John Wilson

yeah what he said, just throw your call out there. i was terrified the first time too and then i realized nobody cares if you stumble over your phonetics a little. the net control on the one i check into regularly is like the most patient guy, he'll wait for you and everything. one thing i'll add is some of the directed nets have like a formal format where they want your call, location, and maybe a traffic announcement but the net control always explains it so just listen before you jump in. you'll be fine

so the short version is the FCC allocation is what's legally binding for US hams, and for general class on 40m you've got phone privileges from 7.175 up to 7.300 MHz. the ARRL band plan is just a gentlemen's agreement on top of that, trying to keep different modes from stepping on each other — it's not law but most people follow it. the band edge thing is actually important and your IC-7300 is relevant here. when you're doing SSB your signal has bandwidth, not just a single frequency. so if you're transmitting on 7.300 which is the upper edge of your allocation, the upper sidebands of your signal can actually spill outside the band and that's an FCC violation. most people say stay at least 3 kHz inside the edge to be safe, so like 7.297 or lower for USB. 7.200 and 7.125 aren't magic numbers per se but 7.200 has historically been a pretty busy calling frequency and you'll just get a lot of traffic there. nothing wrong with listening around those spots first before you transmit anywhere honestly.

so ive been a tech for about a year and finally upgraded to general last month, been thinking about trying cw but honestly have no idea where to even begin. i downloaded a couple apps and tried doing the alphabet thing where you learn each letter one by one but it feels like im just memorizing patterns and not actually hearing the code if that makes sense. like i can do dit dah in my head but when i hear it played back i cant recognize anything in real time. is that normal or am i doing something wrong? someone at the club mentioned the koch method but i dont really understand what that means in practice. do people still use morsecode trainer or is there something better now. just feel like im spinning my wheels

Watch out for the Si5351 I2C address conflicts if you're planning to add the LCD on the same bus. Some breakout boards use different addresses than expected. Post your current CAT parsing code - happy to take a look.

Beyond the frequency privileges, the knowledge gained by studying for the Amateur Extra Class test gives you the background you need to experiment with antennas and electronics with more confidence. The deeper understanding of circuit theory and advanced topics has made me a better operator overall, even if I don't always use the exclusive segments.

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so the Baofeng thing is kind of a forever debate in this hobby but heres my honest take after using one for about two years before upgrading — they work fine for getting started. the audio isnt great, the receive is a bit broad which can cause some interference issues on crowded bands, and programming them without Chirp software is kind of a nightmare. but for $25 you can figure out if you even like HF operating before dropping real money. that said if you have $100-150 to spend I'd probably just go straight for the Yaesu FT-65 or maybe a used Yaesu FT-60. the FT-60 is basically a tank, ive dropped mine more times than I want to admit and it just keeps going. better audio, better filtering, and the menu system actually makes sense. just my two cents.

I dabbled with it for about one contest and gave up lol. might go back to it someday but honestly I found that just working on my CW speed and cleaning up my exchange timing got my rate up more than the second radio ever did. like there's a lot of time being left on the table just from slow exchanges and not having a good feel for when a pileup is going to thin out enough to switch to S&P mode. the SO2R stuff seems like it's kind of the last 10-15% efficiency gain once everything else is already dialed in, at least that's my take

so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did local stuff and some casual HF but last month something clicked and i got really into DXing. worked about 40 entities in the last few weeks alone which felt amazing but now im trying to figure out how the actual DXCC program works and i feel like im reading the rules in circles main thing im confused about is the QSL side of it. like i understand you need confirmations but do i need paper QSLs or is LoTW sufficient for submitting credits? i've been uploading everything to LoTW but wasnt sure if thats enough or if i still need to collect physical cards too. also does every contact need to be on a different band or entity or is it one per entity total regardless of band also started looking at WAS and WAZ at the same time because why not right. WAZ seems more forgiving zone wise but WAS is brutal if you dont have a decent antenna for some of the rarer states (looking at you Rhode Island and Delaware, never seem to hear anyone from there on 40m) anyway any advice from folks who've gone through this would be great, feel like im drinking from a firehose right now

yeah what he said. also worth downloading the ARRL band plan pdf and just keeping it handy, i had it taped to my shack wall for like the first year. one thing that tripped me up early on was 40m at night when you get all that skip and suddenly the band sounds totally different and more crowded, thats when knowing where to park yourself really matters because there is a lot going on especially on weekends

same thing happened to me last tuesday, 15m looked absolutely fantastic on the cluster and i sat there for like an hour hearing basically nothing above the noise. then i went to make coffee and came back and there was a ZL calling CQ on 14.225 just plain as day. bands are weird man. i did read somewhere that we're kind of in a period where the solar cycle is climbing but its not super smooth about it, like there are these quiet stretches in the middle of otherwise good periods. dont quote me on that though im still pretty new to all this propagation stuff myself

so i finally got activated for the first time last weekend. our county ARES group got called in to support a search and rescue operation about 20 miles out in some pretty rough terrain where cell service was basically nonexistent. ive been doing the training nets and ICS coursework for like 8 months now and i was honestly a little nervous about whether id remember everything when it actually mattered. ended up being assigned as a relay station between the incident command post and one of the field teams. nothing glamorous but it was actually kind of interesting work keeping track of traffic and making sure the net control at the EOC was getting clean copy. the served agency guys were really appreciative which surprised me a little, i think sometimes we forget that even basic reliable comms is a big deal when you dont have anything else. one thing i wasnt prepared for was how much hurry up and wait there is. like you're on standby for a long time and then suddenly theres a flurry of traffic and you have to be sharp. glad i had practiced message handling more than i thought i needed to. anyway just wanted to share since ive seen a lot of posts here from people wondering if ARES is worth getting involved with — from my experience so far yeah it is

so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech) and i finally got my cheap baofeng programmed with a few local repeaters. i can hear people talking on them just fine but when i try to key up nobody seems to hear me, or at least nobody responds. i checked the offset i think its right for the 2m ones but im not sure about the CTCSS stuff. like do i need to transmit a tone, receive a tone, or both? the radio has settings for like encode and decode and i honestly dont know which one i need. also kinda related -- ive been listening and sometimes there are these long pauses between people talking and i dont know if thats when im supposed to jump in or if theyre just thinking. and what do i say exactly when i want to join a conversation thats already going? do i just say my callsign? this stuff isnt really in any of the study material i used lol

Been wanting to get into portable ops and can't decide between SOTA and POTA. I'm reasonably fit but not a hardcore hiker. I understand SOTA requires hiking to summits with lightweight gear and making at least 4 contacts within 25 meters of the peak. POTA seems more accessible - you can operate from parks and need 10 contacts for a successful activation. Which would you recommend for someone just starting out? Looking for the path of least resistance to get on the air portable.

haha i did the exact same thing on my first qso, keyed up at the end and just said my callsign again like an awkward robot. passed my tech in march and ive been addicted ever since. started on the local repeater too and now im trying to figure out HF which is a whole other world apparently

im in the same boat honestly, just got my general a couple months ago. what helped me was finding an old copy of the technician and general study guide and just re-reading the regulatory sections even though i'd already passed, because the exam questions kind of force the rules into a context that makes them easier to remember. also qrz has a frequency allocations page that someone put together that breaks it down visually and i found that way more useful than staring at the tables in the actual CFR. still confusing sometimes but at least its a start

I run N1MM for every contest and nothing else, and Log4OM handles everything in between. Honestly I've just accepted it's a two-program shack and the ADIF export at the end of a contest weekend into Log4OM takes like two minutes so it doesn't bother me. The dupe checking cross-program thing is a real issue during like a casual operating period right before or after a contest but that's pretty edge case for me. One thing that helped was setting up a master ADIF in Log4OM and doing a fresh import before any big contest so N1MM at least has a reasonably current worked-before database. Not seamless but it cuts down on the confusion. WSJT-X UDP to Log4OM has been rock solid for me for the past year or so, I think they fixed some of the timing stuff in a recent Log4OM update but dont quote me on that.

the radial thing is real and it matters a lot, im not gonna sugarcoat it. ive had verticals that were basically useless until i got a decent ground system under them. like genuinely couldnt understand why i was getting beat by guys running 100w into dipoles until i laid down about 30 radials and suddenly it started making sense. the gap and similar no-radial designs are a bit different because theyre elevated and use a counterpoise arrangement but even those benefit from some attention to the feedpoint situation. at 25 feet your dipole is kind of in that awkward zone where its high enough to not be a total disaster but low enough that youre not getting the low-angle radiation you want for dx. if i had to pick between a low dipole and a vertical with a modest ground system id probably lean vertical for 40m dx, but honestly if you can squeeze even another 10-15 feet out of your dipole that changes the math pretty quick. what supports do you have to work with?

so ive been on HF for about two years now mostly doing FT8 and just recently started getting into SSB phone and honestly the audio coming out of my rig sounds way better than what people are telling me they hear on the other end. running an IC-7300 with the stock mic and i know i know everyone says ditch the stock mic but even before i do that i want to make sure im not doing something dumb with the settings first. the main complaints ive been getting are that im either too bassy or sometimes people say im cutting out on peaks. ive got the compression on because i thought that helped with readability but maybe thats the issue. also my RF power is at 100w into a dipole, ALC looks fine to me but i honestly dont fully understand what the ALC meter is actually telling me when it starts bouncing around a lot. any thoughts from people who have actually dialed this stuff in would be appreciated, not looking for a whole tutorial just some pointers on where to start

yeah what he said about the tone is right. i went through the exact same thing when i started and felt like an idiot once i figured out it was just one menu setting i'd missed. the repeater directory at repeaterbook.com is usually pretty up to date for finding the tone info if the one you used didn't have it. one more thing on etiquette — try not to kerchunk the repeater, meaning don't key up and unkey without identifying. some repeater trustees get annoyed by that and honestly it's just good practice to always give your call. and if two people are already in a QSO and you just want to listen, you don't have to do anything at all, just monitor. only break in if it's urgent or there's a natural pause and they invite it.

i went through basically the exact same thing lol. ended up with the Yaesu FT-70DR which is a little newer than the FT-60 and does digital C4FM which idk if you care about that right now but its nice to have. around $150 i think. works great on repeaters and i've had zero issues with it

i was in the exact same spot like 8 months ago, just lurking on nets forever being too scared to check in. what finally got me was the net control on our local repeater said on air that they specifically wanted new hams to check in and not worry about doing it perfect. so i just did it and fumbled through it and nobody cared at all. the nets i've been on are genuinely welcoming especially to technicians just getting started. just go for it, you already know enough.

yeah the dots and dashes thing is a trap honestly, i did that when i was starting out and had to basically unlearn everything. your brain ends up counting instead of just hearing the character as a sound and once you get above like 10 wpm it completely falls apart. the thing that actually worked for me was the Koch method, you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20 wpm, and only add a new one when you can copy the current set at like 90% accuracy. it sounds slow and kind of frustrating at first but your brain learns to recognize the rhythm of each letter instead of counting. LCWO dot net is free and pretty good for that, also the Morse Toad app if you want something on your phone. just do like 15 minutes a day consistently and dont skip days, thats the part most people mess up including me

yeah the linked dipole on spiderpoles works great for that kind of thing. we use the same setup. one thing i'll mention is if you're doing 40 and 80 make sure you account for how much real estate you need for 80m legs, at a field site sometimes the footprint sneaks up on you especially if theyre sharing a space with other agencies or the command post is weirdly positioned relative to trees or whatever anchor points you have. on the power question i dont have strong feelings either way but 200ah lifepo4 for a 12 hour op with an IC-7300 and some aux gear should be totally fine. the laptop draw is worth metering if you havent, some of those older panasonic toughbooks people use for logging can pull 3-4 amps on their own. just do a shakedown run at home for a couple hours with everything on and watch your coulomb counter if you have one, takes the guesswork out of it

yeah the RX being fine is actually consistent with finals or driver issues, those circuits are pretty separate on the 7300. the fact that it went south mid-contest makes me think thermal — either a transistor that was already marginal finally gave up, or a solder joint that opens up when hot. i had something similar on an old 746 years ago and it turned out to be a cracked solder joint on one of the driver transistors, reflowed it and it came back to life. before you do anything else though, check if Icom has a service center near you. the 7300 schematics are available if you search around and the finals are RD70HVF1 MOSFETs if memory serves, not super expensive, but pulling and replacing them without knowing for sure thats the problem is a bit of a gamble. honestly if you're not confident with RF stages id say at least get a second opinion from someone local who works on radios. ALC pegged hard like that usually means the radio is trying to compensate for something that isnt there anymore.

honestly for what you're describing i'd probably just run both. i know that sounds annoying but hear me out -- Log4OM handles the day to day stuff really well, ADIF import from WSJT-X works fine, the interface is actually usable without reading a manual, and for casual contacts it's genuinely pleasant to use. then when a contest comes around you just fire up N1MM because nothing else really touches it for that. the two logs dont have to fight each other, you just export the contest log as ADIF afterward and import it into Log4OM to keep everything in one place the 2003 interface comment is fair by the way, N1MM hasn't exactly kept up aesthetically but the function-key macros and the bandmap and the rate display are all so deeply baked in to how people actually run contests that it's hard to care. i tried running a SS in Log4OM once just to see and gave up about an hour in, it just doesn't have the same flow for that kind of operating