Sarah Collins

DXMaps and also the VOACAP online tool are both pretty useful for what youre describing. but honestly for day to day stuff i just check DX Summit and see whats actually being spotted — if guys are spotting europeans on 10 or 12 meters then the band is open, simple as that, no need to overthink the numbers. the flux index gives you a general idea of how ionized the F layer is getting, higher flux generally means better HF conditions especially on the higher bands, but youre right that the K index can completely kill a perfectly good solar flux day if theres a geomagnetic storm happening. Ive had 10 meter openings during relatively modest flux days and total deadness during high flux when the K was elevated. its a combination of things more than any one number that 10 to 12 meter europe path from the midwest has been surprisingly good lately, i worked a couple UA9s last weekend which i wasnt expecting at all

the LM386 is not garbage but it is incredibly sensitive to layout and power supply noise, almost to a frustrating degree. the motorboating almost certainly points at your power supply — wall warts are notoriously dirty and a DC receiver is going to pick up every little ripple on the supply rail. what i'd try first is throw a 100uF electrolytic right across the supply pins close to the chip, and then add a small RC filter on the input to the LM386, something like a 10 ohm resistor in series and another 100uF to ground. that kills a lot of the feedback loop that causes motorboating. also check pin 7 on the LM386, thats the bypass pin — it wants a 10uF cap to ground right there. if thats missing or the cap is too small youll get oscillation and generally nasty behavior. the NE602 also has pretty low output drive so make sure your audio interstage impedance matching isnt killing your level before it even gets to the amp. half the DC receiver builds i've seen have this issue and its almost always the power supply or a missing bypass cap somewhere.

For learning, I'd definitely recommend starting with Mode A. In Mode A, the keyer completes the element being sent when you release the paddles, making it more forgiving for beginners. Once you get comfortable with the timing and rhythm, then you can experiment with Mode B if you want that extra efficiency.

yeah switching wall warts are basically hum generators, i learned this the hard way on my first NE602 build. even a dead simple 7812 or 7805 linear reg with a decent filter cap before it makes a huge difference. i used a 2200uF before the reg and a 100uF after and the noise floor dropped dramatically. worth trying before you go crazy probing every stage. also check your ground layout, DC receivers are really sensitive to ground loops because the audio frequencies are the same as the IF so any noise just rides right through. star grounding helps a lot on these builds if you havent already done that.

not a dumb question at all, everyone starts somewhere. hamstudy is honestly one of the best free resources out there so you picked a good one right off the bat. the way most people do it is just grind the practice exams until youre consistently hitting like 85% or better and then go take the real thing. the actual pool of questions is public so what youre practicing is literally whats going to be on the test, just randomized. as for electronics background, i mean it helps a tiny bit for understanding WHY some answers are correct but you absolutely dont need it to pass. a lot of the tech exam is regulations and operating procedures anyway, not circuit theory. i studied maybe two weeks casually in the evenings and passed with only a couple wrong. the harder part honestly is just finding a test session near you, check the arrl website for that or sometimes local clubs post them. speaking of which, finding a local club before you even take the test isnt a bad idea, some of them run free study sessions

so ive been noticing some really strange stuff happening on 10 and 12 meters the past few weeks. some days i can barely hear anything past a couple hundred miles and then out of nowhere i work like 6 or 7 countries in an hour. yesterday i had a solid opening to japan on 10m which i honestly wasnt expecting at all, my sfi was showing around 180 when i checked it on dxmaps. im running a pretty modest setup, just a dipole at about 30 feet and 100 watts, so when conditions are bad they are REALLY bad for me. but on days like yesterday it honestly doesnt even matter what antenna you have i think. been chasing dx for about 3 years now and i dont think ive seen the flux jump around this much in a single week. anybody else tracking this or is it just my region doing something weird?

For the harmonics issue, I added a simple 7-pole Chebyshev filter after the antenna connector. Used silver-plated air core inductors and NPO caps - measured -50dB at 2nd harmonic. The 705's internal filter is decent but not contest-grade clean.

so ive been doing single op for a few years now, mostly on 40 and 20 during the bigger contests like SS and CQ WW, and i keep seeing guys post ridiculous rates and when i look at their setups they're running SO2R. ive got a second radio sitting here doing basically nothing (old IC-756 pro) and my main rig is the 7300 so i started thinking about it. the thing is every time i try to read about it i fall down this rabbit hole of bandpass filters, intermod issues, the antenna switching stuff, all the SO2R controllers like the microHAM or the N1MM integration and honestly my eyes glaze over. like i get the concept — you work a multiplier on radio 2 while radio 1 is in a pileup, or you search and pounce on one while running a frequency on the other — but actually setting it up without blowing up my front ends seems like a whole project. is it actually making that much of a difference to peoples scores or is it more of a thing where it helps at the top end but for a mid-level operator it wont change much? i run maybe 600-700 qsos in a big contest right now and my rate during good conditions is decent but falls apart when band conditions shift. curious what people actually experience vs what the theory says

the door seal thing is almost certainly your problem, or at least part of it. that pinches the coax and over time can nick the shield or center conductor just enough to cause weird intermittent issues. you might not even see damage if you look at it but the SWR can get ugly and you lose a surprising amount of signal. i ran mine through the firewall grommet when i installed in my F-150 and it made a big difference, takes about an hour if you have the right tools and a fish tape. on the antenna placement question, roof center is actually pretty good on a pickup if you can get it there. the ground plane concern is real but a big steel cab roof is plenty of metal for VHF, mag mounts work fine on that surface as long as the mount itself has good contact. id clean the paint contact area with some scotchbrite if you havent already, sometimes theres a clear coat layer under there messing up conductivity. also worth checking the PL-259 or whatever connector you have at the radio end, those can loosen up from the vibration of driving.

Don't overthink the math questions - most of them use the same formulas over and over. I made myself a cheat sheet with ohms law, power formulas, and SWR stuff and just practiced plugging numbers in until it was automatic. For band plans honestly i just memorized where we cant go rather than trying to remember all the exact frequencies. The ARRL exam review website is free and really helped me figure out which topics I was weak on. Take a bunch of practice tests in the last week, when you're consistently getting 30+ right you'll be fine on test day.

honestly i tried SO2R last CQWW and kind of gave up on it midway through sunday because i was spending so much mental energy managing the second radio that my CW on the run radio got sloppy and i started making dupe contacts. might just be a practice thing but i dunno, felt like i was losing more than i was gaining at that point. one thing that did help when i was using it properly was having N1MM set up with the SO2R audio switching so it automatically puts the active transmit radio in your primary ear. once that was working right it was way less chaotic. but yeah antenna wise you really do need some separation, even just having the second antenna on a different polarization helps a bit with isolation even if its not perfect

so i've been putting this off forever but last weekend i finally opened up the 857d to do the mars/cap mod so i can tx outside the ham bands for some emcomm stuff our group does. pretty straightforward once you find the right jumper, there's a couple different versions floating around depending on firmware revision so make sure you're looking at the right diagram for your unit or you'll be confused like i was for about 20 minutes. while i had it open i also resoldered a couple joints on the PA board that were looking sketchy, one of them was clearly a cold solder from the factory. no idea if it was causing any issues but it looked bad so i fixed it. also cleaned up the fan and reapplied thermal compound on the finals since i was in there anyway, running a bit cooler now i think but hard to say for sure without doing a proper before/after. anyone else done any other worthwhile mods to the 857d? ive seen some stuff about the DSP filter settings and tweaking the IF shift but never dug into it. also thinking about the noise blanker mod but not sure if thats worth it for HF mostly.

1.4 on 2m is totally fine, honestly anything under 1.5 and you're not losing meaningful power. the mag mount thing is interesting though — roof center is actually better for ground plane coverage in theory but real world can vary depending on vehicle geometry. if your roof mount is near the edge or off center it can get weird. also worth double checking your pl-259 or whatever connector you used going into the radio, even a slightly loose connection will mess with readings and perceived signal. on the aprs question, i wouldnt bother with a separate 70cm antenna unless you're having actual decode problems. the mr77 is perfectly capable for aprs use, i ran one for almost two years doing exactly that. save the second antenna port for something you'll actually notice a difference on, like if you ever want to run a separate uhf talk-around channel or something.

i just passed mine like three months ago and the theory stuff freaked me out too but its not as bad as it looks on paper. the laplace stuff and the complex impedance questions, once you see how many of them are just the same formula rearranged you stop panicking. i used gordon west's book and did the practice exams over and over until i was consistently hitting like 85 percent or above then just went and took it. the privilege thing on 80m was actually what pushed me to do it because cw ops down there are real and the extra segment is a lot calmer

yeah i was in the same boat when i started. what finally clicked for me was realizing LoTW and eQSL dont really talk to each other at all, theyre completely independent systems run by different organizations. so a confirmation on one does nothing for the other. i personally skip the paper cards most of the time unless someone sends me one first, then ill usually send one back. bureau cards take forever to arrive like sometimes over a year, its kind of wild. but i have gotten some really cool cards from DX stations that way so its not totally dead. one thing that helped me was just setting WSJT-X to auto upload to LoTW after every session, takes the hassle out of it completely. not sure what logging software you're using but most of them have that option now.

the filter thing is what got me too. i thought i could just throw a couple of BPFs inline and call it done but on 40 and 15 when theyre both open simultaneously the second receiver was still getting hammered even with the filters. ended up having to stagger the antenna directions a bit which helped some. for what its worth though even a basic SO2R setup where you're just using the second radio passively to monitor a second band for mults — not transmitting on both simultaneously — is pretty low risk and still adds value. you dont have to go full interlocked SO2R right away. just having ears on 40 while youre running 20 so you can hear when a new mult shows up is useful and doesnt require any of the crazy filtering. thats how i started and it was basically zero extra setup beyond a second radio and headphones.

Key difference: Techs are limited to 200 watts PEP on HF bands regardless of mode, while Generals can use up to 1500 watts PEP on most HF bands. Generals get digital modes and SSB phone access on HF bands below 28 MHz - that's the big upgrade for worldwide communication.

so ive been thinking about getting my general and eventually extra and i know morse isnt required anymore but im kind of interested in it anyway, seems like a cool thing to know and people seem to really enjoy cw operating. the problem is i have no idea where to even start. like do you just memorize all the letters first and then try to copy actual transmissions or is there some method that works better. ive seen some stuff about the koch method mentioned a few times but i honestly dont fully understand how it works. also seen lcwo dot net linked somewhere but i dunno if thats the best thing or if theres better options now. any advice welcome, im basically starting from absolute zero here

so ive been doing morse code practice for about 3 months now and im stuck somewhere around 8-9wpm and honestly its frustrating because i feel like i plateaued. i started with the Koch method using the G4FON trainer and it was great at first, went from nothing to about 5wpm pretty fast, but now every time i try to push to 10 or above my brain just kind of freezes up and i miss characters and then i fall behind and its this whole cascade thing. somebody at my local club told me i should be practicing at like 20wpm character speed even if the word spacing is slower, the Farnsworth method i think, but i havent really tried that consistently. been mostly just doing random 5 minute sessions here and there when i feel like it which is probably my real problem honestly. just curious how long it took other people to get to solid copy at 20wpm and if there is some method that actually worked for you. ive heard everything from just listen to QSOs on the air to do the LCWO site to just do a little every day no matter what. would love to know what actually clicked for people

Went in 2024 and it was fantastic! For three days, more than 380 participants showcased the wide-ranging world of radio, with 150 commercial exhibitors and international associations as well as 230 flea market exhibitors. The joy of reuniting again with fellow hobbyists was clearly evident throughout the four exhibition halls and the Foyer West. The energy is incredible - you'll love it!

yeah it absolutely makes a difference, done this exact swap actually. had a M2 2MCP14 sitting in the garage and finally put it up alongside my vertical last spring just to compare. on flat calm tropo days the yagi was pulling in stations that were completely in the noise on the collinear, like stations i didnt even know were there. the gain difference is real but honestly the bigger thing is the front to back ratio — you cut out so much of the local QRM and that alone opens up weak signal stuff that the omni just buries. the downside is obvious, you gotta point it. if you want to work in multiple directions you either need a rotator or you're constantly going outside to turn it by hand which gets old fast. i ended up putting a small TV rotator on mine just for the hilltop experiments and it works fine for light duty use. if you're serious about tropo though the yagi is the way to go, no question, the collinear is great for general purpose stuff but its not really a weak signal antenna.

so i've been trying to convince a couple guys from my local club to make the trip up to Dayton this year and nobody seems that interested which is kind of a bummer. ive gone maybe 4 or 5 times over the years and yeah its a lot of walking and the parking situation is always a mess but honestly its still worth it just for the swap meet tables alone. found a barely used FT-857D for like 200 bucks a few years back and that thing is still in my truck to this day. anybody else planning to go? and if anyone knows if the ARRL forum sessions are worth sitting through this year id be curious, last time i went to one it was pretty dry honestly

i went RSP1A a couple years back from an RTL dongle and honestly for shortwave listening the difference was real. not like holy cow everything is perfect now but noticeably cleaner and way fewer phantom signals showing up. WSPR decoding especially seemed to get better spots, could be coincidence but i dont think so. one thing nobody told me is that SDRuno takes some getting used to, the UI is kinda weird. there's also CubicSDR and GQRX if you want to use something other than the official software, both work with the RSP stuff via the API. some people swear by SDR# with a plugin but ive never gotten that working smoothly myself

that plateau you're describing is super common, almost everyone hits it somewhere in the 10-13wpm range. what got me through it was honestly just getting on the air even when i wasnt ready. i know that sounds backwards but i started calling CQ on 40m at like 13wpm and just... dealing with it. yeah sometimes people would send back faster than i could copy and id have to ask for repeats (QRS or PSE RPT) but you learn SO much faster when theres actual pressure and a real person on the other end versus just a computer program. the farnsworth thing is solid though dont give up on it yet. three weeks isnt really long enough to feel the benefit, i think it took me close to two months before my brain started automatically recognizing characters at speed instead of counting the dits and dahs. also if you arent already, try copying just the first letter of each word when you miss something instead of stopping and trying to figure out what you missed — keep moving forward. thats a huge one that nobody tells beginners

The Pi 5 alpha release needs about 6.5 GB and has been tested on Raspberry Pi OS versions 5.1 and 5.2. Installation restrictions will be relaxed once the user community provides feedback. I'd wait for more beta testing before migrating a working setup.