John Williams99

ran RemoteHams for almost two years before i switched to a full DIY setup using a Raspberry Pi 4 at the remote end, rigctld talking to my IC-7300, and SDR++ with a network source plugin for the Airspy HF+ i have out there. the latency difference was immediately noticeable, probably cut it in half roughly, though a lot depends on your path to the site obviously. the waterfall freezing thing you mentioned — yeah i saw that too and i never really figured out if it was their server infrastructure or something local. after i moved everything to my own stuff running over Wireguard that problem just went away so i sort of assume it was on their end. the tradeoff is you spend a weekend or two getting it all configured and you basically become your own IT support from then on, which isnt for everyone. but if youre comfortable with linux and dont mind digging into configs it is genuinely better in my experience. the Allstar integration thing is a whole separate rabbit hole honestly. i tried tying my remote rig into a local repeater via Allstar for a while and it gets messy with audio levels and who has PTT priority. ended up keeping them completely separate just to keep my sanity.

nice write up, this is basically exactly what im about to do. just got my technician a few months ago and ive been running HTs but want to do a proper mobile setup in my jeep before winter. was already planning to do the battery direct connection so good to know about the grounding thing ahead of time. quick question if you dont mind -- did you need to do anything special with the head unit mounting since the FTM-300 has the separate head? i have kind of limited dash space and wondering how people handle that.

so ive been checking into the local tuesday night 2m net for about 3 months now and i feel like im doing it wrong half the time. the net control will ask for check-ins and i give my call, but then sometimes people just start talking and chatting and i cant figure out when exactly you're supposed to ID again. like if we get into a long roundtable conversation is every 10 minutes the hard rule or is it more flexible than that? also kind of related — is there a "right" way to pass traffic back to net control when youre done talking? i just say my call and say back to net control but some guys seem to say a lot more than that and i dont know if im being too short or if thats fine. nobody has said anything to me so maybe its okay but still feels weird not knowing if im doing it correctly. been loving the hobby so far just want to make sure im not accidentally being rude to anyone on the air without knowing it

so ive been a general for about two years now and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the amateur extra. i mostly do HF, some ssb, a little digital, nothing too crazy. the thing is i hear people talk about the extra exam and how theres all this advanced theory stuff and honestly that part intimidates me more than anything. like i get the basic electronics from when i was studying for general but the extra has stuff about transmission lines and filter design and i dont even know what else. is it actually that complicated or is it one of those things that sounds worse than it is also i guess my other question is whether the full privileges are even worth it for how i operate. i know you get access to more of the HF bands but i mostly hang around 40 and 20 meters anyway so im not sure how much difference it would make day to day. anyone gone through this recently and have thoughts either way

this is the kind of post i needed to see honestly, im still pretty new and have been thinking about getting more involved with ARES but wasnt sure what to expect from the actual exercises. the part about people freezing when the repeater dropped is kind of eye opening — i definitely dont have simplex frequencies memorized or really even programmed in properly now that i think about it. gonna go fix that tonight actually.

so ive been using N1MM for years mostly because thats what everyone at the club uses and its basically the default for contests but honestly outside of contest season i find it kind of clunky for just regular logging, the interface feels like it was designed for one thing and everything else is an afterthought been looking at Log4OM and it seems way more polished for general use, better qsl management, built in LoTW sync that actually works without me poking at it every time, and the WSJT-X integration looked decent in the youtube videos i watched although i havent actually tried it myself yet the thing im worried about is contest season — i do maybe 6 or 7 contests a year, nothing serious, CQWW, sweepstakes, a few state QSO parties, and i know N1MM is basically the gold standard for that stuff, the dupe checking and the rate display and all that is genuinely great, i dont think Log4OM even comes close for running a pileup or doing S&P efficiently so i guess my question is does anyone run two separate logging programs, like Log4OM for day to day FT8 and DX chasing and then switch over to N1MM when a contest comes up, or is that just asking for a headache with duplicate logs and trying to merge stuff later

honestly i made almost that exact swap about two years ago, went from a 590SG to the 7300 and my take is — its a lateral move more than an upgrade in terms of actual receive performance. the 590 receiver is no joke, kenwood did a really good job with that radio. what you DO get with the 7300 is the panadapter which after a few weeks you absolutely cannot live without, i wont go back to blind tuning. also the direct sampling architecture on the icom feels a little cleaner to me on 40m at night but that might be placebo. if youre already happy with the 590 and youre working with an attic dipole the bottleneck isnt the radio, just sayin. but if you have the funds and youre going to keep the hobby going for another decade its not a bad move. just dont expect a night and day difference in your actual contacts.

yeah the prop stuff confused me too when i was studying, just kind of skim it enough to get the test questions right and then it makes more sense once you actually start listening on HF and experiencing it yourself. hearing a station fade in and out on 20m teaches you more than the book does tbh one thing i wish someone told me before i upgraded was to actually spend some time just listening on HF before you jump in and transmit, like even if you only have a general coverage receiver or can use webSDR. gives you a feel for how the bands actually sound and what the conventions are because HF is pretty different from the repeater stuff

so ive been wanting to do this for probably two years now and last weekend i finally got my act together. built a little pixie kit, nothing fancy, just wanted to see if i could actually make contacts running 500mw on 40m. took it out to the state park about 20 miles from home, had a simple wire dipole hung between two trees maybe 25 feet up, and just started calling CQ on the QRP calling frequency. honestly i wasnt expecting much. i figured id get ignored or maybe pick up one contact if i was lucky. ended up working 6 stations over about 3 hours, furthest was a guy in ohio which is maybe 400 miles from me. nothing crazy by DX standards but i was running half a watt. HALF A WATT. the whole setup runs off a little lipo pack and the whole rig weighs maybe a pound including the battery. the keyer paddle i made from two pieces of pcb board and some hardware store bits, took about an hour to put together and it actually works pretty decent. a few of the guys i worked seemed genuinely surprised when i told them my power level, one asked me twice like he thought i meant 500 watts. anyway just wanted to share because i feel like this is something more people should try. if youre on the fence about building something, just do it. even if the pixie kit isnt the most refined design in the world it gets you on the air and there is something really satisfying about making a contact with something you put together yourself.

so ive been chasing DX for about two years now and just crossed 100 confirmed on LoTW which was exciting but now im trying to figure out how the actual DXCC award submission works and its honestly more confusing than i expected like i get that you need 100 confirmed entities but do ALL of them need to be on LoTW or can you mix LoTW with paper QSLs? i have a bunch of cards from older contacts that i never bothered uploading anywhere and i wasnt sure if those would count toward the same total or if its like two separate pools of credit also i saw something about WAS and WAZ and i kind of want to chase those at the same time while im already logging contacts — is that a smart way to do it or does it just turn into a mess trying to track everything at once. i use WSJT-X and Ham Radio Deluxe so logging isnt really the problem its more the award side of things i dont fully understand yet any advice from people whove actually gone through the submission process would be great, im not in a huge rush just want to make sure im not wasting confirmations or doing double work

honest answer - single yagi CAN work on JT65B or Q65 but you need it to be a long one, like 15+ elements minimum and ideally something in the 20+ range, a 2m5WL or similar. the IC-9700 is actually a solid starting point, decent noise figure on receive which matters a ton for EME. that said you really cant skip the preamp, a good low NF unit at the feedpoint makes a huge difference, were talking maybe 0.4-0.5dB NF which sounds small but on EME every tenth of a dB is real. your feedline run needs to be as short as possible to that preamp, coax loss before the LNA just murders your receive. power wise 100w into a single long yagi gets you in the game on digital, ive seen guys work 30-40 DXCC entities on 2m EME with that kind of setup. it wont be fast and youll be chasing the big guns during good windows but its absolutely doable. the thing people underestimate is the software and timing side - you need a solid GPS disciplined clock or at least good NTP sync, the mode is unforgiving about timing. also get your az/el rotors sorted before anything else because chasing the moon manually is not a thing you want to experience

our club is actually setting up a table there this year so itll at least have that going for it lol. come find the Ridgeline ARC table if you end up coming out, we always bring a bunch of random stuff to unload

your existing setup is closer than you think, honestly. single yagi EME on 2m with JT65B is real, people do it every weekend. the guys calling it singe yagi EME or SEME have worked hundreds of contacts with setups not that different from what you described. 12 elements is on the shorter side, something in the 17-19 element range would help, but its not a dealbreaker especially if your feedline loss is low and your preamp NF is decent. what preamp are you running? that matters more than people give it credit for. the elevation rotor question is the honest painful answer -- yes you really do want it eventually. you CAN plan sessions around when the moon is within maybe 3-5 degrees of your horizon and just tilt manually or prop the antenna up at a fixed angle, some guys do exactly that to get started. but the moon moves faster than you expect and youll get frustrated. mechanical elevation doesn't have to be expensive, some people make surprisingly functional ones from surplus hardware. but if youre serious about making regular contacts and not just catching the occasional lucky window, elevation control is kind of necessary. start without it, see if you catch the bug hard enough to justify the project, thats my advice.

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now (general class) and i mostly just talk to my buddy down the street on 2m but ive been wanting to get more on-air time and actually feel like im part of something bigger i guess. someone at my local club mentioned checking into nets but i honestly dont even know where to start looking for schedules or which ones are worth bothering with. i tried checking into the ARRL net directory thing online and it was kind of overwhelming, theres so many listed and i couldnt tell which ones are actually active vs just listed there and never really running anymore. does anyone have a net they personally check into and would recommend, either on HF or VHF? im in the midwest if that matters. also curious about those special event stations ive seen mentioned a few times, like is that something a regular person can just call and work or do you have to be some kind of DX guy to bother?

honestly the theory stuff looks scarier than it is. i was in the same boat and kind of dreaded the filter and transmission line questions but if you spend a few weeks with the ARRL extra class manual and just grind through the question pool it starts to click. the pool isnt that huge and a lot of questions are testing the same underlying concept in slightly different ways so once you actually understand why the answer is what it is you stop having to memorize as much. the math isnt calculus or anything, its mostly algebra and knowing a few formulas cold. i used hamstudy.org basically every day for like six weeks and went in feeling pretty solid. took me maybe three months of casual studying total. the cw portions of the bands are genuinely nicer once you have access, less qrm at least in my experience, and the 60m situation alone made it worth it for me since i do a lot of portable ops. just do it, worst case you learn a ton even if you dont pass the first time

yeah the social side of it caught me off guard too when i first started, people genuinely want to know what youre seeing out there. i had a qso with a guy in germany once while i was sitting next to a creek watching a heron and i tried to describe it and he was thrilled. its a good program. also 40m was the right call for morning activations in my experience, 20 gets better as the day goes on depending where you are

yeah what he said about the modes is right. i was confused about that same thing for months. one thing i'll add is dont sleep on WAZ either if you're already chasing DX — zones kind of take care of themselves as you work different parts of the world and its a nice milestone when you realize youve got half the zones confirmed without even trying. 67 entities is solid btw, once you get past like 100 it slows down a lot and you start actually having to plan for the rarer stuff

yeah i actually ran into this exact same debate last year. ended up with a 3 element yagi i built from the ARRL handbook plans and honestly its kind of a pain at busy activations like the other guy said. great when im specifically chasing DX or trying to link to a distant repeater but the rest of the time im just twisting it around constantly trying to figure out where the signal is coming from. the collinear is probably the more practical call for general portable use. just my two cents, mileage will vary etc.

oh man i remember my first one, it was a simulated emergency test for our served agency and i showed up with way too much gear and not enough paper. seriously bring a notepad and pencil, like multiple pencils. pens dry up, pencils dont. and write everything down even if it feels redundant because when traffic starts flowing you will be glad you have a log. the thing that surprised me most was how much waiting there is interspersed with moments where suddenly everyone needs something at once. net control is doing a lot of work keeping things organized so your job is mostly just to stay ready and not key up unless you're called or have something genuinely urgent. follow the net control's lead on everything and if you're not sure whether to transmit, the answer is usually wait a little longer. also dont stress if you mess up a call or have to ask for a repeat. everyone does it, especially on their first exercise. the whole point of doing exercises is so the real thing goes smoother. you'll be fine, just show up and pay attention

yeah the vanity process tripped me up too when i first did it. so basically the way it works is there are different callsign formats depending on your license class — extras can get the 1x2 and 2x1 format calls (like W1AB or WA1B type things) which are the short desirable ones, while generals and techs are limited to 1x3 and 2x3 formats. so if you're a general you can still get a vanity but you wont be eligible for the really short ones until you upgrade. for actually applying, the FCC ULS is where you do it officially but yeah its not the friendliest interface. AE7Q is great for checking availability and seeing what calls are coming up for deletion — calls get recycled after the previous holder has been expired for a couple years. you can search a specific call there and see its status. the window system is pretty simple once you get it — when you apply there's a 18 day window where other people can also apply for the same call, and if more than one person applies the FCC uses a preference system based on things like whether you held that call before or if a close relative held it. after the window closes if you're the only applicant you usually get it pretty quick. just go through the FCC ULS, find the license application, and select the vanity option. take your time and double check everything before you submit

had something similar on mine a while back, turned out to be nothing that dramatic — somehow the RIT had gotten bumped and i hadnt noticed. i know that sounds dumb but check it. the RIT knob on that radio is easy to accidentally clip when youre reaching for something nearby. i spent like four days convinced something was wrong with the radio before my wife pointed out the little indicator on the screen.

im kind of in the same boat actually, been running a trapped vertical for 40 and 20 with only like 8 radials and honestly results are mixed. works but i always wonder. one thing i haven't seen mentioned — have you thought about an inverted vee instead of a flat dipole? if you only have one good support point that might let you get the feedpoint up higher even if the ends droop down, and the pattern opens up a bit more which can actually help depending on where your DX targets are. just a thought, worked better for me than i expected when i was in a similar situation with a single tree.

Get the Gordon West study guide not the ARRL one, its cheaper and more focused on actually passing the test rather than teaching you everything about everything. Nothing wrong with the ARRL material but its a lot if you just want to get your ticket upgraded. I used Gordon West when i upgraded years ago and was fine. One thing nobody tells you is that once you pass General the real learning starts because now you have to figure out which end of an HF rig is which and what antenna you can actually put up at your place. Went through all that after i upgraded and the exam felt like the easy part looking back. What bands are you thinking about getting into first? 40 meters is usually a good starting point, pretty forgiving in terms of propagation and theres always activity.

so ive been eyeing QRP stuff for probably two years now and kept putting it off because i assumed id need like really good antennas and conditions to make it worth doing. finally just pulled the trigger on building a little 40m CW rig from a kit, one of those bitx-style boards you see floating around, nothing fancy. took me a weekend and a half to get it going and i honestly burned one of the toroids the first time around but got it sorted. anyway took it out to the county park last saturday with a 40 foot wire i just threw up in a tree, ran it off a small lipo pack, whole setup probably weighed under two pounds. worked a station in ohio from here in tennessee on maybe 4 watts, guy gave me a 559 which i was pretty happy with honestly. then just chatted around and heard a lot more than i expected to. the whole thing felt way more satisfying than sitting at home spinning the dial on my big rig i dont know why exactly. anybody else get that feeling with QRP? like theres something different about making a contact when you know youre running low power. also curious if anyone has tips for squeezing a bit more efficiency out of the final stage, the thing runs warm after a while and im not sure if thats normal or if my output matching is slightly off.

so ive been noticing the last couple weeks that 10m and 12m have been absolutely all over the place. some days i can work europe no problem from the midwest, other days i cant even hear anything beyond a few hundred miles. been checking the solar flux numbers on spaceweather.com and they've been bouncing around a lot, like i saw it hit 220 something last tuesday and then a few days later it dropped down to like 160ish. im still kinda learning how all this works honestly. i understand the basics -- higher solar flux generally means better HF conditions, and when theres a geomagnetic storm the K index goes up and things get rough especially on the higher bands. but the relationship between all these numbers and what i actually hear on the radio seems way more complicated than that. like sometimes the flux is decent and the K index looks fine but 15m is still dead as a doornail, and other times conditions seem better than the numbers would suggest. is there something else i should be looking at? someone mentioned A index to me at a club meeting but i dont really know how that fits in. also what resources do you guys actually use day to day for checking propagation, not looking for a textbook answer just curious what people actually have open when theyre sitting down at the radio