David Williams99

so ive been trying to figure out if its worth the drive this year, last time i went i think it was like 2019 or something before everything went sideways and it was pretty decent, got a good deal on an old Kenwood HT that still works great. wondering if anyone here has heard anything about how big it usually is these days, i know some of these regional fests have kind of shrunk down since covid and never really bounced back
also the club is doing a swap meet the weekend after at the fairgrounds, different thing, just thought id mention it in case anyone local didnt know

so ive been messing around with this for a few weeks now and im at the point where i either need help or need to just accept i dont know enough python to make this work properly. basically the idea is to have a raspberry pi zero w sitting between my logging software and the rotator controller, parsing the AZ commands from ham radio deluxe and then sending the right voltage signals out through a little MCP4725 DAC board to the rotator's analog input.
the hardware side actually went smoother than i expected, i got the i2c talking to the DAC no problem and i can move the antenna manually by just writing values to the register from the terminal. the issue is the software side — when HRD sends a new azimuth command the pi sometimes just misses it entirely or processes it late and the antenna ends up like 15 degrees off where it should be. i think its a threading issue in my script but honestly im not sure. also running this over wifi feels kinda sketchy, wondering if i should just hardwire it with ethernet or use a small pi 3 instead of the zero.
anyone done something similar? doesnt have to be rotator specific, just curious if theres a better way to handle serial parsing on these things without it getting flakey.

this is super inspiring, ive been looking at the QCX mini too but was nervous about the kit build since i haven't done a ton of SMD stuff. was there much surface mount soldering or is most of it through hole? also did you have to do much alignment or calibration after you finished it, that part sounds kind of intimidating to me

your fan dipole at 35 feet is probably limiting you more than the radio tbh. not saying the 7610 isnt a better rig because it clearly is, but ive seen guys wring amazing performance out of 7300s with good antennas and proper grounding. whats your noise floor like? if youre in a suburban area with a lot of QRM the roofing filter improvement matters a lot less than just getting the antenna higher or trying a different polarization

the UDP thing the other guy mentioned is the way to go for WSJT-X, took me like 20 minutes to figure out the first time but once its running you forget its even there. one thing i'll add — when you import your N1MM contest log into Log4OM afterward just make sure your ADIF fields are mapping correctly, especially the contest exchange fields because sometimes they end up in weird places and your award tracking gets confused about grid squares or whatever
honestly for pure day to day logging Log4OM is way nicer to look at and use than N1MM. N1MM is kind of ugly and the learning curve is real but in a contest it just does what it needs to do and gets out of the way. different tools for different jobs i guess

so ive been chasing rare DX for probably 6 years now and for the longest time i just could not break a pileup to save my life. VP6 last year, 3Y before that, just wall after wall of stations and i'd be sitting there calling for 45 minutes getting nowhere. i know the basics everyone says — listen first, find the DX station's pattern, work split properly — but actually doing it under pressure is a whole different thing.
what finally clicked for me was really committing to listening before i ever key up. like actually listening for 10-15 minutes minimum to figure out where the DX is actually listening vs where everyone THINKS they're listening. theres usually a sweet spot maybe 2-3 kHz up from where the crowd is hammering and the DX keeps coming back to it, and if you put yourself just above or below that you suddenly exist to them.
also started running a bit more power when i got the amp sorted out, but honestly i think the timing thing matters way more than the signal. ive heard guys with kW setups call forever and little pistols crack through because they were just landing at the right moment. anyone else have techniques that actually worked for them? curious if the split listening approach is consistent or if i just got lucky a couple times

okay so the chart thing, dont do that, seriously it'll slow you down and you end up counting in your head every time which is a really hard habit to break later. the method most people swear by now is Koch method which basically starts you at a fast speed right away, like 15-20wpm character speed, but only two characters at a time until you can copy them reliably and then you add one more. the idea is your brain learns the sound as a whole thing instead of dit-dah-dah means M or whatever. LCWO dot net is free and does Koch training, i used that for the first few months and it actually works. G4FON also has a good trainer if you want something on your desktop. the other thing people mention is Farnsworth timing where the characters are sent fast but the spaces between them are longer so you have time to think, and then you gradually shrink the gaps as you get better. honestly just pick one method and stick with it for a few weeks before deciding it isnt working, cause thats where most people give up too early

so i just passed my tech exam last week (finally) and im looking at getting my first handheld radio. ive been reading threads on here for like two months and honestly i feel more confused now than when i started. everyone seems to have really strong opinions and half the time the posts are from 2015 so i dont know whats still relevant.
my main thing is i want something to hit the local repeaters, maybe do some simplex with a buddy who just got licensed too. nothing crazy. i keep seeing the baofeng UV-5R recommended everywhere as a starter but then just as many people saying to avoid it and spend a little more. i was also looking at the yaesu FT-60R because someone at my club mentioned it but that ones older right? and then theres the wouxun stuff and a couple others.
budget is probably around 50-100 dollars, could stretch to 150 if it actually makes sense. i dont want to buy something twice basically. what would you guys actually get if you were starting over today

Just finished modeling a 6-element DK7ZB design in EZNEC and comparing the predicted bandwidth to actual measurements. The modeled SWR curve showed flat response from 144-148 MHz, but real-world testing revealed some interesting differences.
Using a NanoVNA to sweep the entire 2m band, I found the antenna's resonant point had shifted about 500 kHz higher than predicted. SWR changed from around 1.15 down to 1.08 and showed almost constant response across the entire band. Adding a single ferrite choke made a noticeable improvement.
For anyone building yagis, don't just check SWR at one frequency. It's far better to look at the SWR at multiple frequencies across the amateur band and check it closely across the band. The bandwidth characteristics can surprise you.

so ive been going to hamvention on and off for like 12 years but missed the last two because of work stuff and im finally thinking about making the trip again this year. mostly just want to walk the flea market honestly, never been a huge indoor vendor guy but i always end up spending way too much on random coax fittings and old handhelds i dont need lol
anyone else from the midwest planning on going? also curious if the swap meet area is still as big as it used to be, heard they kind of shuffled things around after covid and i dont know what to expect anymore

so we finally did a proper simulated emergency exercise with our local ARES group, been planning it for like three months and honestly i wasnt sure what to expect. the scenario was a major flooding event cutting off the county EOC from the hospital and two shelters, and we had to establish net control and pass traffic between all the sites using only our HF and VHF assets since we assumed internet and cell was down.
what surprised me the most was how fast things got confusing when multiple operators started checking in at once. we had practiced individual skills but nobody really drilled on net discipline and it showed — people were doubling, talking over each other, and one guy kept giving long ragchew-style status reports when a short formatted message would have done the job. we ended up losing about 20 minutes just sorting out who was on frequency and what priority each message had.
also learned that written message forms matter way more than i thought. we had one operator at the shelter improvising his traffic off the top of his head and by the time it got relayed to EOC some of the details had shifted. like a telephone game. ICS 213 forms exist for a reason and we were kinda sloppy about enforcing them at the start.
anyway overall it was really valuable and kind of humbling. would love to hear if others have done similar exercises and what tripped them up — especially curious if anyone has tips for training newer operators on net control procedures before they get thrown in during an actual event.