Michael Williams

yeah the PTT sense line is absolutely the right call, not overengineering at all. you do NOT want to switch relays under load even for a fraction of a second, the contacts will arc and youll be replacing the relay board way sooner than expected. i learned that the hard way on a similar project a few years back.
i ran almost the exact same setup on a TS-590S actually, using an arduino uno and a 4 channel relay board from amazon. the way i handled it was just monitor CTS or RTS on the CAT connection, most kenwoods pull one of those lines when in transmit but you might have to check the manual or experiment. alternatively just wire a simple optocoupler off the PTT line directly, that gives you clean isolation and the arduino just reads it as a digital input. whole thing cost me maybe 12 bucks in parts.
as for pi vs arduino for this specific task, honestly the arduino is fine. the pi boots slower, needs a proper shutdown procedure, and is overkill unless you want to run a web interface to control stuff remotely or log to a database or something like that. if you just want reliable switching, stick with the arduino, less to go wrong.

yeah this sounds really familiar honestly. we did a similar exercise about three years ago and the antenna and battery stuff is always what gets people. everyone assumes someone else tested the gear. after our drill we put a literal calendar reminder every six months just to power up every go-kit radio and run through a quick checklist. not fancy, just somebody actually does it and signs off on a log sheet.
the ICS forms thing is a real gap in a lot of groups i think. knowing how to operate the radio is one thing but the whole point in an actual event is moving information to the right people in the right format. we started doing tabletop exercises separate from the RF exercises, like just sit around a table and practice filling out 213s and 214s for a fake scenario. it sounds boring but it really helped our newer folks get comfortable with the paperwork side before we ever fired up a radio.
the message flow structure problem you mentioned is the hardest one to solve. in our experience the only fix is actually writing down who talks to who and about what before the event not during it. we have a simple one page comm plan now that spells out exactly which station is responsible for each served agency link and what the escalation path is if that station goes down. took a few drafts to get right but its been worth it

so ive been messing around with an arduino mega for the past few weeks trying to get it to handle my antenna switching automatically based on what band i QSY to. the idea is it reads the band data output from my IC-7300 (the BCD lines on the ACC port) and then fires relays to switch between my dipole, vertical, and a 6m beam i just put up.
got the relay board wired up and the arduino is reading the band data fine, but im running into this weird issue where the relays are chattering when i first key up. like theres a brief moment where two relays are both partially energized before one fully drops out. not sure if its a timing issue in my sketch or maybe the relay board itself is pulling too much current and browning out the arduino 5v line. using one of those cheap 8 channel relay modules from amazon so that could definitely be the problem.
also been thinking about adding a raspberry pi to the mix to handle logging and maybe do some CAT control stuff through fldigi but not sure if thats overcomplicating things. curious if anyone else has gone down this road and what you ended up doing.

i was in the same boat like a year ago, the LoTW certificate thing is honestly the most confusing part and once its done you forget it ever happened. one thing i'll add — definitely get your QRZ logbook set up too even if its not the same as LoTW, a lot of people check there and it can auto-sync confirmations. and yeah send paper cards back when you get them, i got my first one from a JA station and it made my whole week honestly

the baofeng thing is fine to start out but once you get comfortable on the repeater you should look into getting your general and trying hf. completely different world. i was only on vhf for maybe two months before i caught the dx bug and now i cant imagine just doing local stuff. not saying vhf is bad just... theres a lot more out there. anyway congrats on the license

yeah 40 has been kinda meh here too, though i did catch a decent pileup last Thursday around 7.195 for some DX station i couldnt quite make out the call. got in there a couple times but no luck. honestly though i think a lot of people have been on FT8 which doesnt exactly fill the band with voice traffic if you know what i mean. your wire situation probably isnt helping either, fix your feedline already haha

Don't overlook the Xiegu G90 - it's only around $400 and covers 160-10m with decent performance for a new General class op. The Ten-Tec Century 21 and Xiegu G90 were among other models mentioned. Saves you money for a better antenna system, which is honestly more important than the rig itself.

yeah the 7300 on 100w will chew through a 100ah battery quicker than people expect especially if duty cycle is high like on digital modes or just long overs on phone. rough rule of thumb i use is around 20-22A on transmit at 100w so if youre at say 30% duty cycle over an hour youre pulling maybe 6-7ah just on transmit plus baseline receive current. adds up.
one thing nobody talks about enough in these setups is keeping the battery topped while youre running, not just starting full. a small 200-300w solar panel feeding a decent MPPT controller can keep pace with moderate operating even if it doesnt fully cover 100w transmit. something like a renogy 200w panel folds down okay for transport. that combo might actually be lighter and more flexible than hauling a generator unless you really need the sustained high power.
i run an EFHW myself for portable, 49:1 wound on an FT240-43 core, works great from 40 through 10. does fine on 80 with a tuner but gets a bit lossy. the linked dipole is probably a bit better on 40 specifically but the EFHW is just so much faster to get up and honestly for emcomm speed of deployment matters more than squeezing out an extra db.

Oh man i went through exactly this about three years ago. The mushy feel is almost certainly your gap adjustment — those cheap paddles usually ship with way too much gap between the contact and the paddle arm. You want just barely a hairs width, like you should almost be able to see light through it but not quite. Tighten up the tension springs too, most people run them way too loose starting out.
Also slow your keyer way down, i mean really slow, like 8 or 10 wpm even if you feel like youre already going slow. The runaway dits thing sounds like your iambic mode might be set to mode B and youre used to mode A or vice versa — worth checking in the menu. Once the mechanical stuff is dialed in it starts clicking and you kind of feel it more than hear it. Give it a few weeks before you give up on it.

same boat as you honestly, i upgraded to general pretty quick after realizing how much i was locked out of on HF. the 10m phone thing is real though and when the band is open its actually a lot of fun even with the limited priv. just dont transmit below 28.3 on phone or youll be in general/extra territory and thats a no go

yeah the pattern thing is real and most people never bother to listen long enough to figure it out. i spent years just throwing my call in and wondering why i couldnt break pileups and then an old timer basically told me to shut up and listen for ten minutes before i ever keyed up. changed everything honestly.
the other thing that made a huge difference for me was timing my call to END right as the DX finishes sending, not start when he finishes. a lot of guys key up the instant they hear the final dit and by the time your callsign is actually hitting his ears everyones already on top of each other. if you back time it so your call completes right around when he lifts the key you can sometimes punch through the leading edge of the pile before it gets dense. takes some practice to get the rhythm but its worth messing with
partial calls are kind of a mixed bag in my experience. some DX operators love fishing with a partial, others get annoyed and just move on. you gotta watch how the operator works before you decide if thats a tool worth using. some guys will come back with just the suffix and work ya, others seem to ignore partials entirely. read the operator like you said.

I just passed my Tech two weeks ago and was in the same boat! The question pool has 10 sub-pools, so I studied one section at a time until I mastered it, then moved to the next. After studying individual topics, I took practice exams to see my weak areas. The math questions seemed scary but you can actually pass without getting any of them right!

I had similar issues in Colorado mountains. WIDE1-1 in first position helps low-profile digis pick up weak signals that the big wide digis might miss. Also check your antenna - mobile whips can be marginal for packet. A 5/8 wave or mag mount with better ground plane made huge difference for me.