DX Hunter

FO-29 is kind of a rough one to start on tbh because the transponder is getting old and the passband is pretty narrow. i had the same exact problem when i started, thought i was doing everything wrong but half the time it was just the bird being finicky. SO-50 is FM so theres no transponder weirdness, might be worth doing a few passes on that first just to get your rotator tracking dialed in without also fighting the linear transponder learning curve at the same time. once you're comfortable with the mechanical side of it the inverting transponder stuff is less overwhelming

4 contacts still counts, you activated it. dont be too hard on yourself. i did my first POTA last spring and spent the first 20 minutes just trying to figure out why my audio sounded terrible on every contact and it turned out i had the mic gain cranked way too high from some testing i did at home. everyone was just being polite about it i think. the noon thing is real though, early morning or late afternoon is way better for 20m in my experience at least on the east coast

dont stress too much about mode A vs B at first, honestly just pick one and stick with it. most people end up on mode B but it really doesnt matter until your speed gets up there and you start doing tight squeeze keying. for now just leave it on whatever the default is. the uneven sending is almost certainly hand position and tension, super common when you're starting out. your paddle gap is probably too wide too — try tightening it up so theres just barely a whisker of space between the contacts. makes a huge difference. as for copy speed, the old rule is practice at the speed you want to operate, not below it. sounds counterintuitive but copying at 10 wpm when you want to do 15 just builds slow habits. look up the Koch method if you havent already, thats how i finally broke through after years of going nowhere with it

the 18 day window thing is real — basically once you file, the FCC opens that call up and anyone else who wants it can also throw their hat in during those 18 days. if only you applied, you get it. if multiple people applied, it goes to whoever has the highest applicant preference based on a bunch of rules — like if you're a close relative of a former holder of that call that jumps you up in priority, otherwise among equals i believe it does go to the first application received within the window. honestly the details get a bit into the weeds. no minimum time requirement to apply for a vanity as far as i know, as long as your license is in good standing. just make sure the call you want is actually available for your license class — some shorter calls (like 1x2 format calls) require Extra, so if youre General you cant grab those. the AE7Q website is way better than the raw FCC ULS for searching available calls and figuring out eligibility, seriously just use that instead.

just run the honda and put it far enough away, honestly the linked dipole vs trapped vertical thing people overthink. ive used both in field conditions and the difference on 40m for local nets is pretty marginal, you're not trying to work DX here. get the antenna up fast and get the radio on, thats what matters at an exercise. one thing though — if youre connecting solar to the battery while the radio is also drawing from it, make sure your charge controller isnt adding any noise to the rx. had a cheap PWM controller that was absolutely terrible on 40 and 80. MPPT was fine. probably not an issue if you already know this but figured id mention it.

CQ WW is a great first contest honestly, dont let the big scores intimidate you. you dont register or anything, you just get on and start calling or answer CQs. for logging N1MM+ is what most people use and its completely free, takes a little while to get set up but there are decent youtube walkthroughs. the basic exchange in CQ WW SSB is just your callsign, 59 and your CQ zone, for most of the US thats zone 4 or 5 depending where you are. id suggest starting by search and pouncing — meaning you tune around and answer other peoples CQ contest calls rather than trying to run a frequency yourself. running a frequency is hard when youre new and your signal isnt massive. 15 meters is usually pretty jumping during CQ WW if the bands cooperate, 40 is reliable especially at night for domestic stuff. SOTA and the big contests are totally separate worlds but you do notice more activity on the summits sometimes when bands are hot for a contest weekend, people activating grab contacts easier. enjoy it, even a score of a couple hundred QSOs your first time is genuinely fun

haha welcome, we all had that first qso moment. mine i forgot to unkey before talking so the first like 4 words were just gone. the repeater guys are usually real patient with new folks, at least around here they are. youll get the hang of the rhythm pretty quick. whats your plans, you gonna stick with the baofeng for a while or already eyeing an actual mobile rig

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, been at it for about 4 months now. one thing that helped me a lot was just listening to actual QSOs on the bands even when I couldnt copy hardly anything. like just having 40m on in the background while i'm doing other stuff. your brain starts picking up rhythms without you really trying and then when you sit down to practice it somehow feels a bit more familiar. also dont get discouraged if some letters just wont stick for a while. V and B were my nemesis for like two months. they're fine now lol

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. seriously once CQ WW gets you it doesnt let go. i remember my first one years ago and working japan felt like i had done something impossible. its not impossible obviously but in the moment it really does feel that way. i cant speak much to the SOTA during field day question because ive never done a summit activation, thats a whole other world i keep meaning to get into but life keeps getting in the way. maybe someday. but i do know people who truck up to a summit for field day specifically and get a pile of points from it so it must be worth it if youre already into the outdoor operating thing.

man this is great to hear, i've been eyeing those kits for a while. did you do anything special with the antenna or just a basic end fed wire? i'm always a little sketchy about whether a 9:1 unun actually does much at those power levels or if it's just adding loss but i honestly dont know enough to say one way or the other. also curious what the lipo situation looks like — do you have to mess with a voltage regulator or does the rig just take it directly? my background is more on the digital modes side so i'm learning a lot about the analog/battery side of things still.

yeah the debouncing is almost definitely your problem. BCD outputs from radios can bounce around for a few milliseconds during a band change — the arduino is reading garbage in that window. what i did on a similar project was just add a small delay after detecting a change, like 50-100ms, and only act on it if the value is stable across multiple reads. not the most elegant solution but it works reliably. also worth double-checking your grounds. if the arduino ground isnt tied to the radio ground youll get all kinds of weird behavior, especially if you have other stuff in the shack running off different outlets. i chased that one for two weekends before figuring it out. the relay board itself can also inject noise back into the arduino if you havent got the coil supply isolated — those cheap amazon boards usually dont have optical isolation even if they say they do.

honestly the best thing you can do right now is just upload everything to LoTW if you havent already and let the credits pile up while you keep operating. dont stress too much about WAS and DXCC at the same time in the beginning — you'll go crazy trying to chase two things at once. once you hit like 75-80 entities confirmed you'll naturally start filling in states too just from all the operating you're doing. the ARRL subscription thing for LoTW is worth it when you're actively submitting for an award, not before. save your money until you're ready to actually apply. and keep a paper log backup of anything rare just in case, ive had a couple of LoTW confirmations disappear after station updates on their end and its a pain to sort out. 47 confirmed already on 100w and a dipole is actually pretty solid. you'll get there faster than you think once you start being intentional about it.

so ive been wanting to do this for probably two years now and last weekend i finally just did it. built a little pixie kit i got off ebay for like eight bucks, yeah i know its not the most impressive thing but i had to start somewhere right. spent maybe three evenings getting it together, had to reflow a couple solder joints because i was being sloppy but eventually got it running. took it out to the county park saturday morning with a 9v battery and a wire i threw up in a tree — probably 20 feet of random wire honestly, nothing fancy. was putting out maybe 500mw if that. figured id hear nothing and come home disappointed. ended up making contact with a guy in ohio, im in western pennsylvania so its not like a huge distance but i was genuinely shocked it worked at all. we had a short exchange, signal reports were honestly not great on either end but the qso happened and i logged it and sat there kind of grinning like an idiot for a few minutes. anyway the whole thing made me want to build something better. has anyone here gone from a pixie type kit to something more like an mw0yks or an elecraft type setup and was the jump worth it, like in terms of what you can actually do with it on the air. im trying to figure out if i should keep building kits or just save up for something like a kx2.

Great question! I think they're complementary rather than competing. You're right that the Caribbean and Europe are packed with easy DXCC entities, while WAZ forces you to work those tough Asian and polar paths. Both teach different skills - DXCC for persistence and WAZ for understanding propagation.

Hello everyone! I've been checking into the local 2M net for about six months now, and they asked if I'd like to try being Net Control next week. I'm honored but honestly pretty nervous about it. What are some practical tips for a brand new NCS? I know the basics - follow the script, keep good logs, acknowledge check-ins properly. But what about the little things that experienced NCS operators do to keep things running smoothly? Any advice on handling doubles or dealing with weak stations would be greatly appreciated!