David Williams95

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so the baofeng thing — look, they work, and a lot of people start with them, but the programming can be a real headache and the receiver isnt great so you'll pick up a lot of garbage on busy RF environments. not the end of the world but it can be frustrating when youre just starting out and trying to figure out whats even going on. if you can stretch to like $80-90 range i'd honestly look at the Yaesu FT-65 or even a used FT-60. the FT-60 is built like a tank, battery life is solid, audio is way clearer, and the receiver actually rejects interference pretty well. ive handed mine to people who had no idea what they were doing and they figured it out without wanting to throw it out a window, which i cannot say for every radio. the TH-D75 is great but thats like $600+ territory and overkill for where youre at right now. get something reliable in the middle range, actually use it for a year, then you'll know way better what features you actually care about vs what sounds cool in a spec sheet.

i did something similar but went with a raspberry pi instead because i wanted a web interface so i could see what was going on from the shack PC. ended up being way more complicated than i planned lol. the pi is nice for that kind of thing but honestly for just reading CAT data and flipping relays an arduino is probably the smarter choice, less overhead and it just runs, no waiting for linux to boot or worrying about SD card corruption which has bit me twice now

so i finally got activated for a real ARES deployment last weekend, been doing the training nets and ICS courses for about 8 months now so i figured i had a decent idea of what to expect. spoiler: i did not. it was for a pretty big outdoor festival downtown, they had us set up a communications net to support EMS and the event coordinator because their commercial radios kept dropping in the crowd. nothing crazy, no actual emergency, but it still felt way more chaotic than any of the practice sessions. like on a training net everyone is calm and takes turns and does proper prowords and whatever, but when you're actually sitting next to a stressed out event coordinator who wants updates every 4 minutes it's a different vibe entirely. the net control guy was fantastic though, really kept things organized. i mostly just passed traffic between two medical stations and logged it which honestly sounds boring but i was pretty focused the whole time. my HT was fine on simplex for most of it but we had one dead spot near the main stage that was annoying. anyway just wanted to share because i feel like a lot of the ARES prep material makes it sound very clean and procedural and it is, kind of, but also there's just this background hum of actual real world messiness that the tabletop exercises dont fully capture. if you're thinking about joining your local ARES group i'd say just do it, the training is worth it even if you never get deployed.

yeah the chirp software might make programming that thing a lot easier if you havent tried it yet, baofengs have like 40 menu items and half of them are labelled in ways that make no sense. i wasted probably two weekends messing with mine before i just used chirp and it took 10 minutes. just make sure you download the right version for your specific model. oh and dont feel bad about the conversation thing, ive been on some repeaters where the regulars are so deep in their own chat they kind of ignore break-ins for a while. not malicious just kinda oblivious sometimes. other repeaters are super welcoming. just depends on the crowd really.

okay so i passed my general exam back in march and ive been trying to figure out exactly what frequencies im allowed to use and honestly the FCC part 97 document is kind of a nightmare to read through. like i understand theres a privilege chart but every time i look at it i feel like im reading a different thing than what someone else told me. my main question is about the 40 meter band specifically. someone at my club told me generals can use phone starting at 7.175 but then i looked at the arrl chart and it looks like its 7.175 to 7.300 for phone, which seems right but then someone else said something about a different segment for like digital modes and now im just completely turned around. also does any of this matter if im just doing like casual ragchews or is it more of a contest situation thing where people get strict about it also separate question kind of, if i accidentally transmit outside my privileges do i need to report that or is it just like a dont do it again situation. asking for a friend lol

so ive been messing around with this idea for a few months now and finally getting serious about it. basically i want to replace the old controller on my Yaesu G-800 rotator with an arduino setup that can take AZ commands from the shack PC over serial. the rotator itself is fine, its the controller thats flaky and honestly i figure i can do better with some custom code anyway. the plan right now is an arduino mega (have one sitting in a drawer), a motor driver board — probably an L298N or maybe one of the higher current IBT-2 bridge boards since i dont know how much current the motor actually pulls under load — and a 10k pot for position feedback. might throw a small OLED on there too just to see the heading without having to look at the PC. has anyone actually built something like this for a ham rotator specifically? the rotator interface stuff I've seen online is mostly for small az-el setups for satellite work, but mine just needs azimuth. also not sure what protocol to use on the serial side, ive seen Yaesu GS-232 mentioned a lot and it seems like hamlib supports it natively which would be nice for logging software integration. raspberry pi might be overkill for this but i have one of those too if it makes sense to use it instead. just not sure i need linux running to spin an antenna around lol

yeah the TCXO thing is real, not placebo. the stock oscillator on those radios is fine for most HF work but if you're doing any digital modes or trying to hold tight to a frequency for an extended period you'll notice the difference. I measured mine with a GPS-disciplined reference before and after and the drift on the stock unit over a couple hours was actually pretty surprising for a radio at that price point. as far as other mods, the one thing i keep seeing people do is mess with the fan control so it spins up earlier and keeps the finals cooler during long digital sessions. the default thermal management is a bit conservative in terms of when it kicks on but the tradeoff is the fan noise during a QSO. some guys just wire in a manual pot to control it themselves. not hard to do if you're already comfortable with the internals, which sounds like you are at this point.

so ive been fighting this for about three days now and im starting to lose my mind a little. running a kenwood TM-D710G with the internal TNC, got it set up as a tracker on 144.390, the radio is definitely keying up when it should — i can hear the burst, sounds like good AX.25 audio — but i go to aprs.fi and nothing. not even a partial decode. my callsign just isnt there. i checked the path and its set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which should be fine for my area, theres a couple i-gates within like 20 miles. beacon rate is set to every 5 minutes. the symbol is the car icon. honestly i dont know what else to check. is there a way to decode my own packets locally to verify the audio is actually good before it hits the air? wondering if maybe the deviation is off on the 9600 baud port vs the packet port or something. or maybe my path is getting digi'd but not gated for some reason. anyone dealt with this before

yeah i was in the same boat when i upgraded, took me a while to just get comfortable with it. one thing that helped me was just listening a lot before transmitting, you start to notice where the activity actually is and where cw guys hang out vs phone. on 40 phone in the evenings its pretty busy in the 7.2 area, dx guys cluster around 7.074 for FT8 which is data so thats its own thing anyway. dont stress too much about memorizing every edge perfectly, after a few weeks of operating it just kind of becomes second nature

Start with the ARRL Extra Class Manual 13th edition - it's updated for the new pool and has excellent explanations. I would also strongly recommend that you strive to understand the broader theory and practical applications that lie behind the questions. This will make answering the exam questions easier in the short term but perhaps more importantly will enable you to get more from the hobby once you are on the air.

nice work. i did my second one a few months ago and still havent figured out the logging upload thing completely if im being honest, so no help there lol. but the dipole between trees setup is exactly what i do too. what length did you cut yours for? im trying to figure out if i should bother with links or just bring a separate 40m dipole and call it done

so ive been trying to get Winlink Express working for about two weeks now and im starting to lose my mind a little. background: i have a Kenwood TS-590SG hooked up through a Signalink USB, been using it for PSK31 and FT8 without issues so the audio interface side of things seems fine. decided i wanted to get into Winlink for served agency stuff and our ARES group wants everyone to be able to send traffic via radio email. the problem is whenever i try to connect to a Vara HF session it either times out immediately or i get a partial handshake and then it drops. ive been using the RMS gateway list and picking ones that are within reasonable range, signal reports look okay on the waterfall, i can see the Vara tones but the connection just dies. tried both Vara FM and Vara HF with the same results. soundcard levels seem okay, not peaking, PTT is triggering fine through the Signalink. is there something obvious im missing with the RMS side of things? do i need to register the gateway or something before it'll accept my calls? or is this more likely a timing/baud rate thing with Vara. any help appreciated, been digging through the Winlink wiki and honestly some of it is out of date i think

You SHOULD NOT transmit with your CB at SWR levels above 3.0. If your SWR needle swings all the way to the right (off the charts) when getting your 3.0+ readings, you almost certainly have a major installation problem. This is almost always the result of a poor ground or incorrectly assembled stud, but on rare occasions can indicate a faulty coax, antenna, or incorrectly attached SWR meter. Check your connections first - make sure the coax connectors are tight and properly assembled. Also verify you're measuring in a clear area away from buildings and other antennas.

i was in the exact same spot about a year ago and went with a baofeng uv-5r to start just to have something while i figured things out. it worked fine for like 6 months then i upgraded to a yaesu ft-70dr mostly because i wanted the fusion digital capability even tho i barely use that part of it. the ft-70 feels way more solid in the hand and the battery lasts forever compared to the baofeng. if i had to do it again id probably just skip the baofeng and save up a little longer for something like that. but thats just me, the baofeng wasnt bad it just felt kinda cheap

RTTY is still my go-to for an actual contest exchange that feels like operating and not just watching pixels. but for weak signal chatting js8call is pretty cool i tried it last winter during some really rough propagation on 40m and was copying stations that were completely buried in the noise, like i could hear nothing but the decoder was pulling text out. thats the impressive part to me. its not quite FT8 levels of sensitivity but its way better than PSK31 in the mud

so i've been chasing this 3B8 station for like two weeks and kept getting nowhere. massive pileup every time, hundreds of stations calling, the usual chaos. i finally got him sunday morning around 0630 local and i want to think about what actually made the difference because honestly i'm still not 100% sure. what i ended up doing was listening for a solid 10-15 minutes before even touching the mic. figured out he was working split, running about 5 up, and had a pattern where he'd come back to stations ending in numbers 3-7 more often than not, probably just coincidence but i timed my calls to fit between his QRZs and kept my call short, just the suffix once or twice. running 500w into a 3el yagi at 45ft, nothing crazy. i know the common advice is dont tail-end, dont call when hes already in a QSO, listen listen listen. but im curious what specific techniques people have actually found useful beyond the basics. like do you mess with your timing based on propagation conditions, or work the edges of the pileup frequency, or what. also does running full legal limit actually help that much or is it mostly antenna that matters in these situations

So the CTCSS tone is basically a subaudible signal that goes out with your audio when you transmit — the repeater's receiver is set to only open up when it hears that specific tone, otherwise random noise or signals from other areas might accidentally key it up. Think of it less like a password and more like a filter. Some repeaters also send a tone back to you on the output side, which your radio can use to squelch out everything except that repeater's signal, but that's a separate thing called DCS or just receive tone and you don't always need to program that in. As for jumping in — what you did was exactly right. Waiting for a gap and just throwing your callsign out there is the normal way to do it. If the guys are in a ragchew and they want to keep going they'll either acknowledge you and bring you in or they might not hear you and that's fine too. Just try again. Nobody owns the repeater and most folks are happy to have someone new jump in, especially once they know you're a newly licensed op. Don't stress it.

im fairly new to chasing DX seriously, only been licensed about 2 years, but one thing nobody told me early on was to check the DXpedition's cluster spots and see if they mention a specific operating style or split range in their announcements. some of the bigger DXpeditions post updates on their website or the dx world site saying stuff like "we are listening 5 to 10 up" or whatever and a lot of people just ignore that and call anywhere. also FT8 has been kind of a game changer for me on the rarer ones because the pileup dynamics are totally different and honestly more manageable when youre still figuring things out

oh man i remember being in exactly this spot a couple years ago. honestly at 10-12 wpm its almost always technique before its the keyer. the Winkeyer is solid hardware, it's not going to be the culprit. the weight setting adjusts the dit/dah ratio so if everything sounds a little heavy or light that can help but i'd leave it close to default for now until your muscle memory settles in a bit more. the grip thing you mentioned is real. a lot of people death-grip the paddle when they're concentrating hard and that translates directly into inconsistent squeeze pressure. try consciously relaxing your hand before each character, sounds dumb but it helped me a lot. also check your paddle tension and spacing, even a tiny bit too much spring tension makes everything feel like a fight. just back it off until it feels almost too easy to move and go from there.

so ive been sitting on doing this for about a year now and finally just did it last weekend. the mars/cap mod on the IC-7300 is pretty straightforward, just the one jumper on the board, took maybe 20 minutes including the time i spent second-guessing myself and looking at the photos again. transmit now covers the full range without the rig complaining at me. while i had it open i also went ahead and swapped out the stock fan for a Noctua NF-A4x20 which honestly should have been done day one. the original fan is... not quiet. the noctua runs so much cooler and barely makes any noise at all. i was skeptical it would move enough air but temps look totally normal under extended digital operation which is where i was getting a little worried before. anyone else done any other worthwhile mods to the 7300? ive seen some stuff about the display brightness mod and the ref oscillator upgrade but not sure if the TCXO swap is actually worth the money for general HF use or if thats more of a you-need-it-for-specific-things situation.

you might be thinking of the one the miami valley dx association puts on, they do one every spring i think. worth checking their website or just calling someone at the club. last time i went i picked up a pretty decent MFJ tuner for like 20 bucks so yeah the swap tables are worth getting there early for, stuff goes fast

so ive been a General for about two years now and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the Extra class exam. like i get that you get the full band privileges and the extra portions of HF open up but honestly i dont feel like i operate that much in those segments anyway. the theory questions are what worry me, like i remember struggling with some of the General pool stuff around impedance matching and filter theory and from what ive seen the Extra pool goes way deeper into that stuff. anyone actually been through it recently and can tell me if the extra theory is as rough as it looks or is it kind of the same deal where you just grind the question pool until it sticks. also not sure if the operating privileges are even that big a deal for what i do, mostly 40m and 20m ssb nothing fancy

honestly came here to say the same thing as the other reply. dipole is just less things to go wrong. i built a vertical for 40 last spring with like 20 radials and it works fine but getting it tuned was kind of a pain and i kept second guessing the ground connection. one thing though — if you end up going dipole and the neighbor lets you use the oak, just be ready for it to move around in the wind and detune a little. mine shifts maybe 15-20 khz depending on how wet the leaves are which sounds dumb but its true. not a huge deal with an auto tuner but worth knowing.

so i've had my general for about eight months now and kept meaning to go to one of these ARES meetings and i finally dragged myself out on a tuesday night to check it out. honestly wasnt sure what to expect, i figured it'd be a bunch of guys sitting around talking about radios which, okay, it kind of was, but also way more organized than i thought. they talked a lot about ICS and NIMS which i've heard of but honestly dont fully understand how it all ties into what we'd actually be doing on the air. like i get the incident command structure stuff from a high level but when they started talking about net control and how traffic flows during an activation i got a little lost. is there like a good resource for getting up to speed on that side of things before the next meeting? i dont want to show up and be completely useless if something actually happens. also they mentioned something about the ARRL ARES Field Resources Manual but i couldnt find it on the site right away. anyone used that? worth reading through the whole thing or is there specific sections that are more practical