Moon Bounce

I made a similar move but went from a Kenwood TS-590SG to the 7300 and honestly I go back and forth on whether it was the right call. The receiver on the 590 was genuinely excellent and I sometimes feel like people sleep on it because it doesn't have a waterfall. For casual ragchewing the 7300 is great but I've read some stuff about the 7300's front end being a little more susceptible to overload on a really active band compared to some of the older dedicated receiver designs. Haven't confirmed that myself but something to keep an eye on if you're near a strong local station. Either way it's a solid radio and you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for working new entities and all that but honestly after a while it starts to feel like youre just clicking a grid square not actually talking to anyone. heard about JS8Call a while back and finally got around to installing it last weekend.
first impressions are interesting. the waterfall feels familiar since its built on the same WSJT-X engine more or less, but the 15 second TX cycles and the freeform text is a completely different vibe. managed to have an actual back and forth with a guy in Colorado for like 20 minutes which... i dont think ive done that on HF in months? usually its just 599 73 and move on.
the downside that i can already see is activity levels are way lower. i was on 40m JS8 for like two hours yesterday afternoon and only decoded maybe 8 stations total. on FT8 at the same time the waterfall was absolutely packed. so the weak signal advantage is kind of pointless if nobodys there to work.
curious if anyone here actually uses JS8Call regularly or if its one of those modes that sounds great on paper but the activity just never materialized. also wondering how it compares signal-wise to something like PSK31 since im told JS8 is supposed to be good down into like -24 dB SNR territory

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 ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for contacts and my DXCC count has gone up a ton but honestly it feels like operating a slot machine more than amateur radio, you just watch the screen and click stuff and occasionally something happens. started reading about JS8Call and it seems like you can actually type to people which is more like what i got into ham radio for in the first place
my question is does anyone actually use it regularly or is it one of those modes where the band is technically open but nobody is ever on? i checked pskreporter a few times and theres activity but not sure if its all beacon stuff or real qsos. also how much weaker is it compared to FT8 really, like if FT8 is getting through will JS8 also get through or is the gap bigger than people say
running an ic-7300 into a 40m dipole up about 30 feet, mostly interested in regional stuff but wouldnt mind trying some dx if the mode can handle it

yeah youre right about the gateway just being a relay, thats exactly how it works. the CMS handles all the actual mailbox storage and there are like 5 or 6 redundant CMS servers around the world so they sync with each other. the RMS gateway just needs a working internet connection to talk to the CMS, so if the internet at that node is down then yeah that gateway is useless for getting to the wider network.
but heres the thing - for actual served agency comms in a real event you dont necessarily need to reach the CMS. you can do direct peer to peer with Winlink Express using the RMS Relay mode, which lets gateways store and forward without needing internet. its called a Winlink hybrid network scenario. i did a ARES exercise last fall where we simulated total internet loss and used a local RMS running in relay mode to pass ICS-213 forms between the EOC and a shelter site like 40 miles away, worked fine. you do have to set it up ahead of time though, you cant really improvise that during an activation.
also your IC-7300 plus SignaLink setup is solid for this, VARA HF makes a big difference over older modes like Pactor or even WINMOR if youre dealing with mediocre band conditions.

yeah 2m is the right band to start on, theres way more activity there than any other EME band for most people. i run 4x10 element yagis and about 800w and i get a reasonable number of contacts, not setting any records but its not like pulling teeth either. the key thing nobody really tells you upfront is that your azimuth and elevation rotor setup has to be solid, you'd be surprised how much time you lose chasing the moon when your rotors are flakey or your heading is off a few degrees.
also check the EME2 reflector and the online skeds database, a lot of EME is still semi-coordinated especially for smaller stations wanting to work each other. random on JT65A does happen but having a sked with someone means both stations know when to look and you're not competing with a pile. N0UK has a good writeup somewhere on getting started that i thought was pretty realistic about what to expect with a modest setup.

get the generator, seriously. i know everyone wants to go all battery and solar these days and thats fine for low power stuff but if youre running a full 100w HF station for 8 hours straight at an exercise where reliability actually matters, just get a Honda EU2200i or similar and be done with it. fuel it up, bring an extra gallon, done. no anxiety about state of charge, no voltage sag, no explaining to your EC why you went QRT because your battery died during a simulated disaster.
the quiet inverter generators are genuinely not that bad for RF either. i ran one about 15 feet from my station at Field Day and yeah i picked up a little noise on 40 but it wasnt terrible and moving it another 10 feet fixed most of it. run your power cable away from the antenna feedline and youre fine.

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?

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

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