David Anderson74

N1MM for casual logging is a bit like using a sledgehammer for a finishing nail but i mean it works lol. i do it. mostly because i cant be bothered to learn another program at this point and during field day or sweepstakes i dont want to context switch. the WSJT-X logging via UDP is the way to go like the other guy said, once thats set up you basically forget its even happening. just make sure your clocks are synced or you will get weird duplicate issues when you merge logs later, learned that one the hard way during last years CQWW.

not a dumb question at all, this stuff genuinely trips people up because nobody really explains it clearly. for breaking into a qso on a repeater, the standard thing is to wait for a pause between exchanges and then just say your callsign once — not "break break" unless its actually urgent, just your call. most folks will hear it and acknowledge you, they'll say something like "kd9whatever go ahead" and then you're in. if nobody responds it usually just means they didnt catch it, maybe try again at the next pause. dont take it personally.
for the net, "any traffic" means does anyone have a message to pass, like a formal radiogram or something. most casual nets you can ignore that part unless you actually have something. "any stations with priority business" is similar — its for stuff that needs to be handled sooner rather than later. if you just want to check in and chat, you just wait for net control to ask for general check-ins and then give your call when they ask. each net runs a little differently so after a few weeks youll get the rhythm of that specific one.

so we have a county-level ARES exercise coming up in about 5 weeks and im trying to figure out the best way to run our portable station for the full 12 hour op period. last time we ran off a Honda eu2200i which worked fine but hauling that thing plus fuel cans to a hilltop site is kind of a pain, and one of the guys in our group is pushing hard for a lifepo4 battery setup instead.
the issue is we're running two rigs simultaneously most of the time — an IC-7300 for HF and a TM-D710 for local VHF/UHF coordination, plus a small laptop for winlink and occasionally a second laptop. rough estimate puts us somewhere around 30-35 amps draw at moderate TX duty cycle. i did the math and even a 100ah lifepo4 gets you maybe 2-3 hours of real use at that load before you're babysitting the voltage. obviously you could chain batteries but that adds weight pretty fast.
antenna side we're planning a homebrew NVIS for 40/80 using about 130 feet of wire in an inverted V off a 31 foot Jackite pole. worked okay in testing but we're on a site with a lot of trees and the feedline run is kind of awkward. anyone done a similar setup and had issues with the feedline picking up noise from a generator running nearby? that was another complaint last time, we had some RFI from the eu2200i that took a while to track down.
would love to hear what other groups are doing for sustained field ops, especially if youve found a power solution that doesn't require a forklift to set up

yeah the compression thing trips up almost everyone at first. on the 7300 specifically you want to keep the speech processor level pretty modest — like maybe 3-4 out of 10 to start. crank it too high and you get exactly what youre describing, that muffled overprocessed sound where your voice just turns into noise. the ALC should be dancing around the middle of the scale during normal speech peaks, not pegged constantly.
mic gain is probably the bigger culprit though. back it off until your ALC is behaving and then tweak from there. also where you hold the mic matters more than people think — you dont want to be eating it but you dont want to be a foot away either, maybe 2-3 inches off to the side of your mouth so you're not blasting plosives straight into it. the TX equalizer on the 7300 i usually boost a little around 2-3k to cut through and roll off some of the lows below like 200hz, voice doesnt carry anything useful down there anyway on SSB and it just muddies things up.

yeah what he said about nets is right. i was terrified my first check-in too and honestly it was so anticlimactic, net control just said my call back and moved on lol. one thing i'd add is listen to the whole net at least once before you try to check in if you can, just so you get a feel for how that particular net runs because they all have slightly different vibes and formats. some are pretty formal with a net preamble and everything, some are super casual. the 40m ones i've been on tend to be friendly to newer ops.
oh and for what its worth i just worked that special event station you mentioned i think, the one for the lighthouse anniversary? signal was great here in the midwest, got my contact in the log and theyre supposed to send out a QSL card if you submit online. totally different from a net though yeah, just a quick exchange and done.

yeah i dont have an amp so im always at 100w and i still manage to work a fair amount of rare dx, its definitely more about technique. the hardest part for me is just patience honestly, i get antsy and start calling when i shouldnt be and it never helps. congrats on the T32 that ones been on my list too, was the signal decent into your qth?