Kevin Turner

so ive been at this for about 4 months now and im stuck somewhere around 10-11wpm and it feels like a wall. when i first started it felt like progress was happening pretty fast, went from basically nothing to copying around 5wpm in maybe 3 weeks which felt great. but now its like... i can hear individual letters fine but the moment a word comes at me faster than 12wpm my brain just locks up and i miss the next two letters trying to process the first one.
im using the Koch method mostly, been doing about 20-30 minutes a day with lcwo.net. someone told me i should just crank the speed up to like 20wpm and suffer through it and eventually my brain rewires itself. is that actually true or is it one of those things that sounds good in theory. i dont want to build bad habits if thats even a thing with cw.
also curious how long it actually took people here to get comfortable at 20wpm. not looking for a magic answer just want to know if 4 months in at 10wpm is totally normal or if im doing something wrong

yeah what he said about a second antenna is probably the way to go. i tried to chase more gain with a longer collinear once and was kind of disappointed honestly. went from a x50 type antenna to a taller 6dB collinear and on a marginal path it didnt transform things the way i hoped. the yagi for a specific direction is just a fundamentally different tool
also worth checking — is the 55 mile repeater on a good site? sometimes the issue is the repeater input antenna or the path itself and no amount of gain on your end is gonna fully solve it

so ive been running SO2R for a couple years now but sweepstakes always humbles me. i feel like my rate just falls apart compared to guys running single radio. maybe im overthinking the second radio or something. my setup is a K3 and a K3S, both into a 2x2 matrix switch, antennas are a tribander at 50ft and a 40m wire yagi — nothing fancy but it works most of the time.
the problem is i feel like i spend so much mental energy babysitting radio 2 that i lose my rhythm on radio 1. like i'll have a good run going on 20 and then i chase some multiplier on 40 and suddenly my CQ cadence falls apart and callers give up. is this just a skill issue that goes away with reps or is there some strategy adjustment that actually helps
also curious if anyone has strong opinions on when to break a run for a mult. ive been using a rough rule of anything over 5 kHz away and i wont chase it mid-run, but that feels like it might be too conservative. sweepstakes specific answers appreciated but general SO2R tips welcome too

FT8 has become the most popular mode on HF and it's very forgiving for weak signal work. Try 14.074 on 20m FT8 - you'll be amazed at what you can work with that G5RV even in the attic. Download WSJT-X and you'll be logging contacts within minutes. Great confidence builder for a new General!

so ive been running a mag mount on my F-150 for like two years now and finally got around to drilling for a proper NMO mount last weekend. figured id share since i spent way too long reading threads before doing it and most of them were kind of old or vague about the actual install details.
did the hole just forward of the rear edge of the roof, roughly centered. used a step bit and went slow, had a friend hold a shop vac underneath the headliner which actually worked surprisingly well for catching most of the metal shavings. ran the coax down the A pillar and tucked it behind the door seal, pretty clean route. the NMO itself is a Larsen mount and i threw a 5/8 wave 2m whip on it to start.
honestly the difference on receive is noticeable compared to the mag mount i was using. im running into the same mobile rig so its not that. the mag mount was always kind of sketchy on the ground plane since it was sitting on the bed cover which is fiberglass. that was probably most of my problem. anyway now im wondering if its worth putting up something for 70cm too or just getting a dual band whip. the single band 2m one is a Larsen 2/70 actually wait no that came with the package, its the NMO2/70B i think, so its already dual band. nevermind. its working fine.

yeah this trips a lot of people up when they first upgrade. so the actual FCC allocations are what you legally have to follow — the ARRL band plan is more of a suggested gentlemens agreement thing to avoid interference between different modes. for 40m as a general, you have phone privileges from 7.175 up to 7.300 MHz, and then theres also a chunk down lower for CW and digital. the 7.125 to 7.175 part is actually extra class only for phone so thats the bit you want to stay above for SSB unless you have your extra.
the band edge thing is a real concern too — your transmitted signal isnt just a single frequency, it has sidebands, so if you tune right to 7.300 and youre running USB your actual signal is spreading above that which is outside the allocation. most people say stay at least 3 or 4 kHz inside the edge to be safe depending on how wide your audio is. some rigs will actually let you transmit outside the band if youre not careful so worth double checking.

so we have this county-level exercise coming up and im trying to figure out the best way to power everything without relying on shore power. the EOC wants us to demo a fully independent setup for at least 6 hours of sustained ops, maybe longer if they extend the scenario.
right now my plan is to run my IC-7300 and a small laptop for logging off a 100ah lithium battery with a 30a power supply fed from a Honda eu2200i. the generator is quiet enough that it wont drive people crazy inside but im second guessing whether i even need it if the battery can carry the load by itself.
on the antenna side im thinking a linked dipole up maybe 25 feet on a fiberglass mast, probably targeting 40 and 80 for local nets and 20 if we need any regional traffic. the site is a fairgrounds parking lot so no trees to work with which is why im going the mast route.
my real question is — is it worth lugging the honda just to keep the battery topped off, or can i run purely off battery and just swap in a second pack if needed. the 7300 draws around 20a on transmit but were mostly going to be net control so a lot of receive time. anybody done extended field ops like this and have a feel for realistic battery consumption with that kind of duty cycle.

so we have a county ARES exercise coming up in about three weeks and im trying to figure out the best way to power everything without lugging a full generator out to the site. the site is a park pavilion with no shore power so were going to need to bring it all ourselves.
our typical setup is an IC-7300 running at maybe 50-60w, a laptop for winlink, a small switch for the local net, and then a couple handhelds on the charger. been using a honda eu2200i for the past two years and it works great but its loud and the coordinator is already getting grief from the parks department about noise during events.
ive been looking at lifepo4 options, something in the 100-200ah range, but i honestly dont know if thats enough to run through a full 12 hour activation without worrying about it the whole time. the 7300 at 50w is drawing what, maybe 10-12 amps on transmit? and the laptop is pulling another 3-4 maybe. if were doing a lot of traffic handling its not exactly a low duty cycle situation.
also the antenna situation — right now we just throw up a resonant dipole for 40 and 80 and a vertical for vhf but getting the feedline run right at a pavilion is always a pain. anyone done something better for quick deploy field comms that doesnt take 45 minutes to set up?

The ground plane is one of the most overlooked parts of mobile antenna tuning. Your vehicle's roof, trunk, or fender acts as the ground reference, and poor grounding can increase SWR and reduce efficiency. Ensure that the antenna mount makes solid electrical contact with bare metal.