Linda Rodriguez

ok so i passed my technician exam like three weeks ago and ive been trying to figure out exactly what HF privileges i actually have. i know tech gets some HF but every time i try to read part 97 directly my eyes kind of glaze over, its written in such a weird legal way. from what i can tell i can do some stuff on 10 meters and maybe 15 meters? i think i can do phone on 10m but only in certain segments. and there was something about CW on a few bands but i dont really do CW so that part doesnt matter as much to me right now. also my buddy told me that if im operating under a general class control operator i can use their privileges, is that actually true? that seems like it would be way too easy to just have a general class guy nearby and suddenly i can do whatever. he said its totally legal but i dunno it sounds off to me. basically im just trying to understand what the actual limits are without having to hire a lawyer to read the FCC rules lol

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now (general class) and i keep seeing people talk about CW on here and it honestly sounds really cool but i have no idea where to begin. like i dont even know the alphabet in morse yet. i downloaded some app a while back but it just felt like memorizing random dots and dashes and i gave up after like two weeks is there a method that actually works or is it just one of those things where you grind it out until it clicks? i heard someone mention the koch method but i dont really understand how thats different from just learning the letters one at a time. also how long did it take most of you to actually be able to copy anything on the air

so ive been doing this thing lately where i just tune around 40m before work, not really trying to work anyone just listening. its kind of meditative honestly. caught a guy in new zealand last tuesday just chatting with someone in california, conditions were surprisingly decent for that time of morning. anyway just curious if anyone else does this or if im just weird lol

so ive been licensed for about a year now mostly doing FT8 and some SSB but ive always wanted to try CW. i know its not required anymore but theres something about it that just seems cool, like a whole other world on the bands. the problem is i have no idea where to even start. i tried youtube a few times but i just end up watching random videos and not really learning anything systematically. is there like a method that actually works or does it just take forever no matter what. i heard some people say learn the sounds not the dots and dashes but i dont really know what that means in practice. any apps or websites that people actually use and stuck with would be helpful too, im on android if that matters

honestly i was in the same boat for like three years before i finally just buckled down and did it. the theory stuff looks way worse than it is. yeah there's some questions about reactance and LC circuits and filter topologies that will make your head spin the first time through but once you start doing practice exams on qrz or hamstudycom it starts clicking. i think i spent maybe 6 weeks going through the pool every night for like 20-30 minutes and passed with a pretty comfortable margin. the real value for me wasnt even the extra band segments, though having access to the bottom of 75m and 40m during a pile up makes a real difference. its more that going through all that material actually made me a better operator and i understand my equipment a lot more now. the filter stuff especially. i used to just accept that my rig had some settings and not really know why. now i kinda get it.

haha that first QSO feeling is real man, i remember mine, hands shaking and forgot half the phonetics i had memorized. welcome to the hobby. and yeah the HF vs staying on VHF thing, honestly just depends what you want to do. if talking to people across the country or the world sounds cool then save up for a used HF rig, you can get something decent for not a ton of money. but theres also nothing wrong with just working the local repeaters for a while and getting comfotable with the basics first. no rush

honestly i still mess up the phonetics sometimes and ive had my general for like three years haha. Q and X i always have to think about for a second. my trick was just making a little cheat sheet and taping it next to my radio until it stuck, probably took a few weeks of actually using them on air before it felt natural. dont stress about it too much

congrats on the ticket, welcome to the hobby. dont stress about the repeater thing, everyone fumbles their first transmission, i literally forgot to let go of the PTT button on my first ever contact and just breathed into the mic for like 5 seconds before someone came back to me. you'll be fine just jump in

congrats on the ticket. yeah the first time i ever keyed up i think i said my callsign wrong and had to correct myself, the guy on the other end was super patient about it though. its one of those things that feels like a huge deal and then two weeks later you cant imagine why you were so stressed. enjoy the honeymoon phase while it lasts, pretty soon youll be arguing about antennas on here like the rest of us

i only do LoTW and eQSL, gave up on paper cards a while back mostly because i moved a couple times and lost track of a big stack of incoming ones which was kind of heartbreaking honestly. but for chasing DXCC credit LoTW is really the only one that matters for the ARRL mixed mode totals so thats where i focus. some of the bigger DXpeditions are really good about uploading to LoTW within a few weeks of getting home, others take like a year or more which is frustrating when youre sitting there waiting for that one confirmation to push you to the next level. eQSL fills the gap sometimes since they upload there faster for whatever reason. the physical card thing is totally valid if thats your thing though, i dont want to talk you out of it. a friend of mine has literally hundreds on his shack wall and it does look pretty cool

congrats on that first check-in, the first one is always the hardest and after that it just becomes normal. for finding nets the ARRL has a net directory but honestly i've found it can be a bit out of date, some of those nets have been dormant for years. what works better for me is just asking around on whatever local repeater you use, people there will know whats actually active in your area versus whats just listed on paper. as for your question about sticking to one net vs jumping around — i do both depending on the week. there's a wednesday night traffic net i've been checking into for probably four years now and you really do get to know the regulars, net control knows your voice before you even finish your callsign. but i also like catching special event stations when they come up, totally different vibe, more chaotic but fun. there's usually a bunch around holidays and big anniversaries and sometimes you get a certificate or a QSL card out of it which is a nice bonus.

Welcome to WWFF, its a great program and honestly pretty forgiving for new activators. The 44 QSO minimum is correct, thats the standard threshold to get the activation counted in the WWFF database. It applies across all references as far as I know, same number. You dont need to pre-register the activation but a lot of people post an alert on the WWFF Facebook group or on their national chapter site ahead of time so hunters can watch for you. Helps a lot for getting contacts if the band is being finicky. For spotting there is a WWFF spotter tool, I usually just use the POTA app and note the WFF reference in my comments since a lot of hunters watch both. Some folks use both spots simultaneously. Make sure you're logging the WFF reference number in your ADIF file when you export, thats the bit that matters for submission. The upload process through wwff.co is pretty straightforward once you have a clean log file. Your KX2 setup sounds perfect for it, 40m with a random wire should get you to 44 no problem on a decent morning.

yeah i do exactly this and have for a couple years. N1MM for any serious contesting, Log4OM sits as my main log the rest of the time. the merge isnt as bad as you'd think honestly. after a contest i just export the N1MM log as ADIF and import into Log4OM, and as long as you check the duplicate handling settings before you import it doesnt usually blow anything up. had one incident early on where i ended up with like 200 duplicate entries because i forgot to tick the right box but that was my fault. the WSJT-X thing — i actually dont route wsjtx through N1MM during contests, i let it log independently and then reconcile after. N1MM and wsjtx can talk to each other but ive had weird behavior with the band map getting confused when both are running. might just be my setup but it was easier to keep them separate. for everyday ft8 stuff i do use the Log4OM udp path and yeah it drops the occasional qso, i just got in the habit of doing a quick check in wsjtx's own log file every week or so and comparing.

honestly both camps are kind of right and thats the annoying answer you didnt want to hear. a dipole at 25ft on 40m is gonna have a pretty high takeoff angle yeah, like somewhere around 50-60 degrees depending on ground conductivity, so its going to favor closer in stuff more than real DX paths. but here's the thing — it'll still work for DX when conditions are decent, it just wont be optimized. the vertical with a decent radial field should get you down closer to 15-25 degrees which is where the long path stuff comes in. that said i've worked plenty of JA and EU on a 40m dipole at 30ft. its not like you're deaf to DX, just running at a disadvantage compared to someone with a yagi at 60ft or whatever. if you actually want to chase DX seriously go vertical and dont skimp on the radials. 20 on the ground is okay, 32-64 is better but you get diminishing returns past that. if you mostly do nets and occasional DX the dipole is less hassle and just put it up inverted-V style.

honest answer is that single yagi EME on 2m is absolutely doable now thanks to JT65B, back in the CW-only days you needed a huge array just to hear anything off the moon but the digital modes changed everything. that said 100w is going to be a real struggle, most guys doing single yagi stuff are running at least 500w and preferably 800-1000w at the antenna. the path loss on moonbounce is something like 252dB so every dB matters, you'd be surprised how much difference going from 100w to 600w makes in terms of who can decode you. your preamp placement sounds right, keeping it at the feedpoint is essential, the noise figure on that setup matters a lot more than people realize. for software yeah JT65B is still the main thing for 2m EME, there's a specific version that runs on the 2m calling frequency which is 144.120 USB. WSJT-X has kind of taken over for a lot of other stuff but the EME community kind of stuck with the older JT65B client for a while, though i think people use MAP65 and WSJT-X more now honestly. you should really check the moon-net mailing list, thats where the serious EME crowd hangs out and they'll give you straight answers about what works.