Emily Wilson23

so ive been running a TNC-Pi on a raspberry pi with direwolf for a few months now and everything seemed fine, packets were decoding locally and i could see them in the direwolf output but then i noticed nothing was actually making it to aprs.fi. spent like two evenings staring at the config before i even thought to check if the igate was actually connected to the server. turns out my filter string was malformed and direwolf was just silently not connecting to the APRS-IS tier2 server. no error that i noticed anyway. once i fixed the filter it started pushing packets almost immediately. but now im seeing some packets decoded locally that never show up on aprs.fi even with decent signal, wondering if thats normal or if theres still something wrong. these are mobile stations passing through so maybe they just dont have enough coverage from other digis to make it all the way in. also curious if anyone is running a receive-only igate vs a full digi+igate combo and what your thoughts are on that. i dont have a great antenna situation for transmitting so im thinking maybe just focus on the igate side for now.

oh man yeah this happens to me every couple years. i usually just let it sit and eventually something pulls me back in, last time it was a contest i hadnt done before and that was enough to get the juices flowing again. dont force it. the radio will be there when you're ready

yeah cycle 25 has been something else, most of the predictions had us peaking around 2025 or so but the smoothed sunspot numbers have been running way ahead of what NOAA forecast. i was licensed back in the late 90s during cycle 23 and honestly this is starting to feel similar. 10m was basically a free DX machine back then, you could work europe with 5 watts and a wet noodle antenna if conditions were right. the thing people dont always realize is that even within a good cycle the day to day variation is huge. keep an eye on the solar flux index, anything above like 150 and 10m is usually worth a listen. spaceweather.com and DXMaps are both worth bookmarking if you havent already. enjoy it while it lasts because the low part of the cycle is genuinely depressing, you start to forget 10m can even do anything useful

so i finally got around to building a proper wire dipole instead of just using that crappy j-pole i've had for years. cut it for 40m using the standard 468/f formula which gave me about 66 feet total, 33 each side. strung it up in an inverted V configuration with the apex at around 30 feet off a tree in the backyard. the problem im having is at the feedpoint — i just twisted the coax center to one leg and shield to the other, wrapped it in self amalgamating tape and called it a day. SWR is reading around 1.8:1 at 7.150 which honestly isnt terrible but i was expecting it to come down a bit more. wondering if the feedpoint connection itself could be causing issues or if this is just normal variation from the inverted V geometry dropping the impedance a bit. also should i have used a 1:1 balun here? i didnt and now im second guessing that decision every time i see the shield getting warm after a long transmission. any advice from people who've actually built these things appreciated, im running about 100w and the antenna seems to be working but something feels off

the chirp at the start of each element is almost certainly your keying waveform yeah. if you're just hard-switching the oscillator or the PA without any shaping circuit you'll get that every time. classic thing that catches first-time builders. what you want is a simple RC network on the keying line to shape the rise time, something in the range of 5ms rise is usually enough to clean it up without making the dits sound mushy. EMRFD covers this if you dig into the keying chapter, but theres also a ton of stuff in the old QST technical notes about it. the heat issue is probably separate. what's your bias point on the 2N3553? if you're running it class A at those power levels it'll get toasty. class C would be more efficient for CW but you'd need to think about how that interacts with your keying. without a scope it's rough but you can at least measure the quiescent current at the collector and compare to the datasheet recommendations, give you a clue whether the bias is way off

yeah the formula is legit, ive built probably a dozen dipoles over the years and i almost always end up trimming less than a foot off each side at most. the bigger variable is honestly what the wire is near — buildings, gutters, wet ground right under the feed point, all that stuff shifts things around more than the cut length does in my experience. your inverted V is fine dont overthink it, mine has been up for three years in basically the same config and works great for everything except serious DX chasing where id want something with lower takeoff angle anyway.

so i've been licensed for about three years now and i keep telling myself i'm going to put together a real go-kit and then never actually do it. after the storms we had last month knocked out power for like four days in my area i decided enough is enough and i actually started pulling stuff together this weekend. right now i've got my FT-891 set aside for it, a 40ah lithium battery from bioenno, and i grabbed one of those harbor freight pelican-style cases to put everything in. i've got a roll of wire for a random wire antenna and a 9:1 unun i built last year. thinking about adding a small solar panel too but havent figured out which one yet. my question is — what do people usually forget when they're building these things out? i feel like i have the obvious stuff but i always see experienced guys at field day or SET events pull out things i never would have thought of. like i remember someone had this laminated card with local repeater frequencies and ARES net info and i thought that was so smart because who wants to be digging through their phone when things get hectic. also not sure if i should keep everything in one case or split it into like a radio case and a separate power/accessories case. curious what people who actually deploy with this stuff think about that.

oh man I didnt even know Hamvention was coming up that soon, this will actually be my first year going. just got my general ticket in February so im still pretty new to all this. is it worth going even if your not super into contesting or DX, like is there enough there for someone who just wants to learn more general stuff and maybe find some deals on used gear?

im in basically the same boat as you, just got my general a couple months ago and been trying to figure all this out. one thing that helped me was downloading the DX Toolbox app on my phone so i can check spots without having to be at the computer. not perfect but its nice when im setting up the radio and want to see whats active before i even sit down

ok so ive been listening on HF for about two weeks now and i keep hearing and seeing stuff like QSL, QRZ, QTH, QRM and honestly i dont even know where to start with all of it. someone in a QSO (i think thats what the conversation is called?) said something about being QRP and i had to just nod along. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just kind of pick it up over time? also whats the difference between saying 73 and just saying goodbye, is 73 actually a Q code or something different entirely? feels like theres a whole second language layered on top of ham radio that nobody told me about before i got my ticket

yeah the collins filters make a real difference on those older icoms, done the same thing on a 735 years back. the 2.1 is a good middle ground for SSB honestly, i wouldnt go narrower unless youre really CW only because it starts to sound kinda boxy on voice. one thing i'll mention — if you havent already, look at whether your IF shift is calibrated right after the swap. sometimes the center freq is slightly off from the stock filter and you end up wondering why strong signals still sound a bit off even with the better filter in there. easy to tweak in the menu if i remember right on the 706.

yeah i caught some of that opening Tuesday evening, worked a couple of Florida stations from up here in the midwest which isnt too crazy but then out of nowhere a Puerto Rico station popped up super strong and we got it done in like 4 exchanges. my neighbor (also a ham, been licensed since the 70s) came over and said it reminded him of some of the openings he used to see back when solar conditions were similar to now. we're climbing toward solar max so this might just be the beginning of a good summer for 6m. on the IC-905 thing — i saw it at Dayton last year in the display case but they werent letting people actually use it. looked really well built. pricy though, not sure i can justify it when my IC-7300 does everything i actually need.

so ive been running a flat top dipole for 40m at about 35 feet for the past couple years, fed with coax and a 1:1 choke at the feedpoint. works fine, no complaints really. but i keep reading that an inverted V with the apex at that same height performs noticeably worse because the legs angle down and change the radiation angle or something. my neighbor just put up an inverted V with the apex at maybe 40 feet and he seems to be working roughly the same stations i am, sometimes better on certain paths. now im not trying to start a religious war here but i genuinely cant figure out if the difference matters at the HF level where atmospheric conditions are gonna swamp a few dB of antenna advantage anyway. the inverted V is obviously way easier to support since you only need one high point. i have two trees but one of them is starting to look sketchy and if it goes down im probably going back to a single support situation. anyone actually done a side by side on this or is it one of those things that looks big in theory but gets lost in the noise in practice?

i just did mine like two months ago so this is fresh lol. the operating procedures section threw me off a little, like knowing when to use certain modes and the band privileges for different license classes, theres a lot of specific numbers to keep straight. also the part about antenna theory i had to go over a few times. but yeah hamstudy will get you through it, i just kept drilling the questions i was getting wrong until they stuck. dont sleep on the part about electrical safety either, theres more of it than you'd expect

so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and done plenty of HF DX, some VHF contest stuff, but EME has always been kind of this mythical thing in the background that i never thought i could actually do. lately ive been reading more about it and with JT65 and stuff the barrier seems way lower than it used to be so im actually starting to think about it seriously. my current setup is nothing special for EME purposes, i have a 144mhz yagi that i use for weak signal work, maybe 14 elements, and a TS-790 running about 45 watts. i know thats nowhere near enough for traditional EME but i keep reading that small station EME is possible now with digital modes. is that actually realistic or are people exaggerating. like what is the actual minimum to make a contact, not just hear the moon noise but actually complete a qso. also confused about the az-el rotor situation. i have a small yaesu rotor but i dont think it does elevation. do i absolutely need elevation control or can you work a window when the moon is at a workable angle without it. feel like i might be overthinking the rotor thing but also dont want to spend months setting up only to find out ive been wasting time without proper pointing.

The ARRL handbook is definitely more of a reference book, not really a study guide for the exam. What you probably want is the ARRL General Class License Manual, thats the one thats actually written around the question pool. I used HamStudy too and honestly if you just grind through it until youre consistently hitting like 85% or better on the practice tests you'll be fine on the real thing. The electrical theory stuff tripped me up too but a lot of it you can kind of learn to recognize the right answer without fully understanding the math behind it, which i know sounds bad but thats kind of how these exams work. The operating procedures and regs sections were way easier for me than i expected. Give yourself maybe 3-4 weeks of studying a little bit each day and you should be in good shape. The HF privileges alone are worth it, 40m at night is a completely different world than 2m.

so i dont even know where to start, been a busy few days in the hobby. First thing — Icom quietly dropped some info about additional accessories for the IC-905 which if you havent been following that radio is their microwave/UHF all-in-one thing. looks like theyre finally addressing the external unit mounting options which was a complaint i saw all over eham. Nothing revolutionary but good to see them actually listening i guess. But honestly the bigger thing right now is 6 meters. I was just spinning the dial last night not expecting much and suddenly ran into a massive opening into the caribbean and parts of south america. Worked a few stations in Venezuela and one in colombia i think, signals were genuinely S9 on some of them which is wild for this time of year. If youre sitting on a 6m capable rig RIGHT NOW go turn it on. seriously. Been hearing the DX cluster is lit up all morning too. Also saw somewhere that the ARRL is planning some changes to the field day rules for next year but i cant find the original source again, might have been a rumor. Anyone else hear anything about that?

zone 5 sounds right depending on where you are in the country, you can verify on the CQ zone map pretty easily. and yeah absolutely jump in, search and pounce is totally valid and honestly thats how most people start. the serious multi-op stations WANT you to call them, every QSO counts for their score too so you're not bothering anyone. with an IC-7300 and a dipole you're gonna be surprised what you can work, especially if the bands cooperate. 20 meters is usually the workhorse for CQ WW so start there. just listen to how the exchange goes a few times before you transmit so you get the rhythm down. the pileups can feel chaotic at first but after a few hours it starts to make sense. Field Day is a good prep but CQ WW is a whole different animal in terms of scale, you'll have stations from everywhere calling in. just have fun with it and dont stress about your score the first time out

yeah just do it, worst case you work 20 contacts and call it a night. nobody is judging your score except you. i remember being nervous about my first contest too and then realized everyone on the air is just happy to get another contact in the log, they dont care if youre running a barefoot 100 watts from an apartment. one thing i'd say is get N1MM+ set up beforehand if you havent already, logging by hand during a contest is kind of a pain and the software does the dupe checking automatically which is super helpful when you cant remember if you already worked that station. there's a bit of a learning curve with N1MM but plenty of YouTube walkthroughs out there. also SOTA is kind of a different animal entirely if your friend mentioned that too — thats more portable activations and summits than contest operating, though some people do SOTA during contest weekends which is a whole thing

check your ptt delay settings in vara. if the radio isnt fully keyed before vara starts sending data you get garbage at the beginning of each transmission and the gateway might just give up. i had something similar with my ic-7300 and had to bump the ptt delay up to like 150ms before it stopped doing weird stuff mid-session. also make sure windows power management isnt putting the usb port to sleep, that one got me bad on a laptop setup.

so ive been on FT8 for about a year now and i get it, its great for contacts and the waterfall is satisfying to watch but after a while it just feels like a robotic logging exercise. someone told me about JS8Call a while back and i finally sat down and tried it this weekend and honestly its kind of blowing my mind a little bit the idea that you can actually type back and forth with someone on like -15dB SNR is kind of wild to me. i ran a QSO with a guy in finland from my attic dipole running 25 watts and we were actually talking about his antenna setup, not just exchanging grid squares and signal reports. felt more like actual radio to me my question is whether people mostly use JS8Call on 40m or is 20m the more active band for it. i checked the usual dial frequencies and 40m seemed pretty dead when i was looking but maybe i had the wrong time of day. also curious if anyone uses it for emcomm stuff because from what i can tell the store-and-forward messaging thing would be pretty useful in a grid-down situation, but i dont fully understand how that part works yet

yeah the documentation thing gets everyone, doesnt matter how organized you think you are. we did a similar drill about two years back after a bad ice storm actually knocked out our main repeater and we realized our backup frequencies list had a typo in one of the PL tones. just one digit off but that was enough to cause confusion for a solid twenty minutes while people figured out why they couldnt get into the machine. the dual net control problem is super common with groups that dont drill often enough. what helped us was doing a quick ICS briefing — even just fifteen minutes before the exercise starts — where you physically hand someone a piece of paper that says YOU are net control. sounds silly but it removes that hesitation. people are weirdly reluctant to step on each other even in a sim. the HF gap with newer hams is real and its only getting worse as more people come in through the Technician path and never really touch HF. we started doing a monthly informal HF net on 40m just to keep people comfortable with the mode. nothing fancy, just check-ins and a little traffic practice. helped a lot with confidence when it actually mattered.

For contest work, I'd take the yagi every time. Collinear arrays work well for specific applications like 70cm and 2.4 GHz but when you need to work specific directions for multipliers, nothing beats a rotatable beam. Build both if you have the space!

so ive been a general for about two years now and people keep telling me to go for my extra but honestly every time i look at the question pool it just seems like a ton of memorization again. like i remember cramming for my tech and general and i passed both fine but i dont know how much of that stuff i actually retained you know? what i guess im asking is does the extra actually teach you anything useful or is it just another multiple choice grind. i keep seeing references to things like filter theory and transmission line stuff and i actually find that interesting, its just that the exam format makes it feel like youre just pattern matching answers rather than learning the underlying math. anyone who went through it recently have thoughts? did it change how you operate at all or was it mostly just about getting the HF privileges below 20m?

SOTA is really its own thing and I'd say dont try to compare it to Field Day or CQ WW, its more of an ongoing program than a timed contest. you activate summits and people chase you from home, it's pretty addictive once you start. that said you can do it any weekend basically, there isnt one big event you have to wait for. if you want an upcoming thing to look forward to, the ARRL November Sweepstakes is pretty popular and a lot of people say its one of the more beginner friendly contest formats because the exchange is straightforward. just something to keep on your radar after you get your feet wet at Field Day this summer.