Michael Brown79

the FT-950 as radio 2 might actually be fine depending on what bands youre running concurrently. the issue is youre gonna hear your K3 in it no matter what if theyre on adjacent bands and your antennas are that close together. i tried something similar with an old TS-590 before i upgraded and the bleedover on 15 when i was running 20 was bad enough to make it pretty much useless unless i was careful about power levels on the run radio. one thing nobody really talks about enough is just the mental training side of it. like the hardware can be perfect and youll still be slower than single radio for the first several contests because your brain isnt wired for it yet. i kept a second radio in the shack for almost a full year just doing casual operating with it, switching my attention back and forth, before i ever tried it in a real contest. seemed wasteful at the time but when i finally used it in CQ WW my rate was way better than i expected for a first attempt.

I switched from an inverted V to a vertical about 18 months ago and yeah the DX improved but not as dramatically as the forums made me think it would. like I worked a few new countries but I was already working europe pretty regularly on the dipole so it wasnt a night and day thing the thing nobody tells you is how much the vertical picks up local noise. I'm in a suburban lot and the thing hears every switching power supply within half a mile it feels like. ended up putting the dipole back up too and just switching between them depending on what im trying to do

i got into EME about two years ago and went through exactly this same rabbit hole. ended up building a 2x9 array on 2m and running 600w and honestly it took me months before i completed my first QSO, but when it happened i was genuinely kind of stunned that i was bouncing a signal off the moon and someone in Japan was hearing it. the WSJT-X software does most of the heavy lifting with Q65 but you still gotta have the hardware to back it up. one thing nobody told me upfront was how much the moon's position matters for when you can operate, both you and the other station need the moon above the horizon at the same time obviously but also the moon has to be at a useable elevation, below like 5 degrees its basically just going through too much atmosphere. there are good windows and bad ones and planning around them is kind of part of the whole deal. check out the EME2 reflector if you havent, thats where a lot of the scheduling happens still.

yeah what he said about LoTW is huge. i was in the same spot as you not too long ago and the first thing i did was upload all my old logs to LoTW and was surprised how many confirmed just automatically because the other station had already uploaded their side. got like 30-something DXCC credits without doing anything extra which felt like cheating almost haha WAZ is the one i find most satisfying honestly because 40 zones is very doable even with a modest station, some of the zones are tricky but not impossible. zone 2 and a couple of the pacific ones gave me grief for a while

Totally normal to feel that way before your first net check-in, pretty much everyone does. For most casual nets it really is as simple as waiting for net control to open it up for check-ins, then when they pause you just say your callsign phonetically. They'll acknowledge you, maybe ask if you have traffic or announcements, and if you don't you just say something like "negative traffic, just checking in" and that's honestly about it for a lot of them. Some nets are more structured and they'll go through a roll call or ask each station a question like signal report or location, but it varies a lot by net. The Tuesday night ones at clubs are usually pretty relaxed, net control has heard every mistake in the book and nobody's going to get upset if you stumble over your callsign once. Just listen for the first few minutes before jumping in so you get a feel for the pacing. As for special event stations, that's a different animal — those are usually set up to commemorate something specific and they use a special callsign like W1 or K-something that isn't your regular call. You'd work them like any other contact, just trying to get in the log. Some people collect special event QSL cards. Worth doing if you get the chance but it's not a net, more of a pile-up situation depending on how popular the event is.

the RSP1A is a pretty significant step up from the rtl-sdr dongles on HF, not gonna lie. the 12-bit ADC vs 8-bit makes a noticeable difference in dynamic range and the built in preselector filters actually help a lot on the lower bands where you'd otherwise get all kinds of intermod garbage from strong AM broadcast stations. i run mine with SDRuno and on 40m i can copy stations i would have totally missed before. that said you're not wrong about antennas being a big part of it. if you're running a short wire or random piece of coax you'll still struggle regardless of the receiver. but assuming your antenna situation is reasonable the RSP1A is genuinely worth the money. the HackRF comparison is kind of apples and oranges tbh, hackrf has a much worse noise figure and only 8-bit too, its more of a do everything device than a good receiver. if youre not actively needing to transmit signals i wouldnt bother with it for monitoring.

so ive been doing contests seriously for maybe 3 years now and i keep reading about SO2R and watching videos of these high rate stations and honestly it looks insane. like how are these guys even keeping track of two radios at once while logging and calling CQ and listening for dupes. my brain hurts just thinking about it. right now im running a single K3 into a 2el yagi on 20 and a trapped vertical for 40/80, nothing fancy. i usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack on the 3830 scores for my category. been thinking about picking up a used IC-7300 or maybe a second K3 if i can find a deal, and trying to actually do SO2R properly for next years CQ WW. but like, is the rate improvement actually worth setting up all the band switching stuff, the antenna switching, the SO2R controller, dealing with RFI between the two radios... it seems like you could spend more time managing the complexity than actually working stations. anyone here actually done the switch from SO1R to SO2R and have thoughts on whether it was worth it? and how long did it take before it stopped feeling like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time

so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for it and get my technician license. problem is i dont really know where to start with the studying. i looked up the question pool online and theres like 400+ questions and im kind of overwhelmed. do people actually memorize all of them or is there a better way to go about this? also i saw some people mention hamstudy.org but i wasnt sure if thats still up to date since the question pool apparently changes every few years or something. any advice would be appreciated, ive never really done anything like this before and im not sure how much time i need to set aside for it

the 817 at 4 watts into a decent yagi will surprise you, honestly the gain difference between a collinear and a 13 element yagi is night and day on weak signal ssb. the x50 is maybe 6dbi on 2m, a 13b2 is going to be somewhere around 12-13dbd depending on who you believe, so you're talking about a significant chunk of db you're leaving on the table right now fixed yagi can work but you really need to think hard about where you want it pointing. if there's a clear population center or known active grid square in one direction it can make sense, some guys run two yagis fixed at 90 degrees to each other and just switch between them, cheap and effective. but a rotator really is the right answer for serious weak signal work, even a cheap TV rotator will do fine if youre not in a wind prone area... oh wait you said 1200ft exposed hilltop, yeah get a proper one, tv rotators dont last long up there

Just got my General license and really interested in emergency communications. I keep hearing about simulation exercises and drills, but honestly feeling a bit overwhelmed. We conduct weekly or monthly practice drills, sending various ICS and Winlink form messages. We conduct semi-annual larger-scale drills, based on the skills learned during practice. What's the best way for a new operator to get started? Should I jump into a big exercise like SET, or start with smaller local nets? Any recommendations for training courses or resources would be super helpful too. I have a mobile rig and HT, but wondering if I need additional equipment for serious EmComm work.

so ive been chasing 3Y0 and a few other rare ones for a while now and just could never crack the pileups. running 100w into a tribander at about 35 feet, nothing fancy. i always figured it was just a power thing and that i'd never get through without an amp but honestly that wasnt the problem at all. what finally clicked for me was listening way more carefully to where the DXpedition was actually pulling calls from. like not just knowing they're working split, but really watching the pattern — where in the sub-band they're tuning, how fast they're moving, whether they tend to come back to partial calls or full ones. some operators really telegraph where they're gonna go next if you watch for a few minutes before jumping in. also timing. i used to just call and call and call. now i wait for the pileup to thin a little right after they work someone, count about half a second and then send one clean call. not a long call, just my suffix or sometimes just the full call once and then shut up. feels wrong but it works way better than hammering. the other thing nobody really told me was to make sure your signal is actually clean. i borrowed a friends panadapter and my signal was broader than i thought. cleaned up the drive level and suddenly i started getting responses i wasnt getting before. dunno if that was coincidence but i dont think so. curious what techniques others use — especially if you're running QRP or low power. feels like there has to be something im still missing.

yeah theres definitely a big difference between the official ITU Q codes and the stuff hams just kind of made up over the decades. the real Q codes go back to telegraph days, like QSL originally meant acknowledging receipt of a transmission, but now we use it for confirming a contact or even just the physical card. QTH is your location, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural static like lightning crashes, QSB is when the signal is fading in and out. those are probably the ones you'll hear most on HF for sure. the ones that feel like slang usually are — like OM for old man which just means any male ham regardless of age, and YL for young lady which again is used for any woman operator. 73 means best regards and 88 is hugs and kisses, neither of those are Q codes they're just holdovers from the old telegram and CW days. honestly after a few months on air you just absorb them, but if you want a cheat sheet the ARRL website has a decent rundown and there are laminated cards you can get that cover the most common ones

the slim jim comment is real, i keep one rolled up in my go bag now after a similar situation. rubber ducks are kind of a joke for anything serious. one thing that caught me off guard in my first exercise was just... how slow everything felt? like in my head emergency comms was going to be fast paced and intense but actually passing written traffic correctly takes time and you cant rush it or you introduce errors. i think i came in with a TV drama idea of what it would be like lol. the discipline of slowing down and being precise, that was the adjustment for me.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been working on it for a few weeks. one thing that helped me was just assigning each letter a word or sound in my head instead of thinking about it as dots and dashes at all. like K sounds like a cowboy saying okay or whatever, theres whole lists of these online. not sure its the official way but its working for me so far the not being musical thing shouldnt matter from what i can tell, its more about rhythm i think than actual music ability

Taking multiple practice exams is crucial - you'll start seeing repeat questions and get a feel for the actual test. I took at least two practice exams per day the week before my test. Also consider Ham Test Online if you prefer that format over apps.

wait 10m was actually open? i had the radio on in the background around that time and didnt notice anything, must have been on the wrong part of the band. what frequency were you around, like 28.3 area or higher up? im still kinda learning where people actually hang out on that band since ive mostly been on 40m since i got my general.

1.4:1 is totally fine, dont even worry about it. most rigs these days will happily load into that without the tuner even kicking in. people get way too hung up on chasing 1.0 and honestly unless youre running a linear or something the difference is pretty negligible in terms of power getting to the antenna. the frequency thing is real though. stranded wire has a slightly different velocity factor than solid and the height and angle of the legs affects the electrical length too. if you cut it in free space at the standard formula it usually comes out a bit short of where you want it. just add a couple inches to each leg and resweep, do it gradually. easier to cut off than to add back on. also the wire will sag a tiny bit over time if theres any tension and that can shift things a few khz but probably not enough to matter much.

oh man first activation is so fun, you're gonna love it. yes post an alert on SOTAwatch before you go, doesnt have to be exact to the minute but chasers check it and if you dont alert you might sit there calling CQ for a while wondering why nobody answers. the app is called SOTA Goat if you're on iPhone or there's Pocket RBN too which helps you see if your signal is getting out even when nobody's calling back. the 4 contact minimum is real but honestly on a decent band like 40m you'll blow past that in the first 10 minutes once the pile up finds you. just make sure at least one of your contacts is a valid callsign, had a buddy once whose first activation almost didnt count because one of his four was a busted call he logged wrong. for logging in the field i just use a little waterproof notepad and transfer to the database that night, works fine. good luck and let us know how it goes

honestly the guy on 14.225 with the stock mic might just have a really good voice for SSB, some people naturally sit in that 500-2500hz intelligibility range and sound great on any setup. dont read too much into that. one thing nobody talks about enough is room acoustics, if youre in a hard room with lots of reflections your audio can sound weird even if the radio and mic are perfectly set up. also make sure youre not too close to the computer monitor or other noise sources, ive heard guys pick up fan noise and coil whine and not even realize it. get someone to give you an honest audio report on the air, like actually ask them to be critical not just say you sound fine, most people just say fine because they dont want to bother

so ive been on HF for about two years now, mostly FT8 and some CW, but ive been trying to get into actual voice operation on 40 and 20m SSB and honestly the feedback i keep getting is that my audio sounds either too bassy or kind of muffled or just generally bad. i know my signal is getting out because people are hearing me, they just keep asking me to speak up or saying i sound like im in a tunnel or something my setup is a TS-590SG and im using a Heil PR-40 through a preamp because i read that was supposed to be a great combo. processor is off, i havent messed with the TX equalizer in the menu much. i did read somewhere that you need to set the mic gain pretty carefully on these radios but i honestly dont know where to start. been running it around 50-60% which felt right but maybe thats the problem also not sure if the speech processor is worth turning on or if that just makes things worse. anyone running a similar setup or have tips for dialing in SSB audio properly

so ive been at this for a while now and honestly starting to feel like 13wpm is just my ceiling and thats a little depressing to think about. started learning morse back in the spring, got to 5wpm pretty quick with just the basic alphabet stuff, then pushed up to around 10-12 using the Koch method on lcwo.net which i really liked. but now im just... stuck. i can copy most letters fine when im relaxed at home but anything faster than 13 and my brain just freezes up and i start missing characters and then i panic and miss more and it snowballs. i practice maybe 20-30 minutes a day which i know some people say isnt enough but its what i have. im doing random 5-letter groups mostly which some people told me to do but im not sure if thats actually the right approach at this stage or if i should be doing plain english text instead. also not sure if i should be copying on paper or just trying to do it in my head. ive seen arguments both ways. anyone gone through this and actually made it to 20wpm? feels really far away right now. im not in a rush just dont want to be stuck at 13 forever lol

im kind of in the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and just got my DXCC basic a couple months ago which felt amazing. the G5RV setup is fine for this stuff, i was running something similar when i got started. just work everything you hear and upload to LoTW religiously, some days youll be surprised what propagation brings in even on a modest antenna the cluster helps a lot for spotting new ones when they pop up, i use DX summit mostly. one thing i wish someone had told me earlier is to just log everything and not worry too much about the award structure at first, after a few months you look at your log and realize youre closer than you thought

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for working new entities and the DX is nuts but after a while it feels like im just clicking a button and watching a computer talk to another computer. decided to try JS8Call last week after seeing it mentioned here a few times and honestly its kind of scratching that itch i didnt know i had the thing is the decode sensitivity seems way worse than FT8 — like i was pulling in stations on FT8 at -20dB that JS8Call couldnt even see. is that just the nature of it since the bandwidth is wider and youre sending actual text? or is there a config thing im missing. running wsjt-x alongside JS8Call on the same antenna and the difference is pretty dramatic also been messing with PSK31 a bit which feels almost retro at this point but there are still people on 14.070 if you look. curious if anyone else uses multiple digital modes or if most people just stick to FT8 and call it a day

so ive been a General for like 4 years now and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the Amateur Extra. i mostly do HF digital modes and some casual SSB, nothing super serious. a buddy at the club keeps telling me the extra spectrum privileges are actually useful especially on 40 and 75 meters but honestly i dont feel like i ever run out of room on the bands i use. the theory part is what worries me more than anything. i looked at some of the practice questions and there's stuff in there about filter design and transmission line theory that i havent thought about since maybe a community college physics class. like the smith chart stuff, does anyone actually use that in real life or is it just on the test to torture people. i dont mind studying but i want to know if the advanced theory parts actually teach you anything useful or if its just memorize and forget kind of deal. anyone go through this recently and have thoughts on how hard it actually is compared to General

so ive been meaning to do this for like two years and after the last bad storm season i finally sat down and started actually building out a go-kit. right now i have my FT-857D, a couple of spare fuses, my SignaLink, a tablet with Winlink and APRS stuff loaded up, and a basic dipole i can throw in a tree. power is a 20ah lifepo4 battery and a small 50w panel. thing is i dont really know what i dont know, you know? like i feel like im forgetting something obvious. ive heard people talk about having laminated frequency cards and stuff like that but i also feel like my tablet covers most of that. my local ARES group does drills maybe twice a year but honestly we havent done a full deployment sim so i dont have much to compare against. anyone who has actually deployed for a real event, what was the thing that surprised you or that you wished you had packed? not looking for the obvious stuff like extra coax and adapters, more like the dumb little things you never think about until youre standing in a parking lot at 2am wondering why you forgot it