Carlos Santos

yeah N1MM is really contest-only for most people i know, myself included. i wouldnt want to use it as a daily driver, the interface is built around rate and dupe checking and all the contest-specific stuff, not around browsing your logbook or tracking awards. for day to day logging Log4OM or even just DXKeeper is way more comfortable. what most of us do is run the contest in N1MM, export the adif when its done, and import it into whatever main logger we use. takes maybe two minutes. WSJT-X integration in N1MM is actually decent now if you set up the UDP broadcast correctly, they both talk to each other and you can have N1MM receive the decodes and log automatically during a contest, ive done that for FT8 sprint type events and it works pretty well once you configure the ports right. but honestly for regular FT8 operating just let WSJT-X log to its own file and import periodically, theres no reason to have N1MM running in the background for that.

so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and every time i get on HF especially during a pileup or just trying to give my callsign people are using all this alpha bravo charlie stuff and i get it, i know what it is, but i guess my question is is it actually required or like a rule somewhere or do people just do it because its tradition or whatever i tried using it a few times and i kept blanking on what N was and ended up saying november wrong and the other guy had to ask me to repeat anyway so i feel like im making it worse not better. does it matter if i just say the letters normally on SSB

that ohio contact on first try is awesome, qrp really does work way better than you'd think going in. i remember being totally shocked the first time i worked someone a few states away on 5 watts, like wait that actually happened? i dont have a ton to add on the technical side but i will say for portable enclosures ive had good luck with those project boxes from the plastic kind, not super rugged but lightweight which matters when youre hiking stuff in. some guys use pvc boxes too. whatever you do just make sure all your connectors are properly secured because ive had bnc connectors pull loose at the worst times out in the field and its super annoying to troubleshoot when youre sitting on a hill somewhere

There's no hard rule in Part 97 that says you have to use phonetics at all, it's more of a best practice thing. The idea is just that certain letters sound really similar over the air, especially on HF when propagation is rough — B D E G P T V all blur together on a noisy band. On a clear local repeater it usually doesn't matter much so people get lazy about it and honestly thats fine. For formal nets, emergency traffic, and anything involving passing messages or handling third party traffic you really want to stick to NATO because the other end of the contact might be writing it down and you dont want them guessing. The ITU actually standardizes the NATO alphabet for exactly that reason — it was designed so each word sounds distinct even through static and accents. As for "E for Edward" — that's the old phonetic alphabet, pre-NATO. Some older hams still use words from that era out of habit. It works fine but if you're talking to someone who learned the NATO system they might have to think for a second. Just learn the standard NATO ones and you'll be understood everywhere.

Check your network buffer settings in the Remote SDR config. With Remote SDR, output on Ethernet or WiFi requires: 10 k samples / s * 2 bytes for the audio in reception · 10.24 k sample / s * 2 bytes for the received spectrum · 10 k sample / s * 2 bytes for transmit audio We are at less than 100 k bytes / s by adding the control data. There is therefore a reduction of approximately 100 in the communication speed required, which facilitates remote control via internet / ethernet without loss of quality through data compression. Try lowering the audio quality to reduce bandwidth requirements.

the internet linking question is actually interesting, i did something kinda similar last year. had a pi running at my remote site handling a 70cm link into a local DMR network and separately running the HF remote through a different software stack. keeping them from fighting over the audio hardware was the annoying part, ended up using a cheap USB audio dongle for one and the built in soundcard for the other and that mostly solved it. if youre already thinking about RemoteHams you might also just look at what SDRangel can do with its remote input plugin, its not quite the same thing and the learning curve is real but it gives you a lot of flexibility for routing audio wherever you want it once you get the hang of it. the echolink integration would probably be cleaner that way since youre in control of all the plumbing

yeah i had almost the exact same thing happen when i first set mine up. turned out the path was fine but i was in kind of a dead zone between two digis and neither one was hearing me reliably. ended up finding a local club that runs their own digi on a hilltop and once i knew where it was i could just position myself to hit it. aprs.fi has that rf path analysis thing if you click on a digipeater it can show you its approximate footprint. also make sure you're not accidentally on a slightly wrong frequency — 144.390 is standard in north america but i once had my radio drifted just enough that packets werent decoding. probably not your issue with a D710 but worth a sanity check.

so ive been doing single op contesting for a few years now, mostly on 40 and 20, and i keep hearing guys talk about SO2R like its the holy grail but every time i try to wrap my head around the actual setup it just seems like a massive amount of complexity for... what exactly? like yes i get that youre running on one radio while the other is finding the next contact but in practice how much rate improvement are we actually talking about? my current setup is a k3 into a 4el yagi on 20 and a dipole on 40, nothing exotic. heard you basically need two complete stations with good isolation between them which means bandpass filters and probably a SO2R controller box and i dunno, at some point arent you just adding failure points. had a buddy who spent the whole first night of sweepstakes chasing an RFI problem between his two rigs instead of actually operating the guys putting up big numbers in the single op category, are they mostly SO2R or is it possible to be competitive doing single radio if your rate discipline is really good? genuinely asking because i dont want to spend money on a second radio if the real gains are just in operating smarter on one

yeah the served agency relationship thing takes time to figure out. we had a new member a couple years back who basically became a second logistics volunteer at a shelter activation and his radio went unmonitored for like 45 minutes while he was helping sort donations. EC wasn't thrilled lol. not throwing anyone under the bus it's just one of those things you learn. sounds like your instincts were good though asking the question is the right first step

the MFJ keyers can be a little finnicky with their iambic mode settings too, if yours is set to mode B and you're not used to it that can cause all kinds of weird stuff especially with letters like C and K. might be worth checking what mode its in and trying mode A instead, most people find that one easier to start with.

so ive been on SSB for about two years now mostly on 40 and 20 meters and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds kinda muddy or boxy, one guy last week said it sounded like i was talking through a tin can which honestly stung a bit. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which by most accounts should be a decent combo. i have the microphone gain set around 50% and im trying to keep the ALC moving but not pegged. im wondering if its an EQ thing or maybe the mic position, i tend to hold it pretty close because im in a noisy apartment and i figured closer meant less background noise getting picked up. could that be causing some kind of proximity effect issue? ive read about people rolling off the low end to clean things up but i honestly dont know where to start on the 7300s built in parametric EQ. any thoughts appreciated, been lurking here for a while and figured id finally just ask

HamRadioPrep worked great for me - the video lessons really helped concepts click. I studied for only five days before I took the exam and passed. The key is understanding the material, not just memorizing answers.

i did something like this with a raspberry pi instead of arduino, mostly because i wanted to run gpredict right on the pi itself and cut out the laptop from the equation. used a pi 4 and one of those cheap ADS1115 ADC boards over I2C to read the pot voltage since the pi doesnt have native analog inputs, which is annoying. the motor switching i handled with a small relay hat designed for the pi so the logic levels all matched up without me having to think too hard about it. honestly the hardest part wasnt the hardware at all, it was getting the timing right so the rotator would actually stop at the right bearing and not overshoot. had to add some deadband logic, like if youre within plus or minus 3 degrees just stop trying to correct or it hunts back and forth forever. took a few satellite passes of watching it oscillate before i figured that out.

so i just passed my technician a few weeks ago and ive been lurking here trying to figure out what HT to get as my first radio. everyone seems to have a different opinion and i keep going back and forth between a few options. i know the baofeng UV-5R gets recommended a ton and its cheap which is appealing on a student budget but ive also seen people say its a headache to program and the receive audio isnt great. then theres the yaesu FT-65 which looks solid but costs more. a friend at my local club mentioned the wouxun KG-UV9D which i hadnt even heard of before. mostly i want something for hitting the local repeaters and maybe some simplex if anyone around here does that. dont really have plans to do anything fancy. should i just bite the bullet on the baofeng and learn on that or save up for something better? what did you guys start with

i just passed my tech about 3 months ago so i was literally in your same spot not long ago. i used the hamstudy site that people always recommend and also the ARRL technician book but honestly the book felt like overkill for just passing the test. the practice tests on hamstudy were enough for me. once i was consistently hitting like 85% on the practice exams i felt ready and i passed first try. one thing that helped me was not trying to memorize everything and actually understand why the answers are what they are, especially the electrical formulas and the band stuff. it just sticks better that way. good luck, it's not as hard as it seems

yeah the timing thing is huge and way underrated. ive noticed that the guys who just hammer away calling constantly are almost never the ones who get through. the DX operator hears a mush of signals and just cant pull anyone out. if you time it so your call lands slightly after the big rush you stand out more — at least thats been my experience on 20m. one thing i'd add is working on your sent audio. ran into a situation where i upgraded my amp and suddenly my signal reports went way up but i was still struggling in pileups. turns out my mic was garbage and i was sending this thin scratchy audio that just didnt cut through. swapped to a different mic, did some eq tweaking, and its noticably better. a clean punchy signal helps a lot more than just raw power. also for split operation — dont just guess at where theyre listening. actually listen to where the successful QSOs are happening and put yourself in that part of the passband. i usually tune around 1 to 5 up from where the DX is transmitting and see where the action is rather than just calling on some random frequency in the spread.

You might enjoy some of the international special events - worked some fantastic stations during the recent Commonwealth Games celebrations and various European city anniversaries. The QSL cards are still beautiful, and many offer digital certificates too.

congrats on the first build, that's a big step. the QCX series is a great starting point honestly, Hans does really solid work with those kits and the documentation is some of the best in the hobby. i built a QCX+ a while back and still use it regularly for SOTA activations, tiny thing fits in a jacket pocket with a small battery. as for the ubitx, i built a v6 a couple years ago and it's a noticeably bigger project, more parts, more things that can go wrong. the SSB performance is... decent for what it is, but it does need some tweaking out of the box. there's a whole community around firmware mods and stuff like that which can be fun if you enjoy that side of things. i'd say if you're comfortable with the QCX build and want a challenge, go for it. just be ready to spend some time with the raduino and maybe some filter mods before it really sings. totally worth it though imo.

I'm planning a scratch-built QRP SSB transceiver covering 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands with about 5W output. Planning to use a single-IF design with AGC, and looking at Si5351 for the VFO. My main questions: What's a good IF frequency that has readily available crystal filters? I've seen 455 KHz mentioned often but crystal sources seem scarce. Also considering a 7 MHz IF with ladder filter using MC1496 mixers and IRF840 finals. Any recommendations for a proven filter design at this frequency?

ok so i've had my general ticket for about two years now and i've been pretty casual about logging contacts, mostly just ragchewing on 40m with the local crowd. but lately ive been getting into DX and i logged my 40th entity last week and now im kind of hooked on this whole DXCC thing. my question is about how the credits actually work. i understand you need 100 confirmed entities for the basic award, but im confused about the Logbook of the World side of things. do all stations i work have to be on LoTW or can i still mail in paper QSLs for some of them? i have a few paper cards from operators who arent on LoTW and i dont want to just throw those away. also is WAS worth chasing at the same time or is that kind of a different world entirely? i heard some guys say WAS is actually harder than basic DXCC depending on how you look at it, especially for certain bands. anyway just trying to figure out where to focus my energy before i go too deep down this rabbit hole

omg same, i thought my antenna had a problem last tuesday because 20 was completely dead for me around 1400z and then i saw someone on the club discord working JA stations no problem on 17. turned out there was apparently a nice short path opening that i totally missed. i really need to get better at checking propagation tools before i just assume the band is dead lol

GNU Radio 4.0 has reached its first release candidate with a stable core architecture and well-defined API that's no longer expected to undergo major breaking changes. This is huge for SDR development - the new modular scheduler architecture and improved performance look promising. You can now deploy 2-3 MB standalone executables with zero dependencies, which is transformative for IoT SDR and edge computing applications. Anyone tried the RC1 yet with their RTL-SDR or HackRF setup?

yeah the fiberglass cap thing is a real headache for ground plane. mag mount wont work well at all on fiberglass, the magnet part is fine but you lose the counterpoise basically and your SWR will be all over the place. what most people do in that situation is either run a NMO mount through the metal roof of the cab itself if you can get to it, or use a fold-down mirror mount on the side. mirror mounts arent perfect but they at least give you some metal to work against. ive also seen guys fab up a small aluminum plate inside the topper and mount the antenna through that plus bond it to the frame with a grounding strap. bit more work but its a proper installation. for 2m and 70cm your ground plane doesnt need to be huge but it needs to be something. a quarter wave on 2m is only like 19 inches so a decent plate works fine.

yeah so the Koch method is basically where you start with just two characters at full speed — like 20wpm — instead of learning them slow and then speeding up later. the idea is your brain learns the sound as a whole instead of you counting dits and dahs. Farnsworth spacing is the other piece of that, where the characters themselves are fast but the gaps between them are longer so you have time to think. most people who tried to learn the old way by counting and then had to relearn it say going the Koch route first would have saved them a ton of headache. for actually doing it, LCWO dot net is what a lot of people use, its free and you can set it up to follow the Koch sequence. there's also an app called Morse Trainer that works pretty well on the phone for doing short sessions when you're waiting around somewhere. the big thing is just doing a little bit every single day rather than sitting down for two hours once a week, consistency is way more important than total time in my experience. took me about four months of maybe 15 minutes a day before i could copy simple QSOs, not saying that's typical just what it was for me

Oh man I did the exact same thing on my first net! I was so embarrassed I didn't check in again for like a month lol. But yeah what the other guy said is right - just wait it out and let the net control handle it. They've dealt with doubles a million times before. The key thing is dont keep talking when you hear someone else, which you already figured out. You're doing fine