Emily Taylor

i cant remember the name of it but there was an app i downloaded a while back that combined cluster spots with a gray line map and it was actually really slick. might have been called Pocket Packet or something like that, i dunno. i deleted it when i got a new phone and havent bothered to find it again which i probably should. anyway the QRZ thing you mentioned — just make sure your logbook on there is actually up to date or it wont tell you anything useful lol. mine sat empty for like 6 months before i actually started uploading adif files to it and i kept thinking i hadnt worked places i totally had.

good questions and dont worry you'll get the hang of it pretty quick. so for CTCSS — you only need to set the encode side for most repeaters. that tone goes out with your transmission so the repeater's squelch opens up when it hears you. the decode side on your radio is for YOUR squelch, meaning your radio will only open up when it hears that tone coming back. a lot of people set both to the repeater tone just to keep things clean and avoid hearing random noise or other signals that might sneak through, but it's not strictly required for accessing the repeater. depends on how busy your area is honestly. as for the linking stuff yeah that's a whole other thing. when a repeater is linked via IRLP or echolink it's basically bridging your local RF signal to another repeater somewhere else, could be across the state or across the world. the courtesy goes both ways — you want to leave longer pauses between transmissions so guys on the far end can jump in, and if someone announces a link is active or they're trying to connect somewhere just hold off for a bit. most linked repeater systems have a specific tone or ID that plays when a link connects or drops. once you hear it a few times you'll recognize it. your local repeater club probably has a page or document somewhere with all the specifics for that machine.

yeah what he said about leaving, i made that mistake a couple times when i first started. our net control actually mentioned it once in a general way without calling anyone out specifically, just reminded everyone to let him know if they needed to clear. made me feel a little guilty even though he wasnt talking directly at me haha. now i always just give a quick sign-off and nobody thinks twice about it.

tbh i'd just keep the 590 unless you have a specific reason you're frustrated with it. six years isn't old for a kenwood. i've got an TS-870 that's been in the shack since like 2001 and it still pulls dx that surprises me. the waterfall stuff is cool but you can always just run SDRplay or an RTL dongle as a panadapter on the 590 if that's the part you actually want, costs like 30 bucks.

nice work. whats your apex height on the inverted-V? im trying to figure out if 30 feet is worth it for 40m or if i should just do a flat-top and deal with the end supports. limited space is kind of killing me here

might sound dumb but check if there's another station with a similar callsign or if someone near you has a digipeater that's doing something weird with your packets. sometimes aprs.fi will latch onto an older cached position for a bit. try pulling up the raw packet decode on aprs.fi — click your callsign and look at the actual raw data coming through. if the raw packet has the right coords then its somewhere in the display chain. if the raw packet itself is showing wrong coords then the issue is between the GPS and the radio. also worth checking the datum setting on the garmin. some of them default to something other than WGS84 and that can throw position off by exactly the kind of amount you're describing.

so ive had this 7300 for about 3 years now, bought it used from a guy at the club who said it was fine, and for the most part it has been but lately ive been getting this really frustrating issue where mid-transmission it just drops out. not a full shutdown, the rig stays on, ALC looks normal on the display, but RF output just goes to zero for like half a second and then comes back. happens maybe once every few minutes, sometimes less. ive already swapped the coax, checked the PL connector on the back which looked ok, and i ran it into a dummy load to rule out the antenna. same behavior. i also noticed it seems to happen more when the rig has been on for 20-30 minutes, which makes me think thermal issue maybe? but i really dont know. anybody dealt with this before or have a starting point for me

yeah what he said about Q65 — i switched from JT65B maybe two years ago and the difference on marginal paths is real, worth reading the WSJT-X docs on which submode to pick because it varies by antenna size basically. Also dont sleep on the preamp situation, a good low noise preamp at the feedpoint makes a bigger difference than people expect, like a 0.3dB NF unit right at the antenna vs a mediocre one in the shack is significant over a path that long. SSB Electronic and Down East Microwave both make stuff people trust for this. your receive chain matters almost as much as your transmit EIRP when youre working marginal contacts.

same boat as you honestly, i only got into this a few months ago. one thing that helped me was the DXCC entity filter on some of the cluster sites, you can set it to only show you spots for entities you havent worked yet if your log is uploaded somewhere. i think DX Summit has something like that, or maybe it was the Club Log integration i'm thinking of. cant remember exactly but it's worth looking around also the QRZ app on my phone is actually pretty decent for quick lookups when i'm at the radio, like if i hear something weird i'll just search the callsign real quick and see what country it is before deciding if i want to try to work them

ok so the two things you're mixing up are the actual FCC allocations (which are law, you can get fined or lose your license for ignoring them) versus the band plan which is basically a gentleman's agreement put out by the ARRL and nobody is going to cite you for it but you'll get yelled at on the air for 40m as a general, your phone privileges start at 7.175 MHz and go up to 7.300. below 7.175 you can do CW and digital but not phone. so your friend is right that 7.125 is not where your restriction is, the restriction is at 7.175. the dx window thing around 7.175 to 7.225 is more of a band plan courtesy thing, not a hard rule, but you'll get grief if you park there calling CQ during a dx pileup as for band edges — the reason people say stay a few kHz inside is that your signal has bandwidth. even if your carrier is exactly on 7.300 your sideband extends above that and you'd be out of your allocation. most guys say stay at least 3 kHz inside the edge to be safe with SSB. its not a written rule exactly but going over the edge is technically a violation

yeah the gap on those cheap ebay paddles can be really inconsistent and honestly it makes a huge difference. when i first started out i was blaming my technique for weeks before i realized the contacts on my paddle were just not closing cleanly. you want the gap to be really small, like barely a business card thickness on each side. if theres too much travel before contact youll end up with uneven dits especially at higher speeds. also the MFJ 494 has a iambic mode A and mode B setting and a lot of people dont realize they might be fighting the keyer itself depending on how they squeeze. try switching modes and see if it feels any different. some guys swear by mode A others hate it. weight adjustment is worth playing with too, i usually bump it just slightly heavier than default and my fist cleaned right up. dont give up on it, CW is one of those things where suddenly it just clicks one day and you wonder why it ever seemed hard.

yeah the timing thing is what i always try to explain to newer operators and they dont quite get it until they try it. the pileup isnt random, the DX operator has a rhythm and if you can sync to it you're already ahead of 80% of the people calling. also — and i know this sounds obvious — actually listen to make sure conditions are even there before you start calling. ive wasted so much time calling into a pileup only to realize the path was half dead on my end and my 100w was just not making it regardless of technique. the cluster spots dont tell you that, you gotta listen yourself.

Start with higher character speed (20 WPM) but slow effective speed, and use LCWO.net for initial character learning. A little practice daily is far better than large sessions once a week - persistence is key as it takes time and determination. Avoid mnemonic methods like the plague - learn by sound patterns only.

so ive been at this for about three months now, finally got my general and decided CW was something i actually wanted to learn for real, not just pass a test or anything. picked up a used Bencher BY-1 paddle and been using the built-in keyer in my IC-7300 and honestly i feel like my sending is just... mush. like i listen back to recordings i make and i cant tell where one letter ends and the next begins. im running the speed around 18 wpm which maybe is too fast for where i am, i dunno. a buddy told me the iambic mode B on the keyer might be part of the problem since im squeezing when i shouldnt be but i dont fully understand what that even means. do i just slow down? mess with the weight settings? im not even sure what to practice at this point, just going through the alphabet over and over feels pointless

Looking for advice from experienced net control operators. I've been asked to take over NCS duties for our club's weekly information net, but I'm nervous about managing 15-20 regular check-ins plus any walk-ins. The control of an ARES net is a skill best learned through practice, and periodic training nets provide operators with experience. What are your key tips for: Keeping the net moving efficientlyHandling multiple stations trying to check in at onceManaging emergency or priority traffic that comes up mid-netMaintaining good net discipline without being too rigidAny veteran NCS wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

yeah when i first got on the air i was so stressed about getting every phonetic exactly right and then i heard this old timer on a net say 'W for Whiskey, and yes I mean the drink' and everyone just laughed and moved on. the nato ones are definitely what you want to default to but nobody is gonna yell at you for saying 'T for Tango or Thomas or whatever'. just learn the standard set and use it, makes life easier especially if you ever try to work any dx because those guys are copying callsigns super fast and they know exactly what Alpha Bravo Charlie means without having to think about it

oh man i remember feeling exactly like this before my first net check-in. honestly just take a breath because net control has heard it all and most of them are super patient especially with new folks. when they open check-ins just wait for a pause and give your callsign phonetically, something like "Whiskey 4 Alpha Bravo Charlie" and thats really it for most informal nets. some nets want your name and location too but you'll hear other people doing it first so just kind of mirror what they're doing. if you key up at the same time as someone else and you hear a weird squeal or garbled audio, just wait a second and try again, no biggie at all. net control will usually say something like "stations with traffic please call again" and you just go again. and yeah "no traffic" or just "no traffic, thanks for the net" is totally fine when they ask. you dont need to have anything prepared. the whole point for most of us is just to get on the air and be counted, its not like you have to have a reason to exist on the frequency lol. just do it, you'll kick yourself if you wait another month

ok so the 10m thing is what got me to finally post here because i just got my general like 6 weeks ago and ive been too nervous to actually try HF but if conditions are that good maybe now is the time? i have a technician friend who keeps telling me dont bother with HF until i have a real antenna setup but i only have room for a wire dipole in the attic, would that even be worth trying on 10 meters or am i just wasting my time

Also worth noting that you may hear CTCSS tones sometimes called PL tones. PL is short for "private line," and is what Motorola, the company that developed the CTCSS system called it. Since PL is a Motorola trademark, we now use the generic term CTCSS. Same thing, different names.

40m was treating people pretty well last weekend from what i heard. did you log it on the app yet or still doing it manually? im still figuring out the adif stuff for uploading

so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend, went out to a state forest near me that has a KFF reference and set up a little portable station with my KX2 and a 40m wire dipole slung between two trees. managed to get 27 QSOs in about 2 hours which i think is enough to qualify the reference? i looked it up and i think you need 44 for a full activation but honestly i just wanted to get out there and try it. few things im not sure about — do i need to spot myself on the WWFF cluster or can someone else do it, also how do i submit the log after, is it just through the wwff.world website or is there a different process for KFF specifically. i was using ADIF from HAMRS and im not totally sure it has the right fields for the nature reference. also the wildlife there was incredible, there were these massive herons just hanging around while i was operating and a deer walked through camp like 20 feet from me. honestly that part alone made it worth it. would definitely do another one, just want to make sure im doing the logbook stuff right before i go back

Hi all! I'm relatively new to CW (about 8 months) and just picked up my first contest logging software to try some of the smaller contests. I can send and receive in the range of 15 to 20 WPM and have been using my straight key so far, but I'd like to step up to an iambic paddle for contest work. I've been reading about dual-lever paddles requiring 11% fewer strokes but also that contest winners tend to use single-lever paddles because it's more difficult to make mistakes. Budget is around $150-200. Any recommendations for a first paddle that won't break the bank but will grow with me as I improve? Thanks for any advice!

congrats on passing and getting that first contact done. the nervous part fades pretty quick. once you get comfortable on the local repeater you might wanna look into getting your general so you can get on HF, thats where things really open up. talking to someone across the country or overseas on a modest setup never really gets old even after doing it for years. anyway welcome aboard

the math stuff on the general exam is honestly not as bad as it looks. theres only like a handful of actual calculation questions and if you know ohms law and can do basic stuff with the reactance formulas you'll be fine. i spent way too long freaking out about it and then the actual test had maybe 2 or 3 questions that required any real math. just go through the question pool with something like HamStudy and youll start recognizing patterns pretty quick. as for HF vs VHF, yeah its a completely different world. i remember the first time i worked someone in europe on 20m with like 100 watts and a dipole in my attic i just sat there kind of stunned. propagation is this whole thing you start paying attention to and it kind of gets into your head. you'll be checking the solar flux index every morning like a weather report before you know it. just get the ticket first and worry about the radio after, plenty of cheap used HF rigs out there once youre ready

yeah just go for it, i ran my first CQ WW with a wire antenna and an old Kenwood and still had a blast. one thing nobody told me before my first contest was to set up your logging software BEFORE the contest starts lol. i spent like 45 minutes messing with N1MM right when it kicked off and missed a bunch of easy contacts. also make sure your exchange is smooth, for CQ WW phone you just send your signal report and your zone so practice saying it fast because it gets repetitive quick. good luck