Michael Wu

i worked my first EME contact last spring with a single 15el yagi and the 9700, so it can definitely be done. took me a while to get the rotator situation sorted out, i was using a cheap TV rotator for elevation which was a disaster honestly it kept losing track. upgraded to a proper el rotator and things got way better. also make sure your coax run is as short as possible or go with hardline, i was losing so much in the run before i sorted that out. first contact was with a big station in europe so they were doing the heavy lifting but it still counted lol

I'm getting conflicting advice on SSB mic gain adjustment. My IC-7300 manual says to adjust for slight ALC indication, but several online sources suggest keeping ALC at zero. Currently running a Heil PR-40 with the gain at about 40% and seeing 2-3 bars of ALC on voice peaks. Audio reports have been mixed - some say it sounds great, others mention it's a bit harsh. People commonly set mic gain too hot trying to squeeze every watt from their 100W rig due to fundamental misunderstanding of how SSB works. What's the consensus on proper ALC indication for clean SSB? Should I back off the gain even with good audio reports?

I went with a RAM mount on the passenger side of the console in my '18 F-150. Angle it toward the driver and it's perfect for quick glances without blocking anything important. The detachable head makes it easy to stow if needed.

so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and still kind of confused about when youre supposed to use the NATO phonetic alphabet vs just saying the letter normally. like if someone asks me to confirm my callsign do i always spell it out phonetically or is that only when theres interference or whatever. i feel like sometimes i hear people just say the letters and other times they go through the whole alpha bravo charlie thing and i cant figure out the pattern. my elmer told me to just use phonetics always to be safe but then i heard a net where nobody was doing that and i felt dumb. is there like an actual rule or is it just situational

So i finally got out and did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a state forest near me, WFF reference is KFF-something i'll have to look it up again. Been meaning to do one of these for ages and just never got around to it. Anyway packed up the KX2 and a linked dipole, hiked about 2 miles in to get away from the parking lot noise and found a nice spot near a creek. Got my 44 contacts which i know is the threshold for a valid activation and actually ended up with closer to 60 which surprised me, didnt think there would be that many people hunting. Spotted myself on the WWFF spotter page which helped a lot. Most contacts were on 40m SSB but i threw in a few on 20m too when 40 got quiet. My questions are kind of dumb but here goes -- do i need to submit my log somewhere specific for WWFF or does it work like POTA where you just upload to their site? And also is there any difference between activating a reference that's already been activated vs one that hasnt been touched yet? like does a virgin reference count for anything extra or is it just bragging rights. also saw something about nature conservation contacts or something where you get credit for working other WWFF stations, is that the hunters side of things or am i mixing it up with something else

so ive been trying to get into CW for a while now and i honestly dont even know where to start. i downloaded a couple apps but they all seem different and i cant tell if im learning the right way or just wasting my time. like do you learn the letters one by one or do you just listen to a bunch of it until it clicks? my elmer back in the day said something about not learning it visually which confused me. i guess my main question is just... whats the actual method that works for most people because ive been at this for maybe three weeks and i can barely copy a handful of letters without really thinking hard about it. is that normal or am i just slow at this

Shorter call signs give contesters a significant advantage, and calls that are easy to transmit in CW help streamline communication in high-traffic environments. For CW and contesting, a good vanity call pays for itself in efficiency. Look for 1x2 or 2x1 formats with your Extra.

so ive been licensed about 6 years now and done a fair bit of HF DX but a buddy of mine at the club keeps telling me EME is something else entirely and i should try it. did some reading and now im more confused than when i started honestly. like i understand the basic concept, bounce signal off moon, but the path loss numbers are just staggering. something like 250-260 dB on 2m? that cant be right can it anyway from what ive gathered you need either a big dish or a long yagi array, a good low noise preamp right at the feedpoint, and then software like WSJT-X running JT65 or Q65 to decode stuff that you would never hear otherwise. my current 2m setup is just a single 9 element yagi i use for local stuff and a cheap colinear on the roof. im guessing thats nowhere near enough but curious how far off i really am and what a realistic starter setup would look like without spending absolutely insane money also how do contacts even work logistically, like do people schedule times on a cluster or something

yeah the LPF unit on those radios is a known weak spot. each band has its own switched low pass filter and the relays that switch between them can get flaky, causes exactly that kind of band-specific power drop. worth pulling the LPF board and reflowing the solder joints on the relay coils, Yaesu used pretty thin solder on those from the factory and they crack after a few years of thermal cycling. i fixed an 897D with almost the exact same symptoms doing just that, took maybe an hour with a decent iron. if the reflow doesnt sort it out then yeah look at the driver stage, Q1017 area if i remember right for that band range, but id start with the relays first since its a much easier fix and its probably that.

the usb serial thing is almost definitely your problem, had the exact same issue last year. also just want to say finding your own signal on the downlink is kind of the hardest part honestly, what helped me was to start a pass by just transmitting a carrier briefly with no audio and hunting for the het in the passband before actually trying to make a contact. once you can hear yourself its much easier to work the doppler manually even if the software glitches out

Field Day is kind of its own thing — ARRL calls it a contest but a lot of people treat it more like an operating event or emergency preparedness exercise. you still exchange information and log contacts but the scoring is really different from something like CQ WW. either way it's a great way to get your feet wet because there's usually experienced people around to help and nobody expects you to know what youre doing the first time. for CQ WW specifically the exchange is pretty simple, you send your signal report and your CQ zone. thats it. the tricky part is just getting used to the pace because during peak hours it gets fast. i'd say start by just tuning around in search and pounce mode where you find someone already running a frequency, wait for a gap, call them, do the exchange and move on. dont try to run a frequency yourself your first time, just answer other peoples calls. N1MM Logger is what most contesters use and its free, worth getting set up before the weekend even if you just use it to log a few contacts. your IC-7300 and a dipole is totally fine for your first contest. dont let people make you think you need a beam and an amp to participate. you wont win but youll have a blast and learn a ton.

dont stress about memorizing the exchange stuff, seriously. i made a little cheat sheet my first contest and had it taped right next to my monitor. nobody on the air knows if youre looking at notes lol the ic-7300 will do just fine for field day even with an attic dipole. ive worked tons of contacts from worse situations. just manage your expectations a bit in terms of DX but for domestic contacts you'll be surprised.

I had the same problem initially. SSB mode, considering most rigs have average power meters will only indicate about 30W or so while speaking if the mic gain is properly configured. The mistake people make is trying to see 100W output on an average reading. Use a dummy load and watch ALC instead of the power meter.

ok so i finally got my technician license last month and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater but nobody ever seems to hear me. did some reading and apparently i need to program a CTCSS tone into my radio but im not totally sure i understand what that even does or how to figure out which tone to use for a specific repeater. i have a baofeng uv-5r (i know i know, everyone has opinions about those) and ive been poking around in the menus but theres like two different tone settings, one says T-CTCSS and one says R-CTCSS and i dont know which one i actually need or if i need both. the repeater is listed on repeaterbook and it says the tone is 100.0 Hz but thats about all i know. any help would be great, been lurking here for a while and everyone seems really knowledgeable

so ive been running a Diamond X300 for a few years now and honestly its been fine but i keep reading that stepping up to a longer collinear makes a noticeable difference on 2m especially for hitting repeaters that are kind of on the edge. the two that keep coming up are the Comet GP-6 and the Diamond X510 and i cant find anyone whos actually done a direct comparison, most of the threads i find are from like 2014 and half the links are dead. my situation is im on a flat lot, single story house, antenna is on a chimney mount maybe 20 feet up total. nearest repeater thats giving me trouble is about 35 miles out with some terrain in the way, not a huge hill but enough to be annoying. i know a collinear isnt going to punch through a mountain but wondering if the extra gain is worth the upgrade or if im just chasing numbers at this point. also the GP-6 is quite a bit longer — does that become a real wind loading issue or are people generally fine with it on a standard chimney mount? im in the midwest so we do get some weather.

Check your SSID situation first — if you're sending from APRSdroid and your radio is set to a different SSID they're essentially two separate stations as far as the network is concerned. messages sent to one won't show up on the other. also make sure the radio's TNC isn't fighting with the Mobilinkd at the same time, if both are active and keying PTT you'll get garbage packets. the D710 can be fussy about that. Also worth pulling the raw feed for your callsign on findu.com or aprs.fi and filtering for message packets specifically. sometimes they're going out but getting dropped somewhere in the IS feed or the message server just isnt routing them right. APRS messaging over RF has always been kinda hit or miss depending on how well your local digis handle the message ack cycle.

dont stress too much about pile-ups your first time. honestly just find a frequency thats not too busy and call CQ yourself, you'd be surprised how many contacts you can make just running a frequency even as a new station. or just search and pounce if that feels less nerve wracking, just tune around and call whoever youre hearing. either way is fine sweepstakes is a great domestic contest too, all US and Canada, the exchange is more complicated but the contacts are cleaner because the band conditions dont have to be great. something to look forward to in november

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, summit was only a 2 point hill but man i was not prepared for how much that extra gear weighs when youre actually hiking. brought way too much stuff, the full sized 40m dipole, the whole feedline coil, like 3 liters of water which was probably smart but still. ended up making 9 contacts before the battery died which i thought was embarrassing but someone in my club said thats actually fine for a first attempt. radio was the KX2 and honestly it performed great, no issues there, just operator error on pretty much everything else lol

the compression thing is definitely not overrated, it matters a lot actually. most people either have it cranked way too hard which gives that pumping, processed sound, or they have none at all and they're getting walked over when band conditions get rough. on the 7300 i'd start with the mic gain so you're hitting maybe 50-60% ALC deflection on voice peaks, then bring the compression in gradually until you start hearing artifacts and back off from there. somewhere around 4-8 on the compressor level depending on your mic and voice is usually where i land. the hollow/tin can thing you're describing honestly sounds like a mic placement or room acoustics issue as much as anything in the radio. are you in a small room with hard surfaces. i had that exact complaint until i moved my operating position and put some foam behind the monitor. also double check that you dont have any of the noise reduction stuff accidentally engaged on transmit, ive seen that do weird things to audio on the 7300.

oh man I didn't realize the threshold was 44, I made the same mistake on my first one haha. Had to go back the following weekend and luckily the weather cooperated. The grid square thing -- yeah some hunters are also doing POTA or SOTA at the same time and just go on autopilot asking for it. I just say "no grid, WWFF only, reference is KFF-XXXX" and move on, most people get it. welcome to the addiction by the way, ive got like 6 activations now and already planning a big one at a national forest next month

so ive been licensed for about two years now and every time theres a severe weather event or anything like that i think to myself i really need to get my act together and build a proper go-kit. well last month we had that bad storm come through and our neighborhood lost power for almost four days and i just felt completely unprepared even though im supposed to be one of the guys who can help with communication in that kind of situation. anyway im finally doing it. i pulled out an old pelican case i had from a camera kit and im trying to figure out what actually needs to go in there versus what im just throwing in because it seems cool. right now i have my yaesu ft-857d in mind as the main radio, a 40ah lifepo4 battery, and a buddipole that i havent used nearly enough. but beyond that i get kind of lost. like do i need a separate hf and vhf/uhf setup or can the 857 cover everything i need. and what about programming, should i have a pre-programmed radio ready to go or does that limit flexibility. i guess my main question is what do you guys actually use when you show up somewhere for real and whats the stuff you thought you needed but turns out you never touch. would love to hear from anyone who has actually activated for a real event not just drills

I just passed my tech exam like two months ago so I can tell you from recent experience -- hamstudy.org was basically all I used. there's also a free app called Ham Radio Prep or something, i used that on my lunch breaks. honestly the hardest part for me was the electrical stuff, like ohms law and calculating things, but there's only a handful of those questions and you can kind of figure out the formulas if you understand the basics. the exam is 35 questions and you need a 26 to pass so you have some room. one thing i wish i knew going in is that you should just keep doing practice tests until you're consistently hitting like 80-85%, not just barely passing the practice ones. good luck it's really not as scary as it looks at first

yeah FT8 slot machine is exactly how i describe it to people lol. i stuck with it long enough to hit 100 entities confirmed but after that i kinda lost interest. tried RTTY contesting for a while which scratched the digital itch in a more active way — nothing like a pile up in RTTY to make you feel like youre actually operating never got deep into JS8Call but from what i understand your issue might be that not many people are monitoring it actively, so you can be calling into a void for a while. its more of a slow net type thing i think

Started with EchoLink in 2018, migrated to AllStar in 2020. In 2011, I migrated my internet linking from EchoLink to Allstar. The *927_TECH* hub server is still maintained and linked into the Allstar 900 MHz network; but, the EchoLink side has become secondary. AllStar's learning curve is steeper but the payoff is huge for emergency use.

I've been running EME on 2m for about 6 months now using JT65B, and I'm considering making the switch to QRA64. I keep reading that QRA64 is 1-3 dB more sensitive than JT65, but I'd like to hear from operators who've made the transition. My current setup: 4x 17-ele M2 yagis, 1kW SSPA, 0.7dB NF preamp at the feedpoint. I'm working about 8-10 stations per weekend during peak moon periods with JT65. Questions: What kind of improvement have you seen in copy ability with smaller signals?Are the big gun stations making the switch, or still primarily on JT65?Any issues with timing or frequency accuracy compared to JT65?