David Davis44

i passed mine last spring and i pretty much just used the question pool from the FCC website and HamStudy, didnt buy any books. probably not the ideal way to learn but i figured id worry about actually understanding everything after i had the ticket. some people will disagree with that approach lol but it worked for me, passed first try with only like a week of studying. the pool only has like 400 something questions and they pull 35 from it so the odds are pretty good if you grind it enough

so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and been doing mostly 2m local stuff but starting to get into HF a little bit and i keep hearing people use NATO phonetics like constantly, like even when conditions are perfectly clear they still go through the whole thing. my elmer told me to always use phonetics for my callsign but i see guys just rattling off their call without phonetics all the time too. is there like an actual rule about this or is it just personal preference? i dont want to sound like an idiot either way. also i was in a pileup last week trying to work a DX station and i panicked and forgot what November sounded like for a second which was embarassing

honestly most people just memorize the pool and thats fine, theres no shame in it. the test is multiple choice and if you can pass it you pass it. that said if you actually want to understand the transmission line stuff the ARRL Handbook has a decent section on it, and there used to be a free PDF floating around called something like "Reflections" by W2DU that goes real deep on SWR and transmission lines if youre into that rabbit hole.
the Smith chart stuff looks scary but once someone explains to you that its basically just a graphical way to do impedance calculations it becomes less intimidating. i watched a few YouTube videos on it before my Extra exam and that helped more than reading about it. i think W7BRS or somebody had a good one but i dont remember exactly. just search smith chart ham radio and youll find something. the filter questions and the op-amp stuff i mostly just memorized if im honest, some of it you'd need an actual EE course to really get into properly.

honestly same boat here like a year ago. what helped me was just joining a couple of Facebook groups for ham radio in my state, which i know sounds weird but thats where people actually post about nets starting up or going QRT. more current than any website i've found.
also if you have a local repeater trustee or know anyone who runs a repeater in your area just ask them directly because a lot of the 2m and 70cm nets are on local repeaters and they'll know every single one within 100 miles probably

yeah the latency thing on phone is just kind of the reality of remote HF unless you throw serious money at low-latency server infrastructure which most of us arent gonna do. i mostly stick to CW and digital modes remote because of this exact issue. FT8 is almost made for remote ops honestly, the software handles the timing and you just watch it do its thing. tried running a net remotely once via phone and it was a mess, kept doubling with people.

I've got a TS-590S that's putting out full 100W on 6m but dropping to about 60W on all HF bands. This is a common issue in the TS-590 series, often caused by voltage drop under TX load from poor power cables, corroded fuse holders, or loose connections. The rig needs ~13.8V at the finals; even a 1-2V drop limits HF output (6m often draws less current). I've verified SWR is good on all bands with my dummy load, so it's definitely not an antenna issue.
Has anyone experienced this specific pattern where 6m works fine but HF doesn't? I plan to measure voltage AT THE RADIO while transmitting on high power, using terminal strips on the power leads so I can monitor voltage during TX. Any other diagnostic steps I should consider?

I've got a TS-590S that's putting out full 100W on 6m but dropping to about 60W on all HF bands. This is a common issue in the TS-590 series, often caused by voltage drop under TX load from poor power cables, corroded fuse holders, or loose connections. The rig needs ~13.8V at the finals; even a 1-2V drop limits HF output (6m often draws less current). I've verified SWR is good on all bands with my dummy load, so it's definitely not an antenna issue.
Has anyone experienced this specific pattern where 6m works fine but HF doesn't? I plan to measure voltage AT THE RADIO while transmitting on high power, using terminal strips on the power leads so I can monitor voltage during TX. Any other diagnostic steps I should consider?