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

so ive been running a 25ft piece of RG-8X from my IC-9700 up to a Diamond X50A on the roof and i keep second-guessing myself about whether i should just bite the bullet and run LMR-400 instead. the coax goes through the attic and makes a couple bends, nothing crazy. on receive the noise floor seems fine to me but im not really sure what i should be comparing it against since i dont have a reference setup. the X50A is maybe 20ft above the roofline on a push-up mast, so total coax is probably closer to 35ft once i account for the attic routing. at 146mhz how bad is RG-8X really getting? i ran the numbers on one of those online calculators and it said like 1.1 db loss per 100ft so for 35ft thats what, not even half a db? but then someone at the club last week told me RG-8X is garbage and i should have used LMR-400 from day one. he seemed pretty adamant about it but wouldnt really explain why beyond just saying trust me. not trying to work weak signal or anything serious, mostly just local repeaters and occasional simplex. is the cable swap worth tearing apart my attic run for or am i chasing ghosts here

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

not a dumb question at all, most of us went through the exact same thing. the General exam is a bit more involved than the Tech but honestly if you passed the Tech you can definitely pass this one too. theres more question pool material covering things like HF propagation, some electrical theory, and a fair amount of operating practices. the pool is publicly available so i'd just grab the ARRL General study guide or use hamStudy.org and grind through the questions for a few weeks. as for the privileges thing, basically as a General you get access to most of HF but not all of it — Extra class opens up a bit more on some bands. 40m and 20m are probably where youll spend a lot of time starting out, 20m especially is great for daytime DX because the propagation can be really good during the solar cycle. and yeah youre gonna need an actual HF rig, a Baofeng wont do anything for you there. something like a used Icom 718 or a Yaesu FT-450 would be a solid starting point, they come up on QRZ classifieds and the usual places for reasonable money. dont worry about having a perfect antenna setup right away either, a wire dipole up even 20 feet will get you on the air and youll be surprised how far you can work.

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

yeah i get what ur saying. i think a lot of the casual conversation moved to discord and facebook groups and stuff so the bands feel emptier even when propagation is good. which is kind of ironic when you think about it. i still love getting on but i definitely have to be more intentional about it now, like i actually have to schedule time or ill just end up scrolling my phone instead of touching the radio. sad but true i guess

yeah i did the same mod on mine a couple years back, no issues. one thing i'll mention is double-check your TX audio after you do it, some people report a slight difference in how the ALC behaves when operating near the edges of the extended range. might be nothing, might matter depending on what you're doing. i ran mine into an external wattmeter and everything looked fine but worth verifying with something other than just the built-in meter.

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.