Sarah Moore

i started with a uv-5r and honestly i dont regret it but i also kind of do? like it got me on the air which was the whole point but i ended up buying a yaesu like 4 months later anyway so in hindsight i probably should have just done that from the start. the 4 mile simplex thing should work fine with either one assuming youve got reasonably clear terrain between you, maybe a small antenna upgrade would help more than the radio brand tbh

this matches my experience pretty much exactly. i had a hustler 6BTV for a while and the rx noise was just constant, neighbors inverters, switching supplies, all of it. my 80m dipole sitting at like 40 feet was way quieter even though everyone says verticals are supposed to be the DX machine. i think for guys without a lot of land and a proper ground system the dipole wins more often than the magazines would have you believe

so i finally did my first Parks on the Air activation last weekend at a state park about 45 mins from my house, K-4522 if anyone's familiar with it. i was pretty nervous honestly because ive been licensed for about 8 months and this was really my first time operating outside of my home shack setup. threw the KX2 in a backpack with a 40m end fed and just kind of went for it. ended up getting 14 contacts in maybe an hour and a half which i think qualifies? i was posting spots on the POTA app but i honestly wasnt sure if i was doing that right. a couple hunters found me on 40m and that was really cool, felt like the whole system was actually working the way its supposed to. my question is about the log submission — do i need to submit an ADIF file or can i do it another way? i was using paper logging in the field and then transcribed everything into HAMRS when i got home. also is there a time limit for submitting after the activation? i have a trip coming up and wont be home for almost two weeks.

Don't forget you can use a basic calculator and scratch paper during the exam! I was so nervous I almost forgot about these tools. They really help with those frequency and wavelength calculations. Also, if you don't pass, you can retake it the same day - takes some pressure off knowing that.

Fellow hams, I've been monitoring the bands the past few days and noticed some interesting patterns. 20m has been consistently strong with solar flux at 158 and excellent DX opportunities throughout the day, but 12m and 10m seem to be closing quickly after sunset and poor at night. Anyone else seeing similar conditions? I'm particularly curious about the K-index jumping to 4 with A-index at 50 - wondering if this unsettled geomagnetic activity is what's limiting the higher bands. With K-index at 1 showing very quiet geomagnetic field conditions and low noise, it seems like we should be seeing better 15m and 12m openings. What are you all experiencing on your end? Any tips for maximizing contacts during these mixed conditions?