James Brown

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and im starting to get into chasing some awards and i honestly dont understand the QSL confirmation thing at all. like i know you need confirmed contacts for DXCC and stuff but theres so many ways to do it now so from what i understand LoTW is the ARRL thing and its the most accepted for awards, eQSL is a different system and some people use that, and then theres still actual paper cards going through the bureau or direct mail. do most people use all of these or just pick one? i signed up for LoTW last month and got my certificate sorted but i havent actually uploaded any logs yet because im not sure if im doing it right with TQSL also whats the deal with the bureau — is that through your local club? i asked at a club meeting and got like four different answers which didnt really help lol. just trying to figure out what the normal workflow is for people who are actually chasing awards

haha same exact story here, passed mine back in march and within two weeks i had a used ft-857d sitting on my desk. the 2m repeater stuff is fun but once you hear a station in japan or wherever coming through on 20m its kinda hard to go back lol. welcome to the hobby, your wallet will never be the same

the hardline guy probably runs hardline on everything including his HT lol. 60 feet of LMR-400 on 144 is not a problem. i think the actual number is somewhere around 1.3-1.5 dB per 100 feet so youre well under 1 dB for your run which is basically nothing. spend the effort you would have spent on sourcing hardline on getting your mast plumb and your coax entry properly sealed instead, that stuff actaully matters

ok so ive been listening to HF for a few weeks now and i keep hearing people say things like QSL and QRZ and QTH and honestly i have no idea what any of it means. like i can kind of guess from context that QTH might be location because people seem to say it when they're giving their city but i'm really not sure. is there like a full list somewhere or do i just have to learn them all over time. also heard someone say QRM and QRN the other day and those sounded like they were complaining about something but i couldn't tell what. does anyone have a good way to remember these or is it just memorization

so ive had my TS-590SG for going on 6 years now and honestly its been rock solid, no complaints really. but lately ive been eyeballing the IC-7300 just because everyone and their dog seems to have one and the waterfall display looks genuinely useful for contesting and chasing DX. my shack setup is pretty basic — the 590, an LDG tuner, and a dipole in the attic which i know isnt ideal but its what the HOA situation allows. the thing is i dont actually know if the 7300 would give me anything meaningful over what i have. like on paper the 590 receiver is still really competitive and ive never felt limited by it during field day or whatever. but that touchscreen and spectrum scope on the icom is hard to ignore when youre watching everyone else use it on youtube. anyone actually made this swap and felt like it was worth the money or did you just end up with the same radio experience in a fancier box

the eu2200i is pretty hard to beat for that use case honestly. i ran one for three days straight during a ARES deployment a couple years back, fed it a gallon of gas every 8 hours or so at the loads we were pulling and it never complained. noise level is genuinely acceptable, especially if you can put some distance between it and your operating position. only thing i'd say is make sure you have a decent line filter between the genny and your radio gear, the eu series is pretty clean but ive picked up some hash on certain bands without one. on the EFHW thing, if your swr is sitting reasonable and the radio isnt getting warm around the finals i wouldnt lose sleep over it. the commercial ones like chameleon do have better build quality but the electrical performance isnt magically better than a well-made homebrew. probably spend that money on more battery capacity instead.

so ive had the 7300 for about three weeks now and figured id share some impressions since i spent like two months reading threads like this before buying it so maybe ill save someone some time coming from an old TS-480SAT which honestly served me well for years but the display on it was just getting painful to use especially for quick band changes during a pileup. the 7300 waterfall is everything people say it is, like genuinely useful not just a gimmick, i can actually see whats happening on the band at a glance and decide if its worth sticking around or moving RF direct sampling is interesting — reception definitely feels different, not sure i can quantify it beyond that but weak signal stuff on 40m at night seems noticeably better. could be placebo who knows one thing that bugged me out of the box was the TX audio getting reports of being too bright/harsh on SSB. took a bit of menu diving to get it sounding decent. not a dealbreaker but new owners should know its not just plug and play for audio anyway if anybodys on the fence between this and the 7610 or whatever else just ask, happy to share whatever i can

nice one, the KX2 is such a good rig for that stuff. i use mine for POTA mostly and yeah 5w on 20m with a decent dipole up high enough just punches way above its weight. whats your antenna setup exactly though, the linked dipole you made yourself? been thinking about building one instead of lugging the EFHW everywhere

so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a state forest about 45 minutes from my house and honestly i wasnt sure what to expect going in. ive done a handful of SOTA activations before so i kinda knew the drill with portable ops but WWFF felt a bit different, like less pressure maybe? you dont have to summit anything you just gotta be inside the reference boundary and get your contacts. i set up with my FT-891 and a linked dipole strung between two trees, ran about 30 watts on 40m and later switched to 20m when the pile started thinning out. ended up with 52 contacts in about 2 hours which i think is more than enough to validate the activation. a few people called in who were specifically hunting WWFF references which was cool, they sounded genuinely happy to get a new one logged. the thing that surprised me most was how social it was on the air, people asking about what the park looks like, what wildlife i could see, that kind of thing. had a couple nice rag chews between the pile ups. anyway if anyone is on the fence about trying WWFF i'd say just go do it, the barrier to entry is pretty low compared to some other programs and being out in nature with a radio is just good for the soul or whatever. curious if others have tips for finding references that dont have a ton of activations yet, i kind of want to do something more obscure next time

so ive been a General for about two years now and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the Extra class exam. i know the main draw is getting access to those extra band segments, especially on 20m and 40m where it can get pretty crowded in the General portions. but honestly what im more curious about is the theory side of things. i looked at a sample question pool a while back and some of that stuff is no joke — filter design, transmission line theory, stuff about the smith chart that i only vaguely remember from an electronics class i took like fifteen years ago. is it actually as deep as it looks or does the question pool kind of give it away once you memorize enough of it? i guess what im asking is whether people actually learn the theory or just brute force it with the pool. also does having the full privileges actually change how you operate day to day or is it more of a vanity thing at that point

yeah the ignition noise thing is so common and it drives people crazy before they figure out whats going on. good call on the chassis ground, thats almost always the culprit. i had similar issues in my old truck with a TM-V71A and it turned out one of my ground straps was corroded under the lug and i didnt notice it for months. looked fine visually but had like 2 ohms of resistance across it which is terrible for rf ground. the lip mount antenna placement will work fine honestly, i ran a similar setup for years. if you ever want to squeeze a little more out of it on uhf you might try repositioning it slightly more toward the center of the trunk lid if thats possible with your mount — gets you a bit more ground plane symmetry. but really at 1.6 swr youre not losing much at all, most of the power is still getting out. nice choice on the FTM-400 too, the APRS integration on that radio is really handy for mobile use once you get it configured. took me a bit to get the smart beaconing dialed in but once it was set it just works.

i went through the same thing with FT8 feeling kind of pointless after a while. tried JS8Call, liked the concept, but honestly i ended up going back to PSK31 for ragchewing. theres still a small but pretty active group on 20m around 14.070, especially on weekends, and you actually get to type real sentences back and forth in more or less real time. feels more like a real contact to me. JS8Call is cool if the store-forward relay stuff matters to you but for just having a chat PSK still does it for me. RTTY too if you want something with a bit more of a vintage feel, lots of contest activity there.

so ive been a Tech for about two years now and honestly ive just been doing VHF/UHF stuff, some APRS, the usual. but lately ive been getting curious about HF and everyone says you need General for that so here i am. my question is basically how hard is the jump from Tech to General. like i studied for maybe a week and a half for my Tech exam and passed no problem but i've heard General is a different beast. the question pool seems way bigger and theres stuff in there about propagation and like... operating procedures i've never had to think about before. also some electrical theory stuff that looked pretty intimidating when i skimmed the pool. is there a specific study method people recommend or do most people just grind the question pool and hope for the right ones show up. i downloaded ham study and been doing practice tests but im only hitting like 60-65% right now and the real exam feels scary. any advice from people who actually went through this recently would be helpful

oh man i went through the exact same thing when i first got started, took me forever to realize my offset was wrong and that's why nobody heard me. the repeater input and output are different frequencies and if you're transmitting on the output frequency you're just shouting into the void basically. chirp should handle the offset automatically if you downloaded the right frequency but worth double checking. also yeah what the other guy said about just keying up and saying your call — i was so nervous my first time but honestly everyone on our local machine is super chill about new people. some of the older hams actually really like helping newcomers get sorted out.

so ive been trying to get into DX chasing more seriously the last few months and someone at my club mentioned using the cluster spotting stuff on DXwatch alongside QRZ to look up stations before i call them. i kind of just stumbled into doing both at the same time and now im not sure if theres a better workflow or if people even bother with both or just stick to one. what i've been doing is keeping DXwatch open on my second monitor filtered to whatever bands im on and then when something interesting pops up i quickly open QRZ in another tab to see if theres any info on the callsign, like their location or any notes other people have left. sometimes theres a lot of useful info, sometimes its basically empty. is this pretty normal or are there better apps that kind of combine these things? i heard about some logging software that pulls in cluster data directly but i dont know where to start with that honestly. also side question — does anyone use the QRZ logbook on mobile? ive been trying the app but it feels a little clunky to me, maybe im missing something

so i've been sitting on my little uBITX for about 6 months now, just using it at the home shack with a proper antenna and a decent power supply, never really pushing it hard. this weekend i finally threw it in a backpack with my end fed half wave and a little 3ah lipo and hiked out to the ridge near my house. honestly wasnt expecting much. i've heard people say QRP is frustrating and you just sit there calling CQ into the void but that wasnt my experience at all. worked 4 contacts on 40m in about an hour and a half, including one guy in michigan (im in colorado) which felt pretty good for 5 watts. the band was decent, nothing crazy. the one thing i was NOT prepared for was just how much the antenna placement matters when you dont have a big yard to spread things out. i had to kind of compromise on the feedpoint height and i think i lost some efficiency there. also the lipo ran down faster than i expected, might have been the cold. its been bugging me ever since whether i should switch to a different battery chemistry for cold weather ops. anyway, just wanted to share. if anyone has experience with cold weather battery stuff or just QRP portable in general i'd love to hear what works for you.

yeah im planning on it, my club (W3 something, the one over in Hartsville) usually sets up a table there. come find us if you see a bunch of grumpy old guys arguing about coax lol. and yeah the ARRL licensing forum thing was last year i think they're doing it again, saw something on the flyer but dont quote me on that

i just upgraded last month so this is super fresh for me lol. i used the gordon west book plus hamstudy and that combo worked pretty well. took me maybe 6 weeks but i was only studying like 20 minutes a night so your mileage may vary. passed with an 88 i think. one thing i'll say is dont sleep on actually understanding the band plan stuff because once you get your General ticket and you're trying to figure out where you're allowed to operate on 40m or whatever it actually matters in real life not just on the test

Always double-check all your settings when programming a new repeater - offset, CTCSS tone, and make sure you're using "tone" mode not "tone squelch" for most repeaters. Try 146.2 Hz in encode-only mode first.

14 gauge stranded is totally fine for a dipole, honestly ive used everything from 18 gauge speaker wire to 12 gauge solid and they all work. the wire gauge mainly matters for current handling and mechanical strength, and at 100w you wont have any issues with either. stranded is actually better for a wire antenna because it flexes without breaking over time. the balun question — technically you should have one, a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint keeps RF off the coax shield which can cause all kinds of weird issues like the radio being hot to the touch, pattern distortion, noise on receive, etc. but plenty of people run dipoles without one and get decent results, especially at lower power. if youre just getting started and want to get on the air, connect it up your way and see how it performs. you can always add a choke later. a simple air-wound choke of several turns of coax in a coil at the feedpoint works surprisingly well and costs nothing. inverted V at 30 feet on 40m is going to give you a pretty high angle of radiation which actually works well for regional contacts. dont let anyone tell you its useless, its a real antenna and it will get you on the air. just spread those legs out as far as you can to keep the angle between them above 90 degrees if possible.

yeah i've had that happen before, turned out to be a solar panel charge controller at a nearby facility that was going bad. the intermittent nature sounds about right for that kind of interference. if you go back to the same park try moving your antenna setup to a different location and see if it follows you or stays in one spot

I use both LoTW and eQSL, plus QRZ logbook. Most guys and gals will QSL electronically now a days, and having accounts on multiple systems really helps your confirmation rate. The majority of logging software actually support eQSL integration so once you get logging software set up, it can automatically upload to both systems for you.

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and just starting to really get into DX chasing. someone at my club mentioned using cluster spotting networks to find active DX stations and i started poking around DXwatch and the spotting section on QRZ and honestly im a little confused about how they all relate to each other. like is DXwatch pulling from the same cluster network as what you see on QRZ? i noticed sometimes the spots show up on one before the other or the times are slightly different. also are there desktop apps that are better for this than just using the browser? i saw someone mention DX4WIN and also something called DXKeeper but i cant tell if those are the same thing or what they actually do vs just watching a cluster feed in your browser. im running mostly HF on a modest station, IC-7300 into a wire antenna out back, so im not chasing anything crazy just trying to understand the workflow better before i start logging serious DX contacts. any pointers would be great

the thing that always bites people is logging supplies and documentation — like actual paper logs, pencils (not pens, pens dry out or freeze), and printed copies of your local ARES frequencies and your ICS forms. I know everyone wants to go digital but when everything goes sideways you want paper backup. also a headlamp. sounds dumb but I showed up to a deployment once and was trying to set up in a parking garage at 2am with only my phone light because my headlamp was still sitting on my desk at home. your power setup sounds pretty solid honestly. the one thing id add is a small power strip or a RigRunner type distribution panel, makes life so much easier when youre tired and stressed and dont want to think about which powerpole goes where. oh and a notebook with your passwords and frequencies written down because your brain stops working correctly after 20 hours of no sleep during an activation, trust me on that one.

honestly pskreporter is what i use when im not sure if a band is open. even if you're not on FT8 yourself you can see if anyone is getting through on that path and it gives you a pretty good idea. 10m has been teasing people for weeks it feels like, keeps almost doing something and then backing off. supposed to be heading toward solar max so hopefully we get some real openings soon but conditions have been a bit all over the place.