Sarah Moore

heard rumors it might be canceled this year but cant find anything official on their website. last year was pretty decent but the flea market area was kinda sparse. wondering if anyone has inside info or knows who to contact

I looked into this a while back and ultimately decided against it just because I dont do MARS work and figured the risk wasnt worth it for me personally. but I've heard good things from people who have done it. one guy in my club said Icom's design makes it pretty reversible if you use a jumper instead of just clipping, might be worth keeping in mind if you ever want to sell the rig down the road.

congrats on the first QSO man, that feeling never really goes away. i remember my first contact on HF years ago and i was shaking the whole time. the baofeng is fine to start with, dont let anyone give you grief about it. find that local club if you can, most of them have a net night once a week and people are genuinely happy to talk to new hams. also once you get comfortable on 2m you might want to look into getting your general so you can get on HF, thats where things really open up. but no rush, just enjoy where you are right now

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for racking up contacts and the DX is insane but honestly it feels like im just clicking buttons and watching a waterfall. theres no real communication happening, right? like i worked a station in vietnam last week and all we exchanged was signal reports and grid squares. fine i guess but its kind of hollow after a while. anyway a buddy of mine at the club keeps talking up JS8Call and how you can actually send messages back and forth, do store-and-forward stuff, even run it without internet which sounds cool for emcomm purposes. but im wondering if the bands are actually active enough to make it worth setting up. i already have WSJT-X dialed in pretty much perfect on my IC-7300, audio levels good, no overdriving, the whole thing. dont really want to mess with a new setup if the JS8Call calling frequencies are just dead most of the time. also does anyone run both at the same time on different bands? i have a second radio (old 718) sitting around doing nothing, wondering if i could run JS8Call on one and FT8 on the other simultaneously without the audio interfaces getting confused. or is that just asking for trouble.

been running N1MM with WSJT-X for a couple years now and yeah the UDP integration works but you do have to be a bit careful with the settings. in WSJT-X under reporting you set the UDP server to 127.0.0.1 and port 2333 by default and N1MM has to be listening on that same port. the duplicates thing you mentioned is a real issue if you have "accept UDP messages" turned on and also have WSJT-X set to log to its own log file at the same time, you can end up with entries going in twice. what i do is just let N1MM handle all the logging and i keep the WSJT-X internal log turned off basically for contesting N1MM is honestly unbeatable, the bandmap, the dupe checking in real time, running SO2R if you ever go that route, its just built for it. but if youre doing casual FT8 chasing DX and DXCC tracking Log4OM is probably nicer honestly. ive never used Log4OM for a real contest so i cant tell you how it holds up under rate but i dont think its really designed for that kind of operating

yeah same boat as you were not too long ago lol. what finally got me to just do it was realizing i didnt have to pick one — i just set Log4OM to auto-upload to LoTW after every session and i also have it syncing to eQSL automatically, so i dont really think about it anymore. took an afternoon to get configured but now its just running in the background. the paper cards i mostly only send now if someone specifically sends me one first or if its a really rare contact. kind of feels like the right way to handle it without drowning in postage costs honestly

okay so ive been chasing DX for about a year now and i finally started looking seriously at applying for DXCC and honestly the whole process is a bit confusing to me. like i have a bunch of QSOs confirmed through LoTW which i thought was the main thing but then someone at my club meeting said you still need physical QSL cards for some situations and i wasnt sure if that was outdated info or still current. also i keep seeing people talk about WAS and WAZ at the same time as DXCC like theyre all one big thing but they seem like totally separate awards with different rules? i managed to work all 50 states already i think but i never actually submitted anything because i didnt know i had to actively apply. does the log just... automatically qualify me or do i have to do something with it and the other thing is mixed mode — does a SSB contact to Wyoming count separately from a digital contact to Wyoming for WAS purposes or is it one entity regardless of mode. sorry for all the questions at once im just trying to figure out where to even start with this stuff

yeah i went through the same thing when i first started checking into nets, felt super awkward for the first month or so. one thing that helped me was when the net control at our local ARES net actually explained the whole thing at the top of the net for new folks. not all of them do that but if yours does, pay close attention to that intro because they usually lay out exactly what format they want. also if you're ever unsure just wait til the end when net control wraps up and most of them will take late check-ins or questions. better to ask than to step on someone mid-net. the 2m nets around here are pretty forgiving, its the HF traffic nets where people get a little more strict about procedure i think.

the balun question comes up constantly and yeah people do argue about it a lot but honestly for an inverted-V especially with that much coax running through your shack you really do want at least a choke. common mode current on the outside of the coax braid is a real thing and without a choke your feedline becomes part of the antenna which can mess with your pattern and sometimes cause RFI in the shack. cheapest fix is just winding 8-10 turns of the coax into a coil right at the feedpoint, maybe 6 inch diameter, and securing it with a zip tie. not a perfect choke balun but it knocks down the common mode significantly and costs basically nothing. as for the inverted-V angle, honestly at 25 feet center height on 40m youre not going to be working DX off the sides but for domestic stuff it's totally fine. the pattern gets a bit more omnidirectional compared to a flat dipole which some people actually prefer. if the ends are at 10 feet thats a bit low, ideally you want them higher but if thats what the yard allows then just work with it. your SWR sounds good for a homebrew job, nice work getting it dialed in on the first try.

Currently using Log4OM 2 for daily logging and really like the integration with WSJT-X, JTDX, and excellent cluster features. The CAT control works great with my IC-7610 and the DX cluster client with real-time spotting is fantastic. However, I'm getting more interested in contesting and wondering if I should switch to N1MM+. Log4OM has basic contest support but N1MM Logger is specifically designed for contesting. For someone doing maybe 4-5 contests per year plus daily FT8/RTTY, what are the real advantages of N1MM+ over Log4OM? Is it worth running both programs?

yeah i did both mods on my 857 when i first got it used. the extended rx is whatever, i use it occasionally to check some utility freqs but its not gonna replace a proper SDR or a dedicated communications receiver. if your main goal is better HF monitoring id honestly just grab a cheap rtl-sdr and call it a day, way less risk to the radio and you get a waterfall display which is actually useful. the mic gain mod though i thought made more of a difference than i expected. my audio was always a little thin sounding and after the mod people stopped asking me to speak up. worth doing imo if youre already comfortable taking the lid off.

the wall you're hitting around 10-12wpm is pretty much universal, almost everyone goes through it. what happens is below that speed your brain is still sounding out dit-dah patterns consciously, and to break through you have to get to where you hear the whole character as one sound, like how you hear a word without thinking about individual letters. it clicks eventually but you cant really force it. head copy is actually the key, your elmer is right even if it sounds scary. start small, just try to copy one word in your head before writing it. then two words. you dont have to copy everything, just practice trusting yourself to let a character go if you miss it and keep moving. the missing and moving on thing is honestly the biggest skill in high speed copy, nobody gets every single character. took me about 8 months to get comfortable at 20wpm but i wasnt practicing every day. your pace sounds good. also try listening to actual QSOs on the air even if you can barely copy them, something about real morse with real people sending it just differently than computer generated stuff and it helps your ear adjust

that first real activation is something you dont forget. i remember mine was a flooding situation back in maybe 2019, we had nets running for almost 36 hours straight with operators rotating through shifts. same thing you said about the waiting though -- a lot of it is just being there and available, and then suddenly you need to pass a message accurately and quickly and thats when it matters that you practiced. one thing i'd suggest if you havent already is to get comfortable with ICS forms, specifically the ICS-213 for general messages. some served agencies are really particular about documentation and the more fluent you are with that stuff the more valuable you become to the EC. sounds boring but it genuinely makes a difference when things get hectic.

the SWR being higher at the low end of the band is actually telling you the antenna is resonant above where you want it, not below. if 7.150 is your sweet spot and 7.020 is worse, that means your antenna is tuned a bit high. you'd want to add a little length to both legs to pull resonance down. try maybe half an inch to an inch on each side and remeasure, its tedious but thats just how it goes with wire antennas. the nano VNA is fine for this kind of work, dont let people tell you its garbage. its not a $3000 Rohde but for checking resonance on HF it does the job. the choke balun situation -- if you dont know how many turns and what core you used its hard to say if its actually doing anything, but if your SWR looks clean and youre not seeing common mode weirdness it might be okay. id revisit that later once youre happy with the resonance point.

so I just passed my general last month and got my sequential callsign assigned, which is fine I guess but its kind of a mouthful and I was hoping to eventually get something shorter or maybe get a 1x2 or 2x1 down the road. I've been reading about the vanity call process on the FCC ULS site and honestly its a little confusing to me. from what I understand theres a window system where you submit your application and then wait like 18 days or something and if nobody with a higher preference applies for the same call you get it? but I cant figure out how the preference tiers actually work. like does being a general vs extra matter for which calls you can get, or is it just about what calls are available in your license class pool? also somebody told me you can only apply for calls that are in your district but I looked it up and that doesnt seem right anymore — is that an old rule that changed? I'm in the 4th district if that matters. any help appreciated, this stuff is really not explained well anywhere I've looked

Thanks for this! I was having the same exact problem with Ham Radio Deluxe. I'm using Ham Radio Deluxe. I've followed the settings to use Rig Control, as the "radio" via a USB cable. Doing the test in the configuration screen I can test rig control and get a green light, if I push the PTT test it lights red and the radio goes to test mode.

i went through this whole thing about a year ago when i got my extra and wanted to grab a 1x2 call. the ae7 calls in my area were pretty picked over but i found one i liked and it worked out. one thing i'd say is use a site like AE7Q dot com, it has a really good vanity call search tool that shows you available calls and when ones might be coming up for grabs. saved me a ton of time compared to digging through ULS directly. oh and the fee thing yeah its $35 right now for any application type i believe. kind of annoying but its what it is

congrats on the first activation, 9 contacts on your first time out is really solid especially if you were nervous. the reference number is just an identifier within each association and region, doesnt reflect difficulty or points at all, just how they catalogued the summits when setting up the program. the points are entirely based on topographic prominence, so a summit needs to be a certain height above surrounding terrain and the points scale with how high it is — im pretty sure anything above 2500m or so gets the full 10 points but the exact cutoffs are in the SOTA general rules doc on the website if you want the specifics. the UTC thing trips up almost everybody at first. i just set a second clock on my phone to UTC now and glance at it between contacts, takes like 10 seconds to set up and saves a lot of headache. some people use logging apps like HAMRS or VK port-a-log that handle the time automatically which is nice when youre cold and tired and just want to work stations.

yeah same boat here not too long ago. one thing that helped me was finding the net's written preamble — a lot of clubs post them on their website or the repeater group's page. it tells you exactly what the net control is going to say and what's expected of you. some nets want you to give your name and location after the call, others just want the call, depends on the group. also dont worry about the traffic stuff right away, a lot of casual local nets barely do formal traffic passing anymore anyway. just keep checking in, you'll get the hang of it pretty fast

Ive been down this exact rabbit hole. Spent about a weekend trying to get a clean WSJT-X to Log4OM to N1MM pipeline and eventually just gave up on making it seamless. What I do now is keep Log4OM as the master log and after any contest I do a careful ADIF import with duplicate checking turned on. Loses maybe 20 minutes but I stopped having weird sync issues. One thing worth mentioning — Log4OM 2 has a contest module built in now and for smaller contests it actually works ok, I used it for a VHF contest a while back and it handled the grid square multipliers fine. Wouldnt use it for CQWW or anything big but if you're doing like a regional thing it might be enough to just stay in one program the whole time. Might be worth a look before you resign yourself to the two-program life forever.

yeah part 97 can be a lot to parse when youre first starting out, dont feel bad about that. the short version for tech is that you get basically everything above 30 MHz which covers 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm and up. for HF your buddy was right, you do get some privileges -- on 10 meters you can do phone between 28.3 and 28.5 MHz and you have CW access on a few other bands like 40m, 15m, and 10m. the ARRL has a band plan chart that lays it all out visually and honestly thats way easier than staring at the actual rule text. just look up ARRL technician privileges and itll be the first result, its a PDF with all the frequencies color coded by license class. once you see it laid out like that it clicks pretty fast.

Not a dumb question at all, this trips up almost everyone when they're starting out. So basically yes, CTCSS (some people call it PL tone or just "tone") is a continuous subaudible tone that your radio transmits along with your voice. The repeater is set up to only open its transmitter when it hears the correct tone — otherwise random noise or someone on a nearby frequency could key it up accidentally. So if you're transmitting without the right tone, the repeater literally doesnt know youre there, which is exactly what youre experiencing. To find the tone for your local repeater, the best place to start is repeaterbook.com — just search your area and it'll show the input/output frequencies and the required CTCSS tone right there. Once you know the tone, on the UV-5R you gotta go into the menu and look for something like "R-CTCS" or "T-CTCS" — T-CTCS is what you want for transmit. Set that to the correct tone and you should be good. Most repeaters around here use somewhere between 88.5 and 162.2 Hz, theres a standard set of tones so dont worry about it being some weird number. Once you get the tone right and key up, give it a second after the repeater opens before you start talking, then just say something like "[your callsign] listening" and see what happens. Good luck, youre almost there.

so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i keep hearing people on HF use all these abbreviations and codes and i honestly have no idea what half of them mean. like i know QSL is for confirming contact and QTH is your location but thats about it. someone said QRM to me the other day and i just kind of said yeah and moved on hoping they wouldnt notice i had no clue what they were talking about. is there like a standard list somewhere or do people just kind of pick these up over time? also whats the difference between Q codes and just regular ham abbreviations because i see stuff like 73 and 88 which dont start with Q but seem to mean something specific too. feels like theres a whole second language i missed out on when i got my license

happens to everyone dont worry about it. when you double with someone just stop transmitting and wait for net control to sort it out. they'll usually ask for the stations to try again one at a time. you did the right thing by backing off. most net controls are pretty patient with new folks anyway

So I finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a local nature reserve, KFF-something, I'd have to look up the exact reference number. Been meaning to try this for months and just never got around to it. Threw the KX3 in the bag with a end-fed halfwave and hiked about 20 minutes in to a nice open spot away from the trees. Ended up making 34 contacts over about 3 hours on 40 and 20m SSB which I was pretty happy with for a first attempt. Spotted myself on the WWFF spotting network (pota.app works for this too right? or is there a separate one?) and the pile actually got decent for a while which was a surprise. Most people calling seemed to know the exchange — signal report and my reference number — but a few were confused and asking for a grid square or something, which threw me off a bit. Couple of questions for anyone whos done this before. Do I need 44 contacts minimum for a valid activation like POTA, or is the WWFF threshold different? And for logging, I've been using HAMRS but im not sure if it exports in the right format for the WWFF database upload. Any tips on the submission process would be great, the website is a little confusing to navigate honestly.