Rebecca Davis

honestly your list sounds pretty solid for a starting point, dont overthink it too much. one thing that trips people up is power connectors -- make sure you have anderson powerpoles on everything and maybe carry a few spare ones loose in the kit. i cant tell you how many times ive seen someone show up to an activation and their radio uses a different connector than everything else they brought. also a small notepad is good but i'd add a waterproof one, the regular paper kind turns into mush if youre working outdoors in any kind of weather. and if your j-pole needs a mast think about what you're gonna do for that. i use a painter's pole from the hardware store, breaks down small and works great. headlamp is not dumb at all, that's actually smart thinking, you'll want it. the thing nobody thinks about until they need it is documentation -- like a laminated card with your call sign, your local repeater freqs, ARES contact info, maybe APRS settings. when youre stressed and tired your brain doesnt remember things you think are obvious.

Welcome to the hobby! We use our call signs along with our first names. Something like "KE0ABC, this is John in Springfield" works perfectly. The key is to speak clearly and don't rush - net control needs time to copy your information down.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been at it for about 3 months now. i use the Morse Mania app on my phone and its pretty decent for commuting or whatever. still nowhere near being able to actually use it on the air but i can copy maybe 10-12 wpm on a good day which feels like progress. one thing that helped me was just listening to slow CW nets on the air even before i could really copy much, theres something about hearing it in a real context that made it feel more real and kept me motivated. W1AW broadcasts code practice at different speeds too which is nice because you can check yourself against the published text afterwards

Avoid using non-standard words like "Apple" instead of "Alpha" - stick to the standard alphabet to avoid confusion. Always indicate when you're spelling phonetically to avoid confusion with regular conversation. Practice saying your callsign phonetically until it becomes second nature.

so i've been watching the solar flux index pretty closely the last few weeks and man it has been bouncing around a lot. saw it hit 180 something the other day and i jumped on 10m just on a whim and ended up working like 6 or 7 EU stations in about an hour which honestly i wasnt expecting at all. i'm in the midwest so 10m to europe is hit or miss for me usually but it was wide open, signals were 59 plus on some of them. anyway i'm kind of curious if other people are tracking this stuff more actively now that we're deeper into solar cycle 25. i know the predictions said it would be stronger than they initially thought but this still feels like more than i expected. is there a good way to know ahead of time when a DX opening like that is likely or is it still just kind of check the bands and hope for the best? i use dxmaps sometimes but wondering if theres something better

so ive been trying to figure out if its worth the drive, its about 90 minutes each way for me and last year the swap meet tables were kind of sparse. anybody been to this one before or planning to go? looking to maybe find a decent HF rig or at least some coax and connectors without paying shipping on everything

so ive been trying to sort out a proper remote station setup for maybe 3 months now and im kind of going in circles. my shack is at a rural property about 90 miles away from where i actually live most of the week and the plan was to just VPN in and run the rig directly but latency on the audio has been kind of brutal depending on the day. a buddy suggested RemoteHams and i poked around on the site but honestly its a bit confusing whether im looking at the SDR remote piece or the full client-server thing they have going on. like are those two different products or is the SDR remote just a mode within the main platform? their docs are not exactly crystal clear on this. separately ive been looking at internet linking just to have a backup path in case i want to get on from somewhere with spotty uplink — thinking maybe run Allstar on a node at the shack and link in when needed, i know its not the same as HF remote but for VHF/UHF work its probably fine. anyway the main question is whether anyone has actually sat down and compared RemoteHams against RCForb in terms of latency and how they handle marginal internet connections, because my upload at the shack is only like 5-6 Mbps on a good day.

yeah what he said about the bandwidth. also one thing that got me when i first set this up — make sure your system clock is accurate, like within a second or two. Vara is pretty sensitive to that and if your PC clock is drifting winlink connections will just fail silently. run windows time sync or grab something like Dimension 4 to keep it disciplined. sounds dumb but that was my problem for like two weeks before someone on the winlink reflector mentioned it.

i just passed mine like three months ago after being a general for almost four years and putting it off forever. the oscillator and filter questions tripped me up at first but there's honestly only so many ways they can ask about a Colpitts oscillator before you just start recognizing the shape of the question. the hardest part for me was the impedance matching and transmission line stuff, some of that requires actually doing the math in your head which i was not prepared for lol. but yeah you can do it. the extra band segments are real nice, i noticed it immediately when i started working 20 meters in the extra portion during a pileup situation, way more room to operate.

yeah what he said about the battery buffer trick, thats basically standard practice for any serious portable op. i'll add - for an 18 hour deployment with that load you're probably looking at the genny running a decent chunk of the time anyway so might as well plan the fuel logistics. EU2200i gets maybe 3-4 hours per tank depending on load so figure out whos responsible for refueling and have a spare can on site. sounds obvious but ive seen that fumbled at actual activations. linked dipole for HF at a hilltop should work great, honestly an inverted V off a single mast point is about as fast and reliable as it gets for field work. what bands are you targeting? if its mostly 40 and 80 for regional nets the links are easy to set up. one thing - keep your feedline away from the genny if you can, even clean inverter generators can put out some trash if the antenna is right on top of it

so i finally worked up the nerve to check into our local 2m net last tuesday and wow i was not prepared for how formal it all is. i mean i knew there was a structure to it but when the net control called for check-ins i just kind of froze for a second and then blurted out my callsign probably way too fast. the net control had to come back and ask me to repeat and i wanted to just turn the radio off honestly. anyway after that it went fine but i kept second guessing myself the whole time like when do you say your callsign again, when is it okay to just say "nothing further" vs actually passing traffic, all that stuff. i listened to the net probably 4 or 5 times before actually checking in and i still felt lost when it was my turn. anyone else go through this when they were new? is there like an unwritten rulebook somewhere or do you just have to mess up a few times to figure it out. also is it rude to ask the net control questions during the net or should i save that for after

ok so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, like probably a year or two of just watching youtube videos and reading stuff online but never actually committing to anything. my neighbor is licensed and he keeps telling me to just do it already and honestly he's right but i dont even know where to start with the studying part. like i know theres different license classes and you have to take a test but thats about it. do you have to know morse code still? i heard that got dropped but wasnt sure. also is the test hard? i work full time so i dont have as much time to study as i'd like but i can probably squeeze in maybe 30-45 minutes a night. someone mentioned ham study dot com or something like that but i dont know if thats the best resource or if there's something better. just kinda lost and looking for a pointer in the right direction i guess

JS8Call is definitely not dead but you have to know when to look. i find 40m gets decent activity in the evenings especially on weekends, and theres a small but pretty dedicated group of folks who use it for what i'd call "store and forward" messaging — like leaving a message for someone that gets relayed through other nodes. its actually kind of fascinating once you get into the relay/heartbeat stuff. that said yeah compared to FT8 it feels sparse. FT8 has that critical mass thing going on where the sheer number of stations makes it almost self sustaining. JS8Call requires you to kind of seek out the community a bit more. theres a few facebook groups and a mailing list that post schedules and skeds which helps a lot. i do understand the frustration with FT8 feeling like a logging exercise though, been there. PSK31 still scratches that itch for me when i want something more conversational but weak signal wise JS8Call is the better tool if conditions are rough

Not a dumb question at all, everybody goes through this. CTCSS (some people call it PL tone, which stands for Private Line, a Motorola trademark that just sort of stuck) is exactly what you described — a continuous sub-audible tone mixed in below your voice that tells the repeater to open up. If the repeater isnt responding to you at all it's very likely the tone is either wrong or not enabled properly on your radio. On a Baofeng the setting you want is in the menu under something like T-CTCS — thats the transmit CTCSS. Make sure you're setting the transmit tone and not the receive tone (R-CTCS), which is a separate setting that controls whether YOUR radio squelches on incoming signals. Easy to mix those up. Double check that 100.0 Hz matches what repeaterbook says for that specific machine, because sometimes listings are outdated and the repeater changed tones without anyone updating it. Easiest test is to find a friend with another radio and have them listen while you transmit — if they can hear the tone it means it's working. Or honestly just key up and say your callsign and ask if anyone can hear you, thats totally normal and people are usually pretty helpful. The courtesy tone is just a little beep the repeater makes after someone stops transmitting to let everyone know the channel is clear to use again. Its good practice to wait for it before you start talking.

so my brother in law lives in canada and im going up to visit for like two weeks this summer and i was wondering if i can bring my HF rig and operate from his place. i have a general class license and ive been licensed for about 3 years now. i looked at part 97 for a while and got totally lost trying to figure out if theres some kind of reciprocal thing or if i need to apply for something ahead of time. i know canada and the US are pretty close in terms of how they do amateur radio but i genuinely dont know if thats enough or if i need paperwork. anyone done this before?

not a dumb question at all, this stuff is genuinely confusing when you first start out. the short version is LoTW is run by the ARRL and is generally considered the gold standard for award credit — things like DXCC basically require it. eQSL is a separate private service and some awards accept it but a lot of the big ones dont. paper cards are kind of a tradition and some DXers really love them, personally i still enjoy getting them in the mail even though i have everything confirmed digitally. you dont have to do all three but if youre going for any ARRL awards you pretty much need LoTW. for that Japan card that you received, if the station uploaded to LoTW and you did too it might already show as confirmed in your account, worth checking. and honestly if you want to send a paper card back you can get some made pretty cheap from a few different printers, heck i just reordered mine from a place that does them for like 20 bucks per 100 cards. but there's no obligation, a lot of people are fine with just digital these days.

not dumb at all, everyone starts somewhere. honestly the easiest way to go about it is just use HamStudy dot org and drill the question pool every day for like two or three weeks. the technician test isnt that hard, most people pass without any formal class. the question pool is public so what you're studying is literally what shows up on the test, just randomized. some of the questions are wordy but once you do enough practice tests you start recognizing the patterns. i think i did maybe 10 practice exams before i felt ready and ended up passing no problem. as for testing sessions, ARRL has a search tool to find VE sessions near you, and a lot of clubs do them regularly. some are even online now through Zoom or whatever if theres nothing close. just sign up, bring your ID and the fee, and go for it

i was in the exact same spot about eight months ago, zero background in any of this. i used the hamstudy app on my phone and just did it while waiting in line or whatever, took me maybe three weeks of casual studying. the test itself was 35 questions and i think i only got like 3 wrong so dont psych yourself out too much about the technical stuff. some of it you just kind of absorb without fully understanding why and thats fine for the tech license. general is a bigger jump but cross that bridge when you get there i guess

so ive been trying to work AO-91 for the past week and i think im doing something wrong with the doppler correction. using a ic-9700 and gpredict for tracking but when the bird comes up i can hear stations but they sound really off frequency even though gpredict says im right on. am i supposed to be adjusting something manually or should the rig be handling this automatically? the manual is pretty vague about satellite operation and youtube videos all seem to show different setups anyone else had issues with this combo or am i just missing something obvious here

so i finally did my first activation last weekend up on a little summit near me, W4T/SU-062 if anyone knows it, not a super high point but hey it counts. i'd been chasing for about 6 months before i worked up the nerve to actually go up and activate and honestly i was way overthinking it the whole time. took my ft-818 and a linked dipole i built from a kit, threw it up in a tree with a painter pole and worked about 14 stations in maybe 45 minutes which i guess is more than enough to qualify. had a couple guys come back to me twice which was cool, didnt realize chasers do that. the whole thing was just... fun? like way more fun than i expected sitting in a pile of rocks eating a sandwich trying to keep my log straight. couple things im not sure about though — when i upload to sotadata do i need to enter the summit reference exactly as it appears on the database or is there some flexibility there. also i noticed some activators post their planned activations ahead of time on SOTAwatch, is that basically required or just a nice thing to do. and one more thing, whats the deal with the S2S contacts, i had one guy say he was on a summit too but i wasnt sure how to log that differently. sorry for all the questions just trying to do it right

so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and i keep hearing people say things like QSL and QTH and honestly theres a ton of them and i cant find a simple explanation anywhere that doesnt make my eyes glaze over. like i get that QSL means like confirmed or something? and QTH is your location? but then i heard someone say QRM and QRN in the same sentence and i wasnt sure if those were different things or the same thing. also people on PSK31 type in shorthand that i dont even recognize, saw someone write OM and 73 and de and i kinda figured out 73 means goodbye or goodluck or something but the rest i just pieced together from context. is there like a good way to just learn these or do you just pick them up over time

yeah i was confused about the same thing when i upgraded last year. the band plan thing tripped me up too. one thing that helped me was just downloading the ARRL frequency chart and keeping it next to the radio for a while, eventually it just kind of sinks in. the CW guys get pretty annoyed if you start throwing phone signals down in their end of the band so its worth paying attention to even if its not technically enforceable

ok so i got my technician about 3 months ago and ive been listening to the local 2m net on tuesday nights mostly just to hear how it works. the net control will go through the checkins and sometimes ask if anyone has traffic or announcements and i never really know when its ok to just... jump in? like if i want to say something do i wait until they specifically call for announcements or can i check in and then say my thing when they acknowledge me? also the one time i did check in i said my callsign and the net control acknowledged me and i just said "no traffic" and signed off but i wasnt sure if that was the right thing or if i was supposed to wait around. nobody said anything but i felt weird about it. been listening for a few more weeks since then and still not 100% sure on the flow of it is there like an unwritten order of things i should know about or does it vary by net

So ive been reading about WWFF for a while now and finally decided to just go ahead and do my first activation. I live in the Pacific Northwest so there's no shortage of parks and wildlife areas around here, but im not totally sure how to pick which one to use or whether every state park counts or just certain ones. I found the wwff.cc website and it lists a bunch of KFF references but some of them seem to overlap with POTA references and some dont, which is honestly confusing me more than it probably should. Like can I log the same activation for both programs at once or do i need to do them separately. My plan was to just take the FT-891 and a linked dipole up to one of the wildlife refuges near me and run maybe 2-3 hours on 40 and 20 but i want to make sure im actually activating a valid reference before i drive an hour each way you know. Also curious how many contacts you actually need for a valid WWFF activation, i thought it was 44 but want to confirm that before i head out.

congrats on getting through your first one, thats honestly more than a lot of licensed hams ever do. i remember mine was a marathon event and i mostly just handled check-ins but even that felt intense with everything else going on around you at the EOC. one thing i'd add — dont get discouraged if the served agency relationship feels a little awkward at first, it takes a few activations and honestly just showing up to the non-emergency stuff (health and safety fairs, public service events) before they really start to trust you as a resource. the EM in our county barely acknowledged us for like two years and now she specifically requests us and knows half our callsigns by name, so it does get better