Sarah Wilson93

yeah my first ARES drill was pretty intimidating too but everyone was super patient. ended up being mostly net control practice and some basic message handling. they had us pass mock Red Cross traffic between different locations around the county one thing i learned - write everything down even if it seems obvious at the time. when youre nervous its easy to forget call signs or message numbers. also dont feel bad if you mess up, happens to everyone starting out

so i picked up a cheap dual lever paddle off ebay a few weeks ago and ive been trying to get into CW for the first time. passed my extra last year but always put off learning the code and figured its time to just do it. the problem is whenever i try to send anything faster than like 12 wpm the dots just blur into a continuous tone. ive been messing with the tension and gap adjustment screws but i cant seem to find the sweet spot. my keyer is an old MFJ-464 that came with a box of stuff i bought at a hamfest. not sure if the problem is the paddle itself or my technique or maybe something in the keyer settings. i've watched a bunch of youtube videos and everyone makes it look effortless which is pretty discouraging honestly. any advice from folks who went through this would be appreciated, especially if anyone has dealt with cheap paddles before

I did almost the exact same install on an F150 a few years back, slightly older model but the firewall situation is pretty similar. I ended up finding a grommet on the driver's side that had just enough room to squeeze an PL-259 through if I removed the connector, ran the coax, then soldered it back on inside the cab. Kind of a pain but it works and looks factory. For the run inside I went along the door sill on the passenger side under that plastic trim piece, popped it off carefully and tucked the coax under there, then came up under the dash. Took maybe an hour total and you cant really see any of it. Just make sure you leave a drip loop outside before the coax enters the cab so water doesnt wick in.

Working on a discussion with my local club about repair strategies for current-generation rigs. Component-level repair replaces defective parts rather than entire boards, with individual components costing only about 3% of board replacement cost. However, with increasing SMD density and specialized test equipment requirements, when does it make economic sense to attempt component-level work versus seeking factory service? What factors do you consider when deciding repair approach for modern solid-state transceivers?

honestly the NMO mount alone is worth doing regardless of what antenna you put on it. mag mounts are convenient but the ground plane is never quite right on most vehicles and you lose a surprising amount of signal to a mediocre connection at the base. i drilled my F150 roof about three years ago, was nervous as hell doing it, but the difference in receive was noticeable right away even with the same antenna. on your actual question though — yeah the high gain collinear takeoff angle thing is real and it does matter in hilly terrain. i tried a 5/8 over 5/8 design on a trip through the Ozarks and there were spots where my old unity gain rubber duck on the HT actually hit the repeater better because i had a bit of elevation on me. for flat midwest driving though a good 6dBi collinear absolutely slaps. the Comet is solid, ive had one for years, well built and the PL-259 connector doesnt corrode nearly as fast as some of the cheaper ones i've tried.

ICS 100 and 200 done? those are the ones that matter most for your first time, sounds like you've been doing the homework which is good. one thing i'd add is just make sure your radio is programmed with all the local repeaters AND simplex frequencies before you get there — had a new member show up once who only had like 3 channels in his HT and we needed to move to a different repeater halfway through. not a disaster but it slowed things down.

so ive been trying to work some DX on 17m and 15m the past couple weeks and some days its absolutely dead and then out of nowhere ill hear a pile up on a station from like south africa or indonesia and i manage to squeeze in a contact before the band just closes up again. its been really inconsistent and i cant figure out if im doing something wrong or if thats just how its been lately i checked pskreporter and i can see my signal is getting out ok so its not a hardware thing i think. solar flux has been bouncing around a lot, i saw it was up around 180 something last tuesday and then dropped back down to like 140 a few days later. does that kind of swing normally cause this much variation or am i missing something? been licensed about 2 years so still learning how this all works