Amanda Foster

Just got my Technician license last month and looking to install my first mobile rig in my 2024 Ford F-150. I've narrowed it down to either the Yaesu FTM-300DR or Icom ID-2730A. Main question is about antenna placement - I'm seeing mixed advice about roof center versus fender mount. Is drilling the roof really worth the performance gain over a mag mount? Also wondering about the best spot to mount the control head where it's visible but not screaming "steal me" to passing thieves. Planning to run power directly to the battery with proper fusing. Any other gotchas I should watch out for on a first install?

The link between radio/amp/tuner/antenna switch is an open protocol so FlexRadio handles audio separately from control data. My 6700 typically shows 80-120ms total latency over broadband. The native SmartSDR protocol is optimized for this unlike repurposed remote desktop solutions.

one thing i dont see talked about enough is just sending your call cleanly and not too fast. seems obvious but you listen to some pileups and guys are sending at like 35+ wpm and if theres even a tiny bit of QRM the DX op just can't decode it. i run about 22-24 wpm in pileups, clean keying, and i think that helps more than people realize especially on marginal band conditions. a partial call that the op has to ask for a repeat is basically starting over. also on rare DXpeditions specifically — the ones that are run well like a professional team will usually announce their split patterns ahead of time or post updates on the cluster. following those updates and actually reading the DXpedition's operating plan if they post one is worth doing before you even sit down at the radio. some of those teams are incredibly organized and if you work with how they're running it instead of against it the whole thing goes smoother. i worked FT5/W a while back and the team posted detailed info about when they'd be on which bands and it made a huge difference in knowing when to even try.

im in basically the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and just started uploading to LoTW a few months ago. one thing i didnt realize at first is that you can set up TQSL to automatically upload your log if you use certain logging software, that made it way less of a hassle for me. i do eQSL too just because its free and easy and some contacts confirm there that never show up in LoTW. havent really gotten into paper cards much yet, got a few in the mail and they are pretty neat to look at but i havent ordered my own yet. been putting it off mostly

not a basic question at all, this stuff genuinely confused me for like two years after i got my ticket so dont feel bad. your understanding is basically right. LoTW is the gold standard for DXCC and most of the big ARRL awards, eQSL is separate and accepted for some awards but not DXCC, and paper cards are still very much a thing especially for DX stations and older operators who just like having something physical to hold. for paper cards you dont really register anywhere, you just put your address on QRZ and make sure your callsign info is up to date there. most people who want to send you a card will look you up. if someone asks for direct QSL just give them your mailing address and optionally include a self addressed envelope with some green stamps (thats what people call dollar bills for return postage, kind of old tradition) if you want a card back from a DX station. for the bureau system thats slower, cards go through your national organization and it can take months or even over a year but its free basically. honestly id do LoTW for sure since it counts for awards, maybe set up eQSL too since its free and takes five minutes, and then just have some cards printed up for the people who ask. you can get a batch of 500 cards pretty cheap from a few places and it feels really nice to get one in the mail.

yeah the logging thing got me too on my second activation, first one i just did paper. i use VK port-a-log now i think its called, or something close to that, works pretty well offline which matters a lot since you usually dont have great signal on summits anyway. some summits ive had zero cell service so any app that needs to hit the internet to do anything is kind of useless up there

yeah that symptom usually points to the session completing before the message transfer actually kicks off. one thing to check - in Winlink Express make sure your message is actually queued and not just saved as a draft. sounds obvious but the compose window and the send queue are separate and a lot of people catch themselves on that one. also check that you have "send on connect" enabled in the settings, think its under tools somewhere. the other thing with Vara FM specifically is the TX delay. if your radio isnt fully keyed up before Vara starts sending data the gateway never gets a clean header and it just drops the session silently. try bumping your PTT delay up to like 150ms or even 200ms and see if that changes anything. SignaLink adds a little latency too so you might need more than you'd think.

My breakthrough came when I started copying callsigns and contest exchanges at speed instead of just random text. Use apps that generate realistic QSO content - it trains your brain for the patterns you'll actually hear on the air.

From an Elmer's perspective, consider your operating style. Many operators choose vanity calls to honor family members or friends who were silent keys. If you have a meaningful connection to a specific call, that emotional value might outweigh the fee. Otherwise, free sequential calls work great for most activities.

I had similar issues with mine until I discovered water had gotten into the matching network at the base. Even though it looked weatherproofed, moisture was causing detuning on 2M specifically.

yeah the doppler thing is confusing at first but honestly once you do a few passes it starts to click. with the IC-9700 and gpredict you can set up the CAT control so gpredict handles the VFO corrections automatically, thats the easiest way to start. just make sure you have the right doppler correction set for both uplink and downlink frequencies because on a linear transponder they're inverting, so as the sat approaches your downlink goes up and your uplink goes down, you have to correct both directions or youre gonna be chasing your tail. for AO-73 the linear transponder passband is fairly narrow, like 30kHz or so, so youll hear everything pretty quickly just by scanning across it. what i do is tune around on the downlink until i hear signals, then figure out where i am in the passband and set my uplink accordingly. honestly forget about the auto-doppler stuff for the first few passes, just do it manually so you actually understand whats happening. once you get the feel for it then hand the correction off to gpredict. one thing that trips people up is remembering its an inverting transponder so if you tune your downlink up, your uplink needs to go down to stay in the same spot in the passband. took me an embarrassingly long time to internalize that

i dont know whats going on but 40m has been so dead in my area the past couple weeks. used to hear a handful of guys chatting in the evenings, now its just noise and the occasional digital signal blasting through. maybe everyones moved to another band or something. or maybe its just my antenna being weird again, who knows. been a ham for like 6 years and ive had quiet stretches before but this one feels longer than usual. anybody else noticing this or is it just me

yeah the spotting thing is huge, i didnt figure that out until my third activation which is embarassing lol. also HAMRS is great but ive been using Fast Log Entry lately on a cheap laptop and I like it better for when im at a table. depends on your setup i guess. good luck on the next one

yeah the CW latency thing is real and its the reason i never got my home rolled setup working for anything serious. switched to RemoteHams maybe a year ago and the CW mode is actually usable now, i think they do some local keying compensation on the host side but im not 100% sure how it works under the hood one thing nobody mentions is the audio codec settings matter a lot more than people think. default settings arent always optimal, spent like a weekend just tweaking that stuff before i got something i was happy with on SSB

yeah the vanity process is actually not too bad once you understand the basics. you're right about the 18 day window, applications filed during that period all get considered together so it's not strictly first come first served within those 18 days. after that window closes the FCC processes everything and if you're the only one who applied for a particular call you'll get it, if multiple people applied for the same one it goes to whoever has highest license class and then other tiebreakers as for timing you can apply pretty much immediately after getting your license, no waiting period. the fee thing is real though, i think it was $35 last i checked but you should verify that on the FCC site because it changed a couple times. worth doing in my opinion if there's a call you actually want, i got my dad's old call after he became a silent key and it means a lot to me

For satellite work, the Yagi wins every time due to the directivity and cross-polarization rejection. But for everyday VHF/UHF work, I agree with others - collinears can provide 3 to 10 dB gain over a dipole depending on element count with full omnidirectional coverage. Consider a compromise: motorized collinear that can tilt for satellite passes?

Colorado checking in, might have been me haha. 40m has been surprisingly decent in the afternoons lately. congrats on the first activation, once you do a few you kind of get a system going and it stops feeling so stressful

Working on setting up my first VHF packet gateway using RMS Packet v1.6.4 on Windows 10 with a TM-V71A and Signalink. Getting the "not authorized for gateway connections" error even though I submitted my request to K4CJX three weeks ago with no response. Has anyone successfully gotten authorization recently? My hardware config: Kenwood TM-V71A @ 25W, Signalink USB, dedicated 2m antenna at 40ft. Planning to run both 1200 baud packet and VARA FM on 145.010 MHz. Already tested P2P connections successfully. Any insights on the authorization timeline or alternative approaches while waiting?

latency on SSB is just kind of a fact of life with any of these remote setups tbh. even with really good internet on both ends youre probably looking at a couple hundred ms round trip and you just have to get used to it. i run a remote setup to my tower about 60 miles out and after a while your brain adjusts and you stop noticing as much. DX contacts are actually not that bad because the other station usually has some delay in their response anyway. one thing i will say about the SDR remote side of RemoteHams is that having that panadapter view remotely is genuinely useful, its not just a gimmick. spotted something on 17m last week i would have scrolled past otherwise.

I've been studying the traditional CW abbreviations like FB (fine business), TNX (thanks), ES (and), 73 (best regards) for my upcoming CW operations. But with FT8, JS8, and other digital modes becoming so popular, I'm wondering if learning all these abbreviations is still worthwhile. These codes originated from Morse operations to reduce transmission time, and later found their way into voice communications for DX and contest operations. Do modern hams still use abbreviations like GA (good afternoon) and GE (good evening) in regular conversation?

so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just doing 2m and some 70cm stuff, worked a few satellites which was cool but honestly im getting kind of bored and everyone keeps telling me i should just go ahead and get my general so i can get on HF. the thing is i took the technician exam like forever ago and barely remember how i studied for it and the general pool just looks... a lot more intimidating? like the electrical theory stuff especially. i downloaded the ARRL general study guide from somewhere but havent really opened it beyond the first couple pages. is the exam actually as hard as it looks or am i overthinking this. also is there any difference between studying from the actual question pool vs just using one of those apps. my buddy uses hamwhisperer or something like that and swore by it but idk if just memorizing answers is really the best way to go about it also slightly unrelated but once i actually do get general what bands am i even going to have access to that i dont already, like is 40m actually as useful as people say for regional stuff

congrats on your first real one, that's always a bit of a milestone honestly. the logging thing is a real challenge and i dont think anyone tells you how hard it is to stay on top of it when traffic picks up. what we do in our group is try to have dedicated logger whenever possible — basically one person on the mic and one person writing. not always feasible depending on how many people show up but when you can swing it, its way better. we use ICS-309 for the comm log and yeah keeping it current in real time is tough solo. on the after action stuff — ours varies a lot depending on who's running the EC at the time. best one i've been part of was where the EC sent out a written form beforehand asking specific questions so people could actually think before showing up to talk. the ones that are just open discussion in a circle tend to meander. if you have any pull with your EC it might be worth suggesting something more structured, most ECs i know appreciate the input if you frame it right.

so anyway this is something that tripped me up too when i first started. i actually made up my own phonetics for a while because i kept blanking on the real ones mid-transmission which is embarassing. like i'd get to X and just completely freeze. the thing that helped me was just using them every single time i gave my callsign, even on the local repeater where nobody probably needed it spelled out, just to drill it in. after a few weeks it was totally automatic. and yeah the Adam Boy thing is definitely the old system, my elmer used those sometimes and it took me a minute to figure out what was going on the first time i heard it

yeah what he said about ALC is spot on. i spent way too long chasing settings before i realized i was just overdriving everything and the radio was trying to protect itself basically. once i got the gain staged properly it was night and day. one thing i'll add — if you ever get a chance to have someone monitor you on a web SDR while you're transmitting, just pull up one of the receivers near you and listen back. its kind of humbling but you learn more in 5 minutes than reading forum posts for a week. you can actually hear if your audio is thin or bassy or clipping. thats how i figured out my low end was way too heavy and was making me sound like i was in a barrel or something. now i cut pretty aggressively below 300hz and people tell me im much more readable in QRM.

so ive been sitting on this idea for a while now and finally started messing around with it last weekend. basically i want to use an arduino mega to replace the control box on my old CDE Ham-IV rotator. the stock controller works fine but its analog and i want to be able to drive it from my PC for satellite work, maybe tie it into gpredict eventually. i found a few projects online that use an H-bridge to drive the rotator motor and read the azimuth pot with one of the analog pins, which seems straightforward enough. my concern is the pot in the Ham-IV puts out something like 0-500 ohms across the full rotation and im not sure how to scale that properly to get accurate readings — do i need a voltage divider or can i just wire it straight into the analog input? i know the arduino ADC wants 0-5v so im guessing i need to condition the signal somehow. also thinking about adding a Raspberry Pi 4 to run a web interface so i can control everything from my phone when im out in the garage. has anyone stacked a pi and arduino together for something like this? seems like the pi handles the high level stuff and the arduino does the real-time motor control, which makes sense to me but maybe im overcomplicating it.