Emily Taylor

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.

so we finally got around to doing a full scale simulated disaster exercise with our county ARES group, something we'd been putting off for like two years honestly. the scenario was a major flood event that took out the repeater infrastructure and we had to coordinate between the EOC, two shelters, and a mobile command post using only simplex HF and some VHF simplex on 146.52. i want to share what went wrong because i think thats more useful than the stuff that worked. first — and this is embarrassing — half our operators showed up not knowing their go-kit battery situation. like they assumed everything was charged from whenever they last used it. we had one station that was basically dead within 45 minutes. second thing, net control kept reverting to using jargon and abbreviations that the newer operators just didnt understand, which caused some real confusion when we were trying to pass simulated health and welfare traffic. the HF side actually went better than i expected. we had solid winlink connectivity through a distant RMS gateway when local stuff was unavailable, which was the whole point of the exercise. but getting people comfortable with that ahead of time is crucial, a few folks had never actually sent a real winlink message before the drill which... yeah. anyway curious if others have run similar exercises and what surprised you. also wondering how other groups handle training for the operators who only show up occasionally — thats our biggest headache right now.

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

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

33.3 feet per side sounds close but honestly the thing to check first is whether the coax braid is acting as part of the antenna. without a choke or balun at the feedpoint the common mode current on the outside of the coax can do all kinds of weird stuff to your pattern and SWR. a lot of guys just wrap 8-10 turns of coax into a coil at the feedpoint and tape it off, acts as a decent choke balun. might not fix everything but its usually the first thing to rule out. also 3:1 at the high end of 40m on a dipole cut for the low end isnt that surprising honestly. the band is pretty wide and a half wave resonant antenna is going to have higher SWR away from resonance. if your rig can handle 3:1 or you have a tuner you might just leave it.

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

yeah i was thinking about it, last time i went to one of these i ended up spending way more than i planned because somebody had a whole box of BNC adapters and coax runs for practically nothing. my xyl was not thrilled. the club is also doing a foxhunt in the afternoon i think, saw something about it on the repeater net tuesday night but i missed part of the announcement so not totally sure on the details