Moon Bounce

So i finally pulled the trigger and signed up to activate K-4835 tomorrow morning, its a state forest about 20 min from my house. Ive done a bunch of hunting from home but never actually gone out to activate a park myself. Got my KX2 and a random wire antenna im planning to throw up in a tree, maybe 30 feet if i can find a good branch. Planning to be on 40m mostly since the park is kinda wooded and i figure 20m might not be as good from there, not sure if thats right actually. Anyway my main worry is just not getting enough contacts. I know you need 10 to count as a valid activation and im a little nervous about that. Do i need to self-spot on the POTA website or does someone else usually do that? And is there a specific way to call CQ for POTA or do people just do normal CQ calls? Sorry if these are dumb questions, just want to make sure i dont show up and stand in the woods for 3 hours with zero contacts lol.

so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i just need someone to tell me what they'd actually do. i have a pretty small lot, maybe 60 feet of usable run in one direction, and im trying to decide between putting up a half wave dipole at like 25 feet or just doing an end fed or a vertical with a few radials. the 40m dipole would have to be kind of an inverted V because i dont have a second support point at the right height. i know the theory says a dipole at a quarter wave height is great for dx but 25 feet on 40m is nowhere near that obviously. the vertical with radials theoretically has a lower takeoff angle but im surrounded by houses and fences and im not sure how much that matters. i mostly do general ragchewing and some casual contesting, not chasing rare dx or anything serious. anyone run a comparable setup and have an opinion? i feel like ive read enough antenna modeling forums that im now more confused than when i started.

just passed mine last month so this is fresh. the question pool has like 700+ questions and yeah some of them are genuinely tricky but a lot of people overthink it. i did almost entirely hamstudy.org and watched a few youtube videos when a concept made zero sense to me. the transmission line stuff and the antenna theory questions are where i spent the most time tbh. one thing i'll say, the extra privileges on CW are kinda nice if thats your thing, and having the full HF allocation feels good even if you dont use all of it. dont let the theory scare you off, most of it is actually interesting once you start digging in

honestly it's not that bad, i was in the same spot maybe three years ago and i think i studied for like three weeks casually before i felt comfortable. hamstudy is genuinely good, just keep doing practice exams until you're consistently hitting like 85% or better and you'll probably be fine on test day. the actual exam felt easier than the practice ones to me for some reason. for the electrical stuff i wouldnt stress too hard about deriving everything from scratch, a lot of it is just recognizing the formula and knowing which one applies. like ohms law and the power formula you kinda want to actually get, but some of the more obscure filter stuff you can probably just pattern match your way through. the propagation questions are actually kind of interesting once you get into it, that stuff starts making sense when you get on HF and start seeing it happen in real time.

Sometimes switching between ITU and DX phonetics helps when the other op is having trouble copying through the noise. But mixing alphabets mid-callsign is definitely confusing. I've learned to pick one system and stick with it for the entire exchange.

yeah the cluster networks are actually federated so different spotting nodes dont always sync instantly, thats why you'll see discrepancies between QRZ and DXwatch sometimes. DXwatch tends to aggregate from more sources in my experience but QRZ is convenient if youre already on the site looking stuff up. the being-too-slow thing is pretty much just part of it at first. what helped me was setting up audio alerts in DXAlarm or one of the similar tools so i get a beep when something on my wanted list shows up, that way im not just staring at a screen waiting. also honestly just knowing band conditions helps a lot — if you see a spot for somewhere in the Pacific on 20m at the wrong time of day its probably not worth chasing unless you have a real antenna situation going. for a dipole at 30 feet youre actually not in bad shape, just gotta pick your moments.

I've had the 7300 for about three years now and honestly for what you're describing it's a great fit. The waterfall alone changes how you operate, you start finding signals you'd have just tuned past before. For FT8 and WSPR it's basically plug and play with the USB connection handling audio and CAT control all in one cable which is really nice. The receiver thing gets exaggerated in my opinion. Yeah if you're standing next to a guy running a kilowatt on the next band over at Field Day it might get a little rough but for everyday HF use I've never had a moment where I thought the 590 would have handled it better. And the 7300's touch screen plus that real time spectrum scope just makes the whole experience more enjoyable day to day. The 590 is a great radio dont get me wrong but the interface really does feel like 2010 compared to sitting in front of the 7300.

Built a multi-band WSPR beacon using RPi 4, Adafruit Si5351 breakout, and u-blox NEO-6M GPS module. GPS sync is solid, timing is perfect, but I'm seeing significant frequency drift on all bands - roughly 15-20 Hz over a 2-minute transmission cycle. Currently running the VK3HN Arduino sketch ported to Python with JT65encode library. The Si5351 is running at default 25MHz reference with no TCXO upgrade. Beacon transmits properly and gets decodedFrequency starts on-target then drifts highTemperature doesn't seem to correlate with drift patternHas anyone successfully compensated for Si5351 drift in software, or is a TCXO upgrade the only real solution for stable WSPR?

dont forget coax adapters and a few extra pl-259s or whatever connectors your antenna uses. i showed up to help after the flooding a couple years back and my coax end got damaged and i spent like 45 minutes trying to borrow stuff from other operators. embarrassing. now i keep a small ziplock with spare connectors, a barrel adapter, and a short patch cable in the kit no matter what. oh and copies of your license obviously, and any ARES/CERT credentials you have. some sites wont let you in without them

so ive been chasing this one for a while now and its driving me crazy. my 7300 works perfectly when i first fire it up, great receive, output looks fine on the wattmeter, everything normal. but somewhere around the 15-20 minute mark the receive just drops into the floor. like S0 on everything, even strong locals that i know are pumping out 50+ watts. transmit still seems okay from what i can tell but receive is essentially dead. if i shut it down for 10-15 minutes and let it cool off it comes back fine and the cycle starts again. ive had the lid off and nothing looks obviously fried, no bulging caps that i can see, and the finals look okay visually. my first thought was a bad solder joint somewhere that opens up when the board expands from heat but i havent been able to find anything with a cold spray yet. anybody dealt with something like this on a 7300 or similar icom? im wondering if its worth sending to icom or if this is something a reasonably competent home tech could track down

I did the MARS mod on mine last year and noticed the same audio compression issue. Check menu item 3-19 (MIC GAIN) - factory default is too high for clean digital modes. I dropped mine to about 30% and the difference was night and day.

yeah this is pretty much the standard setup a lot of contesters end up with. N1MM for contests, something else as the main shack log. i use Log4OM as my daily driver and after any contest i just export the Cabrillo or ADIF from N1MM and import it into Log4OM. takes maybe five minutes and it works fine, Log4OM handles the dupe checking on import pretty well so you dont end up with a mess. only gotcha is if you worked someone on FT8 during the week before the contest and then again during the contest, Log4OM might flag it but its not really a problem you just confirm it. the WSJT-X into N1MM thing does work, you set WSJT-X to send UDP packets to N1MM on port 2237 i think, and N1MM picks them up. ive done it for FD and it logs almost instantly. just make sure N1MM is running before you start WSJT-X or the connection doesnt always establish cleanly, had to restart both a couple times before i figured that out.

We had similar multi-band operations in North Carolina. The big lesson was having established channels like phone trees and digital messaging for initial activation - when the storm hit, traditional notification methods failed fast. Modern ARES equipment designed for rapid deployment really showed its value.

the aprs.fi showing delivered doesnt actually mean delivered to your radio, it just means an igate saw the message and passed it along into the network. thats a common confusion. the real question is whether there's an RF-capable igate near you that will re-transmit the inbound message over the air so your HT can hear it. a lot of igates are receive-only, meaning they only push packets from RF to internet, not the other way. you'd want a two-way igate in range. you can check on aprs.fi by clicking on the igates near you and seeing if they're listed as bidirectional or just rx-only. also double check your SSID on the radio matches what youre sending messages to. ive seen people message -9 when the radio is set to -7 and wonder why nothing happens

Always listen first before talking, and ask 'Is this frequency in use please?' - often you can't hear the other station in a QSO. Your Step 4 is crucial - nothing ruins a contact like someone calling CQ on top of an existing conversation. I also program my radio memories with proper band plan frequencies to avoid accidentally drifting into restricted segments.

so ive been trying to get back into CW after a long break and honestly my sending is just embarassing right now. im using an old Bencher BY-1 paddle that i dug out of storage, hooked up to my K3, and the iambic keyer in the rig. the spacing between elements just feels... off? like my dits and dahs are running together sometimes and other times there's too much space. i know part of it is my fist being rusty but i'm also wondering if i have the weight and tension on the paddle adjusted wrong. been playing with the gap between the contacts but cant really tell if im making it better or worse. also i read somewhere that iambic mode B vs mode A makes a difference and i honestly dont remember which one i used to use. does that actually matter for someone who's just trying to get back up to maybe 15-20 wpm eventually? i feel like i'm overthinking all of this when i should just be practicing but the timing thing is genuinely bugging me.

Getting ready to take my Tech exam in 2 months and trying to figure out the best approach. I've been using HamStudy.org for practice tests but also considering getting the ARRL manual with the current question pool through June 2026. My questions: Should I focus on memorizing the question pool or actually understanding the concepts?How many practice tests should I be scoring 85%+ on before scheduling the real exam?Any specific study schedule that worked well for you?

Learning Morse code for CW operation takes diligence, and the more time you devote to learning, the greater likelihood of improving and enjoying it more. Definitely drop your speed back to around 8-10 WPM while you get comfortable with the paddle mechanics. Focus on clean characters first, speed will come naturally.

i had almost the exact same thing happen with a DC receiver i built last year, turned out one of my bypass caps on the audio supply rail was not making good contact, just barely touching the pad. drove me crazy for like two weeks before i found it. not saying thats your problem but worth reflowing everything on the power supply section first before you go nuts chasing RF issues

so i finally did my first activation last weekend, W6/NS-176 up near Mammoth, and honestly it was a mixed bag. took me forever to find the actual summit boundary because the trail forks and the GPS on my phone kept losing signal in the canyon. ended up setting up about 15 minutes late and the wind was absolutely brutal up there, kept blowing my end-fed wire into the scrub brush every time i tried to throw it up. managed to get 4 contacts on 40m which i know is the minimum but barely, and i missed one because i fumbled the callsign exchange and the guy just moved on. my KX2 was doing fine but i think my antenna situation needs a serious rethink before i try again. i was running the EFHW with a 9:1 unun and it just felt like i was fighting everything the whole time. also didnt realize how cold it gets at 9000 feet even in late summer, packed way too light on layers. anyway the views were incredible and i did get my points so it counts. anyone have suggestions on a better portable antenna setup for summits where you cant really get height? thinking maybe a linked dipole or just a vertical but i dont have a lot of mast options up there.

honestly i gave up on 20m pileups for anything really rare, way too chaotic. i have way better luck waiting for the greyline on 40 or even 17m when the big gun stations on 20 have already worked em and moved on. less competition and sometimes the path is actually better depending on where the DXpedition is. im not running a kw and a big yagi so i just gotta be smarter about when i try instead of trying to out-muscle everybody

so i finally did my first parks on the air activation yesterday at the state forest about 20 minutes from my house. been putting it off for like 6 months because i kept convincing myself i needed more gear or a better antenna or whatever excuse i could think of. finally just threw the KX2 in a backpack with my end fed and a crappy little tripod and just went. made 12 contacts in maybe 45 minutes which i know isnt a huge number but for a first time out i was pretty happy. 40m was doing most of the work, tried 20m for a bit but kept getting walked on. the hardest part was honestly just setting up the antenna by myself without a second pair of hands. the tripod kept wanting to fall over in the wind. anyway if youve been on the fence about trying it just go do it, the learning curve isnt as bad as i made it out to be in my head

Finally decided to upgrade from my trusty straight key and looking at getting my first iambic paddle. I've narrowed it down to the CW Morse 3D printed paddle ($45) and the BaMaKey TP3 (~$190). Both seem well regarded for portable use. The CW Morse is obviously much more budget-friendly, but I'm wondering if the TP3 is worth the extra investment. The CW Morse $45 3D-Printed Pocket Paddle is remarkably robust and can be tossed in a backpack without covers, and it's easily adjustable in the field. The BaMaKeY TP-III is another solid paddle that's not inexpensive, but worth the purchase. Anyone have hands-on experience with both? I mainly do POTA activations and some ragchewing on 20m. Speed isn't critical yet - I'm comfortable around 15-18 WPM.

the fan is almost certainly your culprit for the low rumble, i went through something similar and didnt figure it out for weeks because i convinced myself it had to be something complicated. PR-40 is a dynamic mic with decent rejection but it's not magic, get it away from the fan or point the fan somewhere else and see what happens first before you dig into anything else. as for general SSB audio quality — a few things ive learned the hard way. your ALC should barely be moving on normal speech peaks, if its bouncing up constantly youre overdriving the front end and that causes all sorts of compression artifacts. on the 7300 specifically i found that setting the mic gain so the ALC indicator just kisses the top on loud syllables and then backing it off a hair gives cleaner audio than running it hotter and relying on the speech processor to do heavy lifting. the built in speech processor on that radio is decent but it works better when your baseline level is already good. also make sure your bass response isnt too high, SSB is a relatively narrow channel and all that low end just turns into mud over RF, most guys who sound really crisp are rolling off below 150hz or so whether they know it or not

oh man yeah my first one was a disaster too, forgot my coax adapter and had to drive home. at least you got 8 contacts out of it. honestly the antenna placement thing takes a while to get a feel for, i always scope out the park on google maps satellite view beforehand now to look for tall trees. also a throw bag and some paracord helps a ton for getting the wire up higher. you'll get it next time for sure