Robert Kim

More radials always better than longer radials up to a point. Thirty-two shorter radials will definitely improve your ground plane efficiency over sixteen longer ones. The current distribution gets much more uniform.

HackRF is another option if you want TX capability too, though its receive performance is actually worse than the RTL in some ways, higher noise floor. people forget that. its great for transmit experimentation and the bandwidth is huge (20MHz) but for pure receive monitoring the RSP1A or even an Airspy would probably serve you better. just something to factor in depending on what direction you want to go with this stuff.

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about confirming contacts and getting awards and stuff but honestly im still kind of confused about the whole system. like i know what a QSL card IS, i got a few in the mail from people after some early contacts and they're really cool, but then theres LoTW which apparently is the one you need for DXCC and theres also eQSL which seems different again and i dont really understand what the difference is or which one i should be bothering with. right now i just log everything in WSJT-X and import to HAMRS but i havent uploaded anything anywhere. is that bad? am i losing confirmations i could have had? someone at the club mentioned something about a LoTW certificate which sounds complicated. do i need to do all three or can i just pick one and be done with it

the relay board noise thing is super common with those cheap amazon boards, the flyback diodes on them are often either missing or installed wrong which causes voltage spikes when the coil de-energizes and that'll get into everything. first thing id do is put a 1N4007 across each relay coil yourself, cathode to the positive side. also make sure your grounds are all tied together properly, a floating ground between the arduino and the relay board will do weird things. the other thing worth checking is whether your arduino power supply is clean. a lot of guys just use a wall wart and those switch mode supplies can be nasty. i run mine off a small 7805 linear reg off the main shack supply and that made a huge difference for me. the IC-7300 band data is 0-8v depending on band so you should be able to read that directly into analog pins but double check youre not exceeding 5v on any pin or youll have a bad day.

nice setup, i just did basically the same thing a few months ago with a different radio but same idea. the split mount thing is kind of genius once you figure out where to put the body unit, i was surprised how much space there was under the seat. my only complaint with my install is that i can hear some ignition noise on certain frequencies but havent had the patience to track it down yet, probably need a ferrite bead somewhere or better grounding on the antenna mount.

the RFI thing is genuinely the biggest hurdle and most people underestimate how much work it takes to get right. you're not imagining it. even with decent band-pass filters (the 4O3A or the ICE filters are what most people run) you're going to spend real time chasing down issues. it's not just the radios, it's the keying lines, the audio, everything gets weird. that said -- once you get it dialed in it really does change what's possible. i went from consistently around 900 Q's in a weekend CQWW to cracking 1100 the first time i ran proper SO2R, and honestly my operating still wasnt great. a lot of it is just the S&P on radio 2 while youre running on radio 1, you fill in the dead seconds between contacts instead of just sitting there waiting. if your rate on radio 1 drops below like 80-90/hr it starts to really pay off. your antenna situation might actually be okay depending on how far apart the yagis are physically. the real nightmare is when people try to do SO2R on adjacent bands with antennas close together. 20 and 40 while running is brutal without good filtering. 20 and 10 or 15 and 40 tend to be easier to manage.

I've got a persistent problem with my TNC-X connected to a Raspberry Pi 4 running APRX. The TNC-X decodes packets fine (yellow LED lights up) and works perfectly under APRSISCE32 on Windows, but the Pi isn't capturing the RF data. Checked /dev/ttyUSB0, tried multiple baud rates (1200, 9600, 19200), and verified UART settings. The beacon_postpoll() continues running but no packets show up in logs or get gated to APRS-IS. Has anyone else solved this specific Pi/TNC-X combo issue?

Field Day is honestly kind of its own weird thing compared to a real contest, but if you caught the bug from that you'll probably love the proper contest weekends too. my advice is dont stress about winning or even doing well your first time. i remember being totally lost during my first ARRL Sweepstakes and i just kind of muddled through it and had a great time anyway. one thing that helped me was listening to a contest for a few hours before actually getting on — you start to hear the rhythm of how exchanges work and it stops feeling so chaotic. the CQ WW exchange is actually pretty short, just your callsign, 59, and your zone number. thats it. people make it sound complicated but once youre doing it its almost automatic.

Just added 8 more radials to my system last month (now at 24 total). SWR dropped slightly and reports seem marginally better, but it's subtle. If you have a generous radial system, the vertical can do at least as well as a dipole in many circumstances.

haha the shaking thing is real, i remember my first QSO i literally forgot my own callsign for a second and just said uh... uh... before it came back to me. the guy on the other end thought it was hilarious. you'll get used to it fast, after like 5 or 6 contacts it starts feeling normal. welcome to the hobby, the baofeng is fine to start on just dont expect miracles from it on weak signals

Don't forget about the third-party restrictions in 97.115 when working DX stations. Some foreign countries don't allow third-party traffic, so check the list before passing messages internationally.

ok so i just got my ticket a few months ago and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m SSB and some FT8. loving it so far. but now i'm trying to figure out this whole QSL confirmation thing and honestly its more confusing than i expected. so from what i can tell there's LoTW which is run by the ARRL, then there's eQSL which is a separate thing, and then obviously physical paper cards you mail through the bureau or direct. my question is what do most people actually bother with? like is it worth signing up for all three or do people just pick one and stick with it. i tried registering for LoTW and the whole certificate request process is kind of a pain, had to mail something in i think? and eQSL seemed easier to set up but i've heard some people say awards don't accept it. and paper cards look really cool but i dont even know where to start with that. also does WSJT-X automatically upload to LoTW or do i have to do that manually? sorry if these are dumb questions, just trying to figure out the workflow here before i have a huge backlog of unconfirmed contacts

yeah the mile 2 wall is real haha. i did my first one last spring and completely underestimated how tired you get just from the hike before you even have to think about operating. i brought way too much stuff, ended up leaving my backup battery at the car and honestly didnt need it. the KX2 is a great choice for this, ive been eyeing one for a while

so i finally stopped procrastinating and just built a proper half wave dipole for 40m instead of using that crappy end-fed that never sat right with me. used 14 gauge stranded copper from the hardware store, got some egg insulators off ebay, and cut each leg to around 33.3 feet based on the 468/f formula. center feedpoint is a SO-239 chassis connector i had in the junk box mounted through a PVC end cap which i know isnt the most elegant solution but it works. anyway my question is about the feedpoint connection itself. im getting a bit of moisture in there i think because the SWR has been drifting when it rains. i wrapped it in self-amalgamating tape but maybe not well enough. is this normal or am i missing something obvious. also my SWR at resonance is sitting around 1.4:1 which i read is fine but i kind of expected closer to 1:1 since its a dipole at half wave. not sure if thats the feedpoint impedance being slightly off from 50 ohms or if my legs arent quite equal length or what. the antenna is in kind of an inverted V config maybe 30 feet at the apex. overall really happy with how it went though, the wire antenna is already outperforming the end-fed on receive which i wasnt sure would be the case

If you're not getting responses after a reasonable time, don't waste time - either QSY to a better frequency or switch to search and pounce mode. I use a 5-minute rule during prime time, 10 minutes during slow periods. Your rate meter tells the story.

did the D42 pull on mine probably 2 years ago. honestly the extended rx is usable but you're right that the front end starts getting a bit deaf and overloaded depending on band conditions. around the 11 meter area its fine but if you go much lower than that you notice the sensitivity drops off. still handy if you just want to casually monitor something without dragging out a dedicated rx radio. the mic gain thing is totally separate, thats a different spot on the board. there's a trimmer pot near the mic input circuit and you can tweak it to bring the gain up a bit. i found a decent writeup on one of the Yaesu mod sites, think it was on mods.dk or somewhere similar. made a noticeable difference for me on SSB, got better reports. just go slow with the trimmer, tiny adjustments matter a lot there.

honestly the general exam is not that bad, took me maybe 3 weeks of on and off studying and i passed no problem. i used HamStudy dot org almost exclusively and just did practice tests over and over until i was consistently getting like 85-90% before i went in for the real thing. the electrical theory stuff looks scary when you first see it but a lot of those questions are just memorization if im being honest, you dont really have to understand the math deeply to pick the right answer. the propagation and band plan stuff is actually kind of interesting once you start getting into it because it connects to actually operating on HF. i would not skip straight to extra unless you just have a lot of free time, general opens up most of the HF bands you actually want anyway and you can always go back for extra later when youre not as burned out on studying. good luck

so ive been doing my usual evening listening sessions on 40m and something just feels off the past few weeks. like the band sounds fine propagation wise but theres way less ragchewing going on than i remember from like a year ago. maybe im just tuning in at the wrong times or something. anybody else noticing this or is it just my area

so ive had my General for about two years now and i keep telling myself im gonna upgrade but i always find some excuse not to. anyway i finally ordered the ARRL Extra Class License Manual and honestly just cracking it open made me feel a little overwhelmed. like the General felt manageable but this thing has sections on stuff like filter design and transmission line theory and impedance matching that i feel like i barely touched before. i guess my question is kind of vague but like... is the Extra exam actually as hard as it looks on paper or does it just seem that way at first? and is all the theory stuff something you actually need to understand to pass or can you kind of memorize your way through the question pool like a lot of people do with the lower licenses. i dont want to just paper Extra if that makes sense, id rather actually know the material, but i also have a job and a family and cant spend six months studying also curious what the actual privileges feel like once you upgrade, like do you notice a real difference on HF day to day or is it more of a thing where it only matters in specific situations

not a dumb question at all, everyone goes through this phase. the Q codes actually go way back to maritime and commercial telegraph use before ham radio even existed, so they have a pretty long history. ARRL has a decent reference page with the full list but honestly the ones you'll hear constantly are maybe a dozen or so. QRM is man-made interference, like someone else transmitting nearby or your neighbor's plasma TV trashing your receive. QRN is natural static, lightning crashes and that kind of thing. QSB is fading, like when a signal keeps going in and out. QRZ means "who is calling me" which you hear a lot when someone is trying to figure out who's in their pile up. QTH is your location. those are probably the big ones for everyday use. and yeah 73 is best regards basically, a friendly sign off. 88 means love and kisses, which is why you hear it less often and usually only between people who know each other well. some folks have opinions about when its appropriate to use 88 but thats a whole other rabbit hole.

Galactic noise especially problematic when moon crosses plane of Milky Way twice monthly. Use moon tracking software to avoid these periods. Your system should be adequate - the key is patience and scheduling with complementary stations. Consider trying Q65 instead of JT65 for the 1-3dB sensitivity improvement.

yeah the 44 QSO thing is real, that's what you need for a full activation credit on the WWFF side. it sounds like a lot compared to POTA's 10 but honestly on 40m SSB with a decent antenna you'll blow past it, especially on a weekend. the pileups for WWFF refs that dont get activated much can get pretty decent. for pre-announcing, you dont HAVE to but most people post to the WWFF reflector or use the spotting tools ahead of time — it really helps get hunters tuned in. also make sure you're logging the WWFF reference number correctly in your log, not just the park name. i made that mistake my first time and had to go back and edit like 80 entries. the reference format for US refs is KFF- followed by a four digit number if i remember right. sounds like you've got the basics down already though honestly the hardest part is just finding a spot in the park where you can actually hear anything, some of those nature reserves are in valleys or have a lot of tree cover that makes antenna work interesting

this is making me want to actually join my local ARES group, ive been putting it off because i feel like i dont know enough yet but maybe thats the wrong way to think about it. do they take people who are still pretty new or is it mostly experienced ops

For VHF/UHF SOTA work, the 705 is fantastic! It puts out less power than a dedicated VHF/UHF radio (10W vs 50W) but the convenience factor is huge. VHF/UHF is a good match for SOTA but for some remote summits, it can be a challenge to get enough contacts to qualify for SOTA points. Having HF as backup is clutch.

hah welcome to field ops, forgetting something essential is basically a rite of passage. i think my first three activations each had some dumb thing i left at home. now i keep a dedicated bag that never gets unpacked between trips so theres less chance of that happening. 12 QSOs on a bad antenna angle is actually not bad at all for a first time out, the KX2 punches way above its weight on 40. you probably woulda qualified easy with a halfway decent setup. for stakes i just grabbed a handful of those cheap orange plastic tent stakes from walmart and tossed them in a mesh bag, been living in the kit ever since.