Ham Fan

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, drove up to a summit about 45 minutes from the house, figured it would be easy since ive done plenty of portable ops before. yeah no. wind was absolutely brutal up there, kept knocking my end-fed wire around and i could not get a decent SWR to save my life. ended up just running a few contacts on 40m SSB before my fingers went numb and i packed it in. still counts as an activation i think since i got 4 contacts but man i was not prepared for how exposed it gets up there. also my kx2 battery was at like 60% when i left which i thought was fine but running 10w in the cold drains it way faster than i expected. gonna try again next month with a better antenna plan and maybe gloves this time

yep that's classic alternator whine, the RPM-varying pitch is the dead giveaway. the seat rail ground is almost certainly your problem — those things are not great electrical grounds even if they feel solid mechanically. what you really want is a short direct ground run to the chassis itself, ideally the same point where the vehicle body is grounded to the battery negative. some guys go all the way back to the battery negative terminal with a dedicated wire and that clears it up completely. the F-150s in particular can be a little finicky because of all the electronics in them. also worth checking where your coax shield is grounded — if the antenna ground and the radio ground are at different potentials you'll get a loop and that causes all kinds of noise. try touching the braid of the coax to the same ground point as the radio and see if anything changes, just as a quick test before you start buying ferrites and stuff.

Not a dumb question at all, this is exactly the kind of thing we're here for. Okay so the Baofeng thing -- it's complicated. The radio itself works fine for hitting repeaters, plenty of people use them for years without issues. The problem is the menu system is genuinely confusing for new operators, and the build quality is a step down from the Japanese radios. But honestly for your use case of getting on the local repeaters and learning the ropes? It would do the job. That said if you can stretch to something like the Yaesu FT-65 or even a used FT-60, you're gonna have a much easier time. The UI makes more sense, audio is clearer, and the build feels solid. I gave my old FT-60 to my nephew when he got licensed and that thing has been dropped, rained on, the whole deal -- still works. For APRS down the road you'd want to look at something like the FT3DR or the VX-8DR but those are more in the $300+ range so maybe cross that bridge later. Start simple, get on the repeaters, talk to people in your club -- they might even have a spare radio sitting in a drawer they'd sell you cheap.

so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4829 if anyone knows it. went out with my KX2 and a 40m end fed that i strung up between two trees and honestly it went way smoother than i expected for a first time out. got 12 contacts in maybe 35 minutes which i know is just barely over the 10 minimum but hey it counts right couple things im confused about though. i spotted myself on the POTA app before i started and got a few hunters calling pretty quick which was cool, but then the pile kind of dried up after like 8 contacts and i had to just call CQ for a while to find the last few. is that normal or was i doing something wrong with the spot. also i noticed some people on the cluster were spotted on multiple bands during the same activation, do you just re-spot yourself each time you QSY or does the app handle that anyway it was a blast and i already picked out three more parks within an hour drive so i plan to do this a lot more. just want to make sure im doing the spots right before my next one

im kind of in the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and just started actually paying attention to this stuff a few months ago. what got me going was when i worked my first JA station on 20m and it just kind of clicked that this whole DX thing is actually really fun once you get a taste of it. one thing that helped me was downloading the ARRL DXCC entity list PDF, its free and just going through it you start to get a feel for what counts as an entity vs just a country. like some islands or territories count separately even though theyre technically part of a bigger country, which is why the number is higher than the number of actual countries in the world. anyway zones i still find confusing sometimes ngl but basically north america is a few zones, europe is a few, etc. look up a WAZ zone map and it makes more sense visually than trying to read about it

yeah what he said about the bandwidth setting is spot on. i wasted like three weeks thinking it was my mic when it was literally just the TX filter setting burried in the menus. the 7300 defaults i think are not great for voice out of the box. one other thing — how far from the mic are you? the PR-40 is a pretty sensitive large diaphragm mic and if youre sitting a normal conversational distance away you might actually be picking up a lot of room ambiance and indirect sound that a smaller mic wouldnt. most guys running that mic for radio are like 6 to 8 inches away tops and speaking fairly directly at it. also if youre in a padded quiet room that can actually sometimes make things sound weird and unnatural, the radio doesn't always love that super flat response, a little bit of room can help. anyway probably start with the filter settings first thats the most likely culprit

for hiking i just use a jpole i made from ladder line, rolls up and weighs nothing. probably not what you want to hear but once you factor in the weight and awkwardness of a long yagi boom on a trail i just couldnt justify it personally. that said im mostly doing FM and APRS not SSB so my requirements are pretty different i guess

so this has been driving me crazy for about a week now. my 7300 started acting up where sometimes after i transmit it just... stays in TX mode. the TX light stays on, fan keeps running, everything looks like its still transmitting but theres no RF out according to the meter. i have to physically toggle the PTT or hit the power button to snap it out of it. it doesnt happen every time, maybe 1 out of every 10 or 15 transmissions? started noticing it more on longer overs, like if im ragchewing and holding the mic for more than 30 seconds or so. i checked the mic connector and its seated fine, tried a different mic and same thing happens. also swapped cables between the radio and the logging computer in case it was a RTS/DTR thing from the software but no change. radio is about 3 years old and i did drop it once like 6 months ago but nothing seemed wrong after that so i dont know if thats related. anybody seen this before? wondering if its a firmware thing or something internal is going flaky on me.

yeah i did almost exactly this with a 7300 about a year ago. the CI-V band data isnt too bad once you get the format down, theres a table in the icom manual appendix but its easy to miss. basically youre looking for specific hex values that correspond to band ranges. i ended up just mapping the frequency output rather than the discrete band data signal — pull the frequency over CI-V every 200ms or so and decide the band yourself in code. way more flexible and you dont have to deal with the band voltage pins at all. for the relay debounce i used a simple state machine, if the target band changes i start a 300ms timer and only switch if it hasnt changed again by the time the timer expires. works great, no chatter. i can dig up the sketch if you want, its not pretty but it works.

yeah propagation has definitely been picking up, we're getting closer to solar max and the numbers have been climbing pretty steadily this year. flux around 150-160 is solid, you start seeing reliable 10m openings to Europe and beyond when you get consistently above 150, sometimes even sporadic E mixes in and makes things really interesting in summer months. the thing is the flux number alone doesnt tell the whole story -- you also want to keep an eye on the K-index and A-index. when those spike up after a CME or a geomagnetic storm it can completely kill bands that should theoretically be open based on flux alone. ive had days where flux was 180 and 10m was dead as a doornail because the K was up at 5 or 6. pskreporter and DXmaps are your friends for seeing what's actually propagating in real time rather than guessing from the indices. that JA contact on 17m with a dipole and 100w sounds about right for this time of year when the path cooperates, nice work.

so ive been running my IC-706MKIIG for about three years now and honestly it's been a solid radio but the stock SSB filter always felt a little mushy to me, like there was always just a bit more adjacent channel bleed than i wanted especially during contests or when the 40m band is packed. anyway finally pulled the trigger on installing a Collins mechanical filter, the 2.1kHz one, took me most of a saturday afternoon which is longer than it should have been because i had to chase down a cold solder joint i made like an idiot. difference is actually pretty noticeable? like not night and day but when youre sitting there trying to pull a weak station out from under a strong one 5kHz away it really helps. audio sounds tighter too, less of that fuzzy edge on voices. not sure if its placebo but i feel like i can copy callsigns better now. anyone else done this or similar filter swaps on their rigs? curious if the 1.8kHz version would've been a better call for CW focused stuff even though i mostly do SSB

so our county ARES group got activated last weekend for a pretty bad storm system that knocked out power to like half the county. i've been a member for almost a year but this was my first real activation, all the previous stuff was just drills and the monthly nets. honestly i didnt know what to expect going in. the EC called me about 6am and said we needed bodies at the EOC and a few shelters, so i grabbed my go bag and headed out. ended up spending most of the day at the red cross shelter running a simplex link back to the EOC on our local 2m calling freq since the repeater was on backup power and they wanted to save it for mobile stuff. traffic was pretty light which i think surprised some of the newer people but the experienced guys said thats usually how it is — a lot of hurry up and wait and then maybe 20 minutes of actual busy radio work. still felt really good to be useful. the shelter coordinator actually thanked us which was nice, i think sometimes served agencies dont really get what we do until they see it in person. anyway if anyone is on the fence about joining their local ARES group or has been putting off getting involved — just go. the training nets and exercises are worth it just for knowing what youre doing when it counts. curious if anyone else has stories from their first real activation

yeah the waiting too long thing is real lol, i did my first pota activation before i ever tried sota and even that took me forever to actually just go do it. once you do one you realize how not complicated it actually is. 11 contacts on a first go is solid tho, some people struggle to get the 4

yeah the audio clipping thing is probably it but also — what distance are you trying for? some of those RMS gateways on the list are hundreds of miles out and if conditions arent great on the band you picked youre just not gonna make it with VARA FM clearly im assuming youre on HF here. VARA HF and VARA FM are different installs btw, easy thing to mix up. i spent like two weekends on this same problem last year and eventually figured out my issue was that i had the Winlink Express channel set to 7 something but the actual gateway had moved frequencies and the database hadnt updated yet. hit the update channels button and try again, sometimes that alone fixes it.

food and water sounds obvious but people really do forget it or figure they'll just grab something. i went on a six hour activation once thinking id be back for dinner and nope. also a small portable fan if you're going to be in a trailer or a vehicle in summer, radios get hot and so do operators lol. and honestly just a change of clothes or at least dry socks. nobody talks about that but man. on the radio side of things, i'd double check you have a way to program your radio without a computer just in case. and a backup HT with it's own battery. the 857 is great but if something happens to it mid deployment you dont want to be completely dark.

the AGC mod is genuinely worth it if you do a lot of SSB on 40 at night. stock AGC on those radios is pretty aggressive and you get that pumping effect when signals are varying, especially with QRM. takes maybe an hour if youre comfortable with SMD work, there are a few components on the IF board you swap out. i followed the KD8CGH writeup and it was clear enough. cap replacement on a working unit -- i'd probably wait honestly. unless youre seeing any soft startup behavior or the power output is drifting a bit at the end of a long tx session. if the radio is working fine i wouldnt go poking around the PA unnecessarily. that said i did do mine after it started acting up and found two caps that were clearly bulging slightly, so it does happen. just depends how much you enjoy fixing things that aren't broken yet i guess. noise blanker mod i never bothered with because my noise floor situation is mostly my own fault (apartment, switching supplies everywhere) and a DSP-based NB in the logging software does more for me than anything hardware side would.

i was in the same spot about 8 months ago and ended up just getting the UV-5R because i wasnt sure if id even stick with the hobby lol. it works, i've checked into nets with it no problem and nobody has complained about my audio. got chirp set up on my laptop to program it which took an afternoon to figure out but once you get it its easy. the only thing i'd say is buy a better antenna for it right away, the stock rubber duck is pretty mediocre. i got a nagoya 771 for like $12 and it made a noticeable difference hitting a repeater thats about 18 miles away from me. so factor that into the budget maybe

so after about two years of running an old Kenwood TS-440 that i inherited from my uncle i finally ordered an IC-7300 last week and it just showed up yesterday. been reading the manual but honestly the thing is kind of overwhelming compared to what im used to. the 440 was dead simple, you knew where everything was. anyway my main thing right now is i have a G5RV up about 30 feet fed with some old ladder line into a manual tuner and i know the 7300 has a built in tuner but i dont think itll handle the impedance swing on ladder line right? so im assuming i still use the external tuner and just bypass the internal one. also wondering if anyone has opinions on the scope, like is it actually useful day to day or do you mostly ignore it after the novelty wears off. and the audio on this thing out of the box sounds way better than i expected honestly

the gs-232 emulation tip above is the way to go, saves you a ton of headaches. one thing i'd add is think about whether you want to add any limit switches to your hardware setup if the rotator doesnt already have them. i skipped that step and had a bad day when a bug in my code sent the thing spinning past its mechanical stop. nothing catastrophic but it was not a fun afternoon. cheap microswitches wired to interrupt pins on the arduino are good insurance.

so the short version is LoTW is what you need for DXCC and most of the serious ARRL awards, eQSL is accepted for some things but not DXCC, and paper cards are accepted for DXCC too but you have to physically send them in or have a trustee handle it. for everyday award chasing most people just do LoTW and call it done. for the Japan card — yeah you can mail direct if you have his address, just put a green stamp or a few USD in the envelope (that's the return postage thing, it's called an IRC traditionally but most DX guys just want a couple bucks these days). or you can use the outgoing bureau through your ARRL section if you're a member, it's slow like months sometimes but it's cheap. incoming bureau is basically dead for a lot of sections right now though so dont count on getting paper cards back that way very fast. honestly for FT8 and digital modes most people just do LoTW, it's pretty much automatic once you have it set up. paper cards are more of a hobby within the hobby if that makes sense, some guys love them some guys dont bother at all.

so ive been meaning to do this for like two years and after the storms we had last month i finally got serious about building a proper go-kit. right now i've got my FT-857D, a roll of coax, my rigrunner power strip thing, and a 35ah LiFePO4 battery i picked up last spring. threw it all in a pelican knockoff case from amazon. what im realizing is i dont really have a system for it. like the cables are just kind of tossed in there and i'd have to dig around to find the mic or whatever. and i havent thought much about antennas for a deployment situation. at home i've got a dipole up in the trees but obviously i cant bring that somewhere. been looking at the buddipole and the EFHW kits people put together but honestly im not sure what the right choice is for a kit thats supposed to be usable quickly under stress. also not sure if i should be focused more on VHF/UHF for local ARES stuff or HF if things really go sideways. maybe both? anyway just curious what people have in their kits that they wish theyd thought of from the start.

So ive been chasing SOTA for about 6 months now and finally decided to stop sitting at home logging other peoples activations and actually get out there and do one myself. Planning to do W4T/SU-001 this Saturday, its not a super hard hike so figured it would be a good first one to try. My main question is about the logging and spotting side of things. I have the SOTAwatch app on my phone but cell service up there is basically nonexistent, does the self-spotting only work if you have signal or is there a way to do it via radio? I saw something about APRS spotting but im not totally sure how that works or if my HT even supports it. Also just wondering if 5 watts on 2m FM is enough to count for the activation or do I really need to make HF contacts. I know you need 4 contacts minimum but wasnt sure if all 4 can be on VHF. My go kit right now is just a Yaesu FT-65 and a roll-up j-pole, dont have a proper HF portable rig yet. Maybe thats the bigger issue here haha. Any advice from folks who have done activations would be really appreciated, especially around gear and what to actually expect up there. First time for everything I guess.

After running both JS8Call and PSK31 for six months, I wanted to share some observations. JS8Call's weak signal performance is impressive - comparable to FT8 - but the conversational aspect makes it far more engaging than automated exchanges. However, I've found PSK31 still has advantages for quick ragchews, especially when band conditions are good. JS8Call's heartbeat and message relay features are excellent for emergency communications, and the built-in spotting system helps find active stations. But PSK31's simplicity and wider software support (Fldigi, DM780, etc.) keep it relevant. Anyone else notice JS8Call seems less active during contest weekends? For newcomers hesitant about voice modes, both offer keyboard-to-keyboard communication, though JS8Call's structured approach might be less intimidating initially.

so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend, went out to a state forest near me that has a KFF reference and honestly it was a blast. set up my KX2 with a wire antenna strung between two trees and just started calling on 40m. took maybe 20 minutes to get my 44 contacts which i know is the minimum for a valid activation and then i just kept going because people kept calling me. few things i wasnt sure about though. when i log it do i have to submit separately to WWFF or does it sync somehow if im already on POTA? i know some parks overlap with both programs. also somebody called me and said they were activating a different reference at the same time and asked if we could do a park to park type thing — is that a thing in WWFF or just a POTA concept? we made the contact either way but i didnt know if it counted differently. overall though really enjoyed the whole experience, being out in the woods with a radio just feels different than operating from home. planning to do more of these for sure.

this is actually really helpful to read, im fairly new to ARES and havent been through a full exercise yet. our group has one coming up in about 6 weeks and reading stuff like this makes me want to make sure my go-kit is actually ready and not just sort of thrown together. I think my battery situation is probably not great if im being honest with myself. one question — how does the traffic passing actually work in these drills, like is it real message traffic with the standard ICS-213 forms or do they kind of make up simplified stuff for the exercise? I've read about Winlink and also just voice nets and im not sure what most groups actually use in practice.