Carlos Mendez

just passed mine last month so this is fresh for me. the theory is definitely a step up but the thing that helped me was finding a good explanation for the stuff i didnt get rather than just memorizing. like the reactance and impedance questions, once i watched a couple youtube videos that actually showed what was happening with the math it clicked. same with the digital mode stuff and some of the propagation questions.
there were maybe 10 or 15 questions in the pool where i was like okay i have no idea what the correct answer is from first principles so i just had to learn the answer. but most of it made sense once i dug in a little. also the Extra opens up being a VE which i know isnt everyones thing but i thought it was worth mentioning

yeah what he said about the shielding, i had almost the exact same thing happen with a 20m DC receiver i built last year. what finally helped me was running the oscillator off its own small regulated supply separate from the rest of the board, the LO was coupling out through the power rail which i didnt even think about at first. once i added a simple RC filter on the VCC line to the oscillator section the leakage dropped noticeably even before i touched the shielding

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. so the SET is the Simulated Emergency Test, its basically a once a year drill that ARRL coordinates where ARES groups practice activating and passing traffic like they would in a real event. your section probably does one in the fall, at least most do. its actually a lot of fun once you know whats going on — kind of chaotic in a good way.
as for ICS, most groups want you to at least have 100 and 700 done before you deploy anywhere, those are free online through FEMA and honestly take maybe 3-4 hours total. some ECs are pretty strict about it and some are more relaxed depending on how busy your county gets. i'd just shoot your EC an email and ask what the expectations are — they'd rather you ask than show up to an activation without the certs. nobody's gonna make you feel bad for asking, these groups need people and they know everyone starts somewhere.

so ive been using a whip on my HF rig for a while now and finally decided to just build a proper dipole for 40m. cut the wire to the standard formula, 468/f, ended up with two legs about 33 feet each. used some 14 gauge stranded from the hardware store, zip cord actually, and a dog bone insulator i printed on my 3d printer for the center and ceramic egg insulators at the ends.
got it up in an inverted V configuration, apex at about 30 feet off the roof peak, ends tied off to some fence posts with paracord. fed it with 50 ohm coax through a 1:1 choke balun i wound myself on an FT-240-43 core. SWR came out around 1.4:1 at the frequency i was shooting for which honestly seems pretty good for a first build.
my question is about the feedpoint connector. i just twisted the coax braid and center conductor to the two legs and taped it all up with self-amalgamating tape, then wrapped that in regular electrical tape for UV protection. is that good enough long term or should i be doing something different there. ive seen people use SO-239 chassis connectors mounted to a little piece of lexan or cutting board material as like a proper feedpoint housing. wondering if thats worth doing or if im overcomplicating it.

Working on a homebrew 40M QRP superhet transceiver based loosely on the BITX40 design with a KK7B Classic 40 receiver front end. Recently modified the PA stage from 2N2222 to IRF510 for better efficiency, but now experiencing significant receiver sensitivity loss - MDS went from -125dBm to about -110dBm.
Using 6MHz IF with discrete mixer and crystal filter. T/R switching is done with PIN diodes. Anyone experienced similar issues after PA modifications? Wondering if increased RF leakage from the MOSFET stage is desensing the receiver during standby.
PA isolation is showing only 30dB on my homebrew directional coupler - should be closer to 60dB. Any suggestions for improving T/R isolation in QRP transceivers?

The 10-minute rule means you must identify at least every 10 minutes during communication to clearly make the source of transmissions known to receivers. So if you start talking at 2:00 PM, you must ID by 2:10 PM, then again by 2:20 PM, etc., regardless of conversation breaks.