David Anderson

so ive been on the air for about 6 months now and i still cant quite figure out when youre supposed to use the NATO phonetics versus just saying the letter normally. like on repeaters most people just say their callsign normally but then on HF everyone seems to go full phonetic every time. is there like an actual rule or is it just a feel thing also sometimes i hear people using non-standard phonetics, like i heard a guy say "America" instead of Alpha the other day and i wasnt sure if that was acceptable or if he just didnt know the right ones. im still learning so maybe im missing something obvious here

nice write up. did you have to recalibrate anything after swapping the oscillator or did it just drop in and work? i ask because ive got an older 897D sitting here with similar drift issues and been wondering if the same mod applies, the architecture is close enough that it might but im not 100 percent sure the part number crosses over cleanly.

so ive been trying to figure out the best way to get coax from the trunk up to the dash on my 2019 honda crv and honestly its way more of a pain than i expected. i put a ft-7900r in my last car which was a 2008 civic and that was pretty straightforward, there was this rubber grommet on the firewall and i just poked through it no problem. but this car has way more stuff packed in there and i cant find a clean spot to go through without feeling like im going to break something. right now ive got the antenna on a lip mount on the trunk lid which works ok but running the coax all the way around the door trim and under the carpet to get up front is a longer run than i wanted and i keep thinking about the losses, especially since im also going to be on 70cm fairly often for the local repeater nets. anybody dealt with this on a newer honda or similar? or just general advice on finding a good firewall grommet location without having to pull the whole dash apart

I tried a ghetto SO2R setup a couple years ago with an old TS-590 as the second radio and honestly it was kind of a mess but i learned a ton. the keying interlock stuff is what trips people up, you really dont want to transmit on both radios at the same time or bad things happen. there is software that handles this, N1MM has SO2R support built in and it works pretty well once you configure it but getting the COM port assignments and focus switching right took me like an entire afternoon of head scratching the rate improvement even doing it badly was noticeable though. being able to S&P on one radio while running a frequency on the other, even if i was clumsy about it, probably added 10-15% to my score in CQWW last year. not enough to move me up in the rankings but it felt like progress. i say try it if you have the second radio sitting around, worst case you learn what not to do

so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld radio to get. ive been reading a ton of stuff online and honestly its kind of overwhelming, everyone seems to have a different opinion and i cant tell whats actually good vs what people are just used to. i was looking at the Baofeng UV-5R because its cheap and i see it everywhere but then i read some things saying the receive isnt that great or it can bleed into other frequencies or something? not totally sure i understood that. then theres the Yaesu FT-60R which seems more solid but its like three times the price and im not sure i need all that yet. mostly i want to use it to hit a couple local repeaters and maybe do some simplex with a friend who lives about 8 miles away. we're both pretty flat terrain, some suburban stuff between us. is the baofeng fine for that or should i just spend a bit more and get something i wont regret later

oh man i was in the same boat like a year ago. what helped me was finding a net that had a specific purpose beyond just checking in, like there are some that do directed nets where net control actually runs conversations between specific stations, and some that do educational stuff or just ragchewing with a little structure to it. the pure traffic nets felt dry to me at first too until i actually learned the radiogram format and started passing messages, then it clicked also if you ever see a special event station listed, those are super fun to try to work, totally different vibe from nets but still a good reason to get on the air with a goal. W1AW sometimes runs stuff like that and there are always events around holidays and stuff

yeah you can absolutely mix LoTW and paper QSLs for DXCC, the ARRL accepts both. when you do your online submission through their website you upload your LoTW credits and then for any paper cards you either mail them in or take them to an accredited card checker at a hamfest — a lot of people dont realize the card checker thing is actually way more convenient than mailing a big stack of cards and hoping they come back the way it works is LoTW credits get applied to your account automatically once ARRL processes them and then paper cards just get added on top of that so yeah its one combined total not two separate things. just make sure your paper cards have all the right info on them, ive seen people get cards rejected because the date or band wasnt clear enough as for chasing WAS and WAZ at the same time, honestly its not that bad. WAS is all 50 states which if youre already on FT8 you can knock out pretty quickly, and WAZ is the 40 CQ zones which takes a bit more patience depending on where you are geographically. just make sure LoTW is set up properly and most of it tracks itself

so ive been running a mag mount on the roof of my F150 for about two years now and finally decided to do a proper NMO through the cab roof but then my buddy tells me i should put it on the bed rail instead because drilling the cab is permanent and resale value blah blah blah. i get that but now im second guessing the whole thing because i remember reading somewhere that mounting behind the cab creates a pretty significant shadow on the forward lobe especially on UHF and i drive mostly on the highway heading north so basically all my repeater hits are ahead of me. anyone actually done back to back testing on this? like cab roof vs bed mount on a pickup? or even just have a feel for how bad the shadowing is in practice. im not trying to win a contest here just want reliable repeater access on 70cm while driving. running a 5/8 wave whip for 440 if that matters.

SA612 is fine, ive used them interchangeably with the NE602 plenty of times, no real difference in practice at HF. the LM386 clipping thing — gain pin floating still gives you 20dB which is actually a lot if your mixer output is already decent level. you might just need a voltage divider between the mixer audio output and the amp input to pad it down a bit. like even a simple resistor divider, 10k and 1k or so, gives you a lot of headroom to play with without adding much noise. i know it feels wrong to attenuate before the amp but with the 386 sometimes thats just how it goes.

so i finally worked up the nerve to check into our local 2m net last tuesday and wow okay nobody warned me about any of this. i've had my technician for about 4 months and i've mostly just been listening and doing some simplex with a buddy of mine but the net thing is a whole different animal. the net control called for check-ins and i just kind of froze for a second and then keyed up and gave my callsign but i think i said it wrong or out of order or something because there was a pause and then net control asked me to say it again. not rude about it or anything but still embarrassing. then when they came back to me for my traffic report i had no idea what that even meant. i just said no traffic and that seemed to work but honestly i was sweating the whole time. is there like a standard format i should know about before i try again? i've been reading around but everyone seems to assume you already know the basics. also do most nets expect you to have a full station setup or is a handheld fine? i was just running my baofeng into a mag mount on the car.

so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and figured id just ask here because the usual google rabbit holes arent helping. im putting up my first real HF antenna and the lot isnt huge — maybe 80 feet usable in one direction. i can get a 40m dipole up at about 25 feet if i use the house and a tree, or i could build a vertical with some radials in the corner of the yard. everyone says dipoles need to be at half wavelength height to really perform but 25 feet is nowhere near that on 40. so is it even worth it over a vertical at that point? ive read that verticals radiate low angle which is good for DX but they also pick up more noise? my noise floor here is already kind of rough, S4-5 on a quiet evening. just want to work some decent DX and maybe some stateside stuff, not trying to win contests or anything. also if i go vertical im thinking a homebrew quarter wave with maybe 16-20 radials on the ground, not elevated. is that enough or do i need like 60+ to make it competitive with the dipole

so i just passed my technician last month and im trying to figure out what HT to get. ive been reading threads for like two weeks now and im more confused than when i started honestly. everybody seems to have strong opinions about baofeng vs yaesu vs kenwood and i cant tell whats actually useful advice vs people just defending whatever they already bought. my main use case is gonna be local repeaters, maybe some simplex with a couple buddies who are also newly licensed, and eventually id like to do some APRS stuff if thats even possible on a handheld. i dont have a huge budget, probably 100-150 bucks to start but could stretch a little if theres something that really makes sense. whats everyone actually running and do you like it

so ive been running SSB on 40m for a while now and keep getting reports that my audio sounds kinda boomy or muddy, like too much bass. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which should honestly be a great combo but something isnt clicking. i did set the mic gain by watching the ALC and keeping it out of the red but people still say it sounds off. i read somewhere that you're supposed to roll off the low end pretty aggressively for SSB, like maybe a high pass filter starting around 300hz or so, and keep the upper end somewhere around 2700-3000hz. the radio has a built in TX equalizer but i havent really messed with it much because honestly those parametric eq screens are kind of intimidating and i dont want to make things worse. anyone have a starting point for EQ settings on the 7300 for voice that actually works? or is this more of a microphone placement thing also curious if the TX bandwidth setting matters as much as people say — i have mine set to the default which i think is like 2.4k wide. should i be narrowing that down

yeah the Q codes go way back to like the maritime and telegraph days, they were originally meant to be used across language barriers so everyone would understand them regardless of what country they were from. QRM is interference from other stations, QSB is signal fading, QSY means you're changing frequency, QTH is your location. there are dozens of them but honestly you only really hear maybe 15-20 of them regularly on the air and the rest you might never encounter outside of a test question. the OM and YL stuff is separate though, OM is old man which is just how hams refer to any other male operator regardless of age, kind of a tradition, and YL is young lady which is used for any female operator. some people find that terminology a bit dated but its still very common especially on HF. 73 comes from the old telegraphers too, means best regards. 88 is another one which means love and kisses, usually said to YLs. if you can find an old ARRL handbook or even just google ARRL Q code list you'll get a pretty complete reference, but honestly you just pick most of it up by listening for a few weeks

im kind of in the same boat actually, sitting around 11wpm right now so youre ahead of me lol. but i did read somewhere that taking the speed up way higher than you want to copy — like set it to 20 or 22 even if you only get half of it — is supposed to train your ear faster than always staying comfortable. havent fully committed to doing that yet but gonna try it. also someone at a local hamfest told me just getting on the air even when i feel not ready was the best thing he ever did, the pressure of a real QSO apparently helps

As a newer ham, this is fascinating to experience! I'm focusing on 20m, 17m, and 15m during the day and switching to 80m/40m at night. The digital modes like FT8 are still pulling in DX even as conditions change. Should I be adjusting my antenna setup for the declining cycle?

so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 mins from my house. ive been listening to other people do these for months on the clusters and youtube and kept putting it off because i was nervous about operating portable and not having my shack setup to fall back on. anyway i just went for it. brought my FT-891 and a random wire up in a tree, ran about 25 watts and honestly the pile wasnt huge but i got my 10 contacts in maybe 35 minutes which felt pretty good for a first time. had one guy who kept calling over everyone else and it was hard to pull calls out but i managed. logged on paper and transferred to ADIF later which was kind of a pain. my questions — is there a faster way to do the logging in the field? i saw someone mention using an app but i dont know which ones people actually use. also when i uploaded to the POTA website it said the park reference was pending, is that normal or did i do something wrong with the K-number? i used the one from the POTA.app website so i think it was right but now im second guessing myself. also for anyone whos done a bunch of these — is 40m usually the go-to band or should i have been trying 20m too? i stuck to 40 the whole time because i know it pretty well.

yeah the encode/decode thing tripped me up too when i started. i just set encode on and left decode alone and that fixed it for me. one thing i'll add is that some repeaters are linked to other systems -- like the one near me is on a network and sometimes youll hear a weird beep or a voice ID that isnt local. dont let that throw you off, its normal. just treat it like any other repeater conversation. the etiquette is basically the same everywhere, wait for the kerchunk to stop after someone unkeys and then jump in during that window.

so i passed my technician exam on tuesday and got my callsign thursday morning, spent like two hours just staring at it on the ULS page honestly. anyway my buddy who got me into all this told me to just get on the local repeater and say hi so i did and oh man like four or five people came back to me and one of them talked to me for almost twenty minutes about his antenna setup and how long hes been licensed and it was just really cool, way more welcoming than i expected. i was shaking a little on the mic which is embarrassing to admit but whatever. first QSO logged. now im already thinking about studying for general because apparently HF is where stuff really gets interesting

The software is pretty good, but it's unable to help you in turning theory into reality. You might fall foul of cutting errors, or find that at UHF getting a driven element spot on is very difficult. I always cut elements slightly long and trim to resonance with an analyzer.

yeah the net discipline thing is SO real. we had almost the exact same issue during our last RACES activation drill — not even a full SET, just a check-in exercise — and still had people double-keying and one guy who kept giving his call sign in the wrong part of his transmission. like, he'd been licensed for 15 years too so it wasn't a new ham thing, it's just that people get nervous or excited and the basics go out the window. the tabletop idea is good, we started doing those about twice a year and it genuinely helps, especially for the ICS form stuff because people can actually slow down and look at the forms without the pressure of trying to relay actual traffic at the same time. we use some old after-action reports from real activations (not ours, just ones that got published) and walk through what decisions would have been made and why. gets people thinking in that mode before they're ever holding a mic during a real event. one thing that really helped our group on the digital side was just doing a monthly winlink net, nothing fancy, everyone just sends a check-in message through the system. keeps people's hands in it so its not a total mystery when they need it for real. sounds obvious but we went like two years without doing it and the skill erosion was pretty noticeable

scratchy pot is your first clue honestly. those carbon pots in the yaesu rigs get oxidized and it doesnt matter where you set them, the wiper just isnt making good contact. i had almost the exact same symptom on my 897 a few years back, everyone heard dead carrier, and it turned out the mic gain pot was intermittent enough to drop the audio to basically nothing even though it felt like it was passing *something*. hit it with deoxit, work it back and forth about 50 times, then see if anything changes. if the scratchy feeling goes away and audio comes back even partially then you know where to look. if that fixes it great if not at least you ruled it out cheap before digging deeper into the modulator board. also worth checking — is the mic set to the right input on the menu? 857 has that setting for front vs rear mic input and ive seen people chase ghosts for days because of that one. probably not your issue but worth 30 seconds to confirm.

yeah doppler on the linear birds is genuinely confusing at first, dont feel bad. the way i think about it is this — on a linear transponder the whole passband is inverting, so if the satellite is coming toward you the uplink needs to go UP in frequency and your downlink is also coming DOWN. gpredict should be handling the math for you if you have your radio connected via CAT control, but if youre doing it manually youre basically chasing two moving targets at once which is rough. for your first few passes honestly just lock the TX frequency and dont touch it, just try to find yourself on the downlink and see if you can hear your own signal. once you can do that the rest starts to make sense because you can hear what the doppler is doing in real time. the FT-818 with SDR setup is a bit awkward but people make it work. bigger issue is probably that AO-73 isnt always on, it goes into eclipse mode sometimes and shuts the transponder down to save batteries so check amsat status page before you go outside with the yagis.

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and im starting to get into chasing DX a bit more seriously, got my first pile-up contact last week with a station in the Azores which was pretty exciting. anyway ive been reading about all these different awards and im just kind of overwhelmed honestly. DXCC, WAS, WAZ, there's like a dozen different ones and i dont even know where to start or which one makes sense for me to pursue given that im running 100w and a dipole in the attic. like do you have to submit all your contacts through LoTW or can you still use paper QSLs? and does it matter what bands the contacts are on for the basic awards vs the endorsements? i feel like every time i look this up i find a different answer depending on which page i land on. anyone gone through this process recently and can kind of walk me through how it actually works in practice?

yeah 40m has been decent, i usually check in around 7.200 and there's almost always something going on. honestly its my go-to band when im not trying to do anything serious just want some background noise while im tinkering in the shack