Michael O'Connor

yeah the big table is overwhelming, dont bother memorizing all of them. most hams only actually use maybe 15-20 in regular conversation. i was in the same boat as you when i started and what helped me was just getting on the air and listening, you pick them up way faster that way than staring at a chart. also QSY means changing frequency which you'll hear a lot, and QRX means standby or wait a minute. those two come up all the time

Our club is making this a group activity. The following nets are provided for your enjoyment and as a community service by the HARC. You are welcome to join in any of these community nets. These nets are all conducted by volunteer hams. Check if your local club is doing something similar - it's more fun working special events as a team!

38 contacts in 3 hours honestly sounds pretty decent to me, im still working up the nerve to do my first one lol. did you have any trouble finding the actual reference number for the park before you went? i've been trying to figure out the wwff.cc website and its a bit confusing compared to the pota one

so ive been messing around with remote station control for about 6 months now and finally got a setup that mostly works but im running into some weirdness with the RemoteHams client and i cant figure out if its my end or the server side. background: i have an IC-7300 at a rural property about 40 miles away, running RemoteHams RCForb server on a windows 10 box out there, static IP from the local cable provider, and on my end im on comcast with a pretty solid 200/20 connection. the SDR remote piece is what's giving me grief. when i use the built in SDR panadapter through the RCForb client it works great for maybe 20-30 minutes then just kind of... stutters. audio keeps going but the waterfall freezes and sometimes the whole client drops back to the connection screen. i dont think its a bandwidth thing because my audio quality stays fine when the waterfall dies, so its clearly two separate streams doing something weird. also on a related note, ive been thinking about tying this into echolink or some kind of internet linking for when my remote HF setup is down and i just want to ragchew. anyone done both on the same machine? feels like it might be a port conflict situation waiting to happen but maybe im overthinking it.

yeah the timing thing is the hardest part and honestly it takes a full contest season before it starts to feel natural. what clicked for me was thinking of radio 2 as strictly opportunistic early on — youre not trying to run on it, youre just filling the dead air when youre waiting for someone to come back to you on radio 1. that gap between sending your call and waiting for the exchange is maybe 2-3 seconds and thats enough to spin the dial on 2 and snag a mult if you already know where one is sitting. the mistake most people make starting out is they try to do too much on radio 2 and then yeah they miss their run frequency coming back. one thing that helped me was keeping a notepad (actual paper) with known mult freqs written down so i wasnt hunting blind on 2, just punching in the freq and listening for maybe one cycle then back to 1. once that reflex is drilled in your rate on radio 1 actually stays pretty stable because you learn how to split attention without losing the thread. CQing on both simultaneously is a whole other level, i still dont do that reliably tbh

so ive been going to this one for like 4 years now and its usually pretty decent for finding older gear, last year i picked up a barely used 706 for way under market and a bunch of coax connectors for almost nothing. just wondering if anyone else from this area is planning to show up, maybe we could meet up at the tailgate section early before all the good stuff gets picked over also heard the club is doing a fox hunt in the afternoon this time which sounds fun, never done one before actually

KB6NU's No-Nonsense study guide is available as a free PDF download and it's excellent for understanding the concepts. Pair that with HamExam.org practice tests - the site has helped thousands since 2003. Don't just memorize, understand why the answers are correct.

welcome to the addiction ha. yeah the ARRL net directory is hit or miss honestly, some of those listings havent been updated in years. best thing i ever did was just ask around at the club or on the local repeater — usually somebody knows whats active and whats basically dead. there are also a few regional net directories that are way more current than the national one, depends where you are. and yeah special event stations are mostly just fun, you can sometimes get a certificate or a QSL card from them which is cool if you're into that sort of thing. the 1x1 callsigns get issued for specific events, like a museum or a historical anniversary or whatever. totally worth working them when you get the chance, low pressure and the ops running them are usually pretty happy to chat for a second. some events do have awards attached if you work enough of the stations in a series but dont worry about that for now, just enjoy it.

so ive been licensed for about 6 years now mostly doing HF DX and some 2m meteor scatter and i keep seeing EME come up and honestly its starting to sound like something i want to try. i know its not cheap or simple but i want to understand what the real minimums are before i start spending money in the wrong direction. right now i have a yaesu ft-991a and a decent 2m yagi i built from a k1fo design, maybe 12 elements. i know thats nowhere near enough for EME. from what ive read you basically need massive antenna gain and a low noise preamp right at the feedpoint, and a solid understanding of where the moon actually is at any given time. and digital modes, mostly JT65C from what i can tell or has that shifted to Q65 now? i keep seeing mixed info on that. my main question is whether someone starting from scratch can realistically expect to work any contacts with like a 4-yagi array or if you really need to go 8 or 16 yagis to get anywhere. i have a decent sized yard and i could maybe do 4x 17el yagis on a small H-frame if i build it myself. power wise the ft-991a does 100w on 2m but im already looking at an HL-350VDX or maybe borrowing a 1kw amp. just wondering how realistic this is before i go full rabbit hole on this

welcome to the dark side haha. honestly for a first paddle dont overthink it too much — the Vibroplex brand paddles are nice but you dont need to start there. a lot of people start with a cheap single lever paddle and that works fine. i used a Begali for years and loved it but thats overkill for learning. the MFJ keyers are... okay. mine lasted a long time actually but i know people whove had issues. if your radio has a built in keyer (a lot of modern ones do) you might not even need a separate unit at all, just plug a paddle straight in and go. for learning to send i honestly think slowing way down and focusing on rythm is more important than which paddle you use. like really slow, slower than you think you need. the muscle memory takes a while to build and if you rush it you just reinforce bad habits. im still unlearning some stuff from when i started 15 years ago lol

Congrats on the ticket! So this is actually a really common question and honestly the answer kind of depends on the person. I've seen people start with baofengs and love the hobby, and I've seen people get frustrated because those radios can be a pain to program without the software and cable, and the receive audio is pretty mediocre. That said $25 is hard to argue with as a learning tool. My personal take after years of watching new hams come through the club — if you're serious about hiking and actually using the thing regularly, spend a little more. The Yaesu FT-65 is usually around $80-90 and it's night and day better build quality, real audio, and the menus actually make sense without a manual in front of you. It's also IP rated for weather which matters if you're going outdoors. The Kenwood TH-D74 is amazing but that's probably overkill and pricey for a first radio. The sweet spot for most new folks is probably that FT-65 or maybe the FT-4XR which is even cheaper but still a real radio if that makes sense. Either way just get on the repeater and talk to people, that's the important part.