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.

so ive been going back and forth on this for like two months now and i cant make up my mind. currently running a half wave dipole for 40m, its up about 25 feet which i know isnt ideal but its what i can do with the trees i have. been thinking about putting up a vertical instead, something like a trap vertical or maybe just a straight quarter wave with a decent radial field. the thing is i keep reading conflicting stuff. some guys swear by their verticals for DX because of the low angle radiation, but then other guys say unless you have like 60+ radials on the ground youre just dumping power into the dirt and youd be better off with the dipole. my soil out here is pretty lousy too, clay heavy, so i dont know if that makes the radial situation worse or better. not really looking for a definitive answer i guess, just curious what people who have actually A/B tested this stuff have found in practice. i do mostly DX chasing and some contesting on 40, not much local ragchewing so takeoff angle actually matters to me.

yeah the paddle gap is almost definitely part of it. when the contacts are too close together even a slightly heavy touch sends extra dits or dahs you didnt mean to. i spent probably two weeks fighting this same thing when i switched from a straight key to a paddle. try opening up the gap just a tiny bit on both sides, like barely a business card thickness, and see if that helps. also check if your keyer has a setting for dit/dah ratio because some of the built-in ones are a little off from true 1:3 and that can make things sound mushy at any speed. the fact that people are coming back to you is a good sign honestly, you're probably harder on yourself than you need to be.

Congrats on passing the test, the callsign usually shows up within a day or two so hang in there. Honestly for where you're starting — local simplex and a couple repeaters — you really dont need to overthink this. The Yaesu FT-60R is kind of the classic answer in that price range and for good reason. It's built like a tank compared to the budget Chinese radios, the receiver actually rejects interference pretty well which matters more than people realize when you're near any kind of RF noise, and Yaesu has been around forever so support and documentation is solid. I've had mine for probably eight years, dropped it more times than I'd like to admit, still going fine. That said if your ONLY goal is just getting on the air and learning the basics while spending as little as possible, there's nothing wrong with starting on a UV-5R or similar. Just know the receiver isn't great and programming it can be a little frustrating without CHIRP software. Once you know what you actually want to do in the hobby you can always upgrade. Most of us have a drawer full of old HTs anyway.

welcome to the hobby man, that first QSO feeling is something else. dont worry too much about forgetting procedure, everyone does at first and most folks on the repeater remember what it was like. once you get comfortable on 2m you should look into getting your general and playing around on HF, totally different experience talking to people hundreds of miles away with just a wire antenna

congrats on the first activation, 67 QSOs is a solid number especially for a first outing. the 44 QSO requirement is one of those things that trips people up, some people confuse it with POTA which is only 10 i think. they really are separate programs even though theres a lot of overlap in who does them. one thing worth knowing if you keep doing WWFF — there are some references that are dual-listed, like a national forest that shows up in both POTA and WWFF, so you can submit logs to both which is nice. and the wwff.world logging upload is pretty straightforward once you get used to the ADIF format. i usually just export straight from my logging app and it works fine. Slovenia on 40m is always a treat, that path from north america works sometimes when conditions are right. sounds like you picked a good day.

so i've been trying to wrap my head around SO2R for like two years and something finally just clicked during the state QSO party last weekend. i think the big thing i was doing wrong was treating the second radio like a full-time thing instead of just a rate tool. like i was trying to actively work stations on both radios simultaneously and it was just chaos, missed exchanges, blown multipliers, the whole mess. what actually helped was just using radio 2 strictly for S&P while i was running on radio 1. find a mult, pounce on it when there's a gap in the run, then get back to running. sounds obvious but when youre actually in the chair under pressure it doesnt feel obvious at all. also had to spend some time with the SO2R interlock settings in N1MM because i kept accidentally transmitting on both which... yeah dont do that. anyway curious if anyone has tips for when the run rate drops and you start to wonder if you should flip which radio is the run radio. i never really have a good feel for when to pull that trigger. sometimes i switch and it helps, sometimes it just costs me time and the old run freq dies while im getting established on the new one.

is this the one over at the fairgrounds? i went last year for the first time and honestly had no idea what to expect but ended up staying like 4 hours lol. didnt buy anything but talked to some guys from a dx club and now im on their email list so thats something i guess

so ive been meaning to get my tech license for like two years now and i finally just signed up for an exam session about a month from now. i downloaded the ARRL tech study guide from somewhere but honestly its kind of overwhelming and i dont know where to start. like do i need to actually understand all the electronics stuff or can i just memorize the question pool? a guy at work who has his general said just memorize the pool but i dont know if thats actually how it works. also i heard the pool changes and im not sure if the one i have is the current one. any advice appreciated, i basically know nothing right now

went through this exact same confusion when i upgraded to extra last year. what tripped me up was i applied for a vanity call that i thought nobody else would want and i STILL lost the lottery, there were like 3 other people who applied for the same obscure 1x2 call in the same window. kind of deflating but whatever i tried again a few months later and got a different one i liked almost as much. one tip — there are websites that track which calls are coming back into the pool as hams go silent key or let licenses expire. some calls show up as available that nobody has applied for yet and if you can find one of those and apply when the window opens your odds are obviously way better. just gotta do a bit of homework.

the ft-60 is a solid choice and ive recommended it to probably a dozen people over the years, its just a tank, mine has been dropped more times than i care to admit and still works perfect. the receiver on it is noticeably better than most of the cheaper Chinese radios which actually matters more than people think when youre trying to hit a repeater thats not super close for APRS on a handheld though youre gonna want to look at something like the yaesu ft3dr or the vx-8dr if you can stretch the budget, or the kenwood th-d74 if you want to go all in, that thing does aprs natively and has a built in tnc which is really nice. doing aprs on a regular HT requires an external tnc or a smartphone app setup which works but its kinda janky depending on what youre trying to do dual band definitely doesnt hurt and most repeaters around here are 2m anyway but having 70cm is handy more often than you'd expect, especially if your local club does anything on that band