DX Hunter

had both at different points and honestly for pure receive-only HF work the RSPdx isnt even close, the HackRF is a great do-everything tool but its noise figure on HF is pretty rough and you really feel it when youre trying to dig out weak signals. the RSPdx has actual preselectors and the dynamic range is night and day difference especially with strong broadcasters nearby i run mine with SDR++ now instead of SDRuno, nothing against SDRuno but SDR++ just feels snappier and the interface clicks better for me personally. the RSPdx does handle strong stations reasonably well but if you have a really powerful MW broadcaster close by you might still want an attenuator or a bandpass filter in line, i had a 50kw station about 30 miles out that was causing some IMD issues until i threw a simple high pass filter on it for what you're describing, 40m 80m general listening and shortwave, the RSPdx is the right tool. save the HackRF purchase for when you actually need wideband TX or want to do something like replay attacks or spectrum painting or whatever

so ive been going back and forth on this for like two months now and i cant decide. currently running a 40m dipole fed with coax, works decent but i have some feedline issues i suspect and my shack is at one end of the property which makes centering the thing a pain. someone at the club suggested just going end fed halfwave with a 9:1 unun and running the wire along the fence line but im skeptical because every time i read about end feds people either love them or say theyre garbage and there doesnt seem to be much in between the dipole right now is maybe 25 feet up at center, droops a bit toward the ends, not really an inverted V but not flat top either, just kind of... a sad shape. SWR is acceptable on 40 but pretty bad on 80 which id also like to use. the feedline run to the shack is probably 75 feet of RG-8X and theres a PL-259 that i soldered myself that im not 100% confident in not looking for perfection, just want something reliable that i can work some DX with on 40 and maybe get on 80 occasionally. does the end fed actually perform comparably or am i going to regret losing the balanced feed

i just upgraded like 6 weeks ago so pretty fresh on this. the exam felt maybe a little harder than Tech but not dramatically, the stuff that tripped me up was more the operating rules and band plans than the actual theory. like knowing which portions of the bands Generals can use vs Extra, that kind of thing. make sure you know that cold because theres definitely questions about it as for HF on a budget, look into end fed half wave antennas, you can build one pretty cheap and they work surprisingly well. thats what im using rn

ok so ive been listening on HF for a few weeks now and people throw around all these weird codes and abbreviations and i can only figure out some of them from context. like i know QSL means confirmed and QTH is location but then someone will say something like QRM or QSB and i have no idea what theyre talking about. also whats the difference between 73 and 88 i see those a lot too is there like a master list somewhere or do you just kind of pick it up over time? some of it seems almost like a different language honestly. and why do some people say things like OM or YL, is that rude or is that just normal ham radio stuff

so i finally passed my technician exam after studying for like 3 weeks and i was honestly terrified to key up for the first time. i have a baofeng uv-5r that my brother in law lent me and i'd been just listening for a couple days trying to figure out how everything worked. anyway there's a local repeater about 12 miles from my house and i heard someone having a qso and waited for a pause and just said my callsign and that i was new and looking for a contact. the guy came back to me right away and we talked for maybe 10 minutes. turns out he was in wichita kansas which i thought was pretty cool even though i know thats not like dx or anything. he gave me a signal report and everything. im still kind of shaking lol. anyone else remember their first qso? does it get less nerve wracking

pretty much a feel thing honestly, at least on FM. if the band is clear and your signal is solid most people just say the call normal. where phonetics really earn their keep is when its noisy or youre on HF and the other station is struggling to copy you, or if your call has letters that sound similar like B and D or M and N. on a busy net the control operator usually wants phonetics for the callsign so theres no confusion in the log, makes sense when youre handling a bunch of check-ins back to back on 2m ragchew with someone local i know, i never bother. just say it. but if i hear someone having trouble copying me ill throw the phonetics in without thinking about it at that point

so ive been fighting this thing for about three weeks now and i think i finally got it to a point where it actually receives something. its a simple DC receiver for 40m, pretty much the classic NE602 front end into an LM386 audio stage design thats been floating around the internet forever. built it dead bug style on a piece of copper clad. the good news is i can hear SSB stations on it, which is honestly more than i expected for a first attempt. the bad news is theres this really nasty hum thats just always there in the background and it gets worse when i touch the chassis or move my hand near the board. i added some bypass caps on the power rails which helped a little but didnt kill it. also getting some microphonics, like if i tap the table the audio goes nuts for a second. anyone dealt with this kind of thing before? i'm running it off a 12v wall wart right now which is probably part of the hum issue, i know i should try a battery but even with battery power i still get the hand capacitance thing going on. wondering if my layout is just bad or if there's something else im missing. the VFO section is a colpitts oscillator and its sitting pretty close to the mixer chip which probably isnt ideal.