Sarah Thomas43

12 contacts on your first one is pretty solid honestly, some people struggle to get the 4 minimum especially if they dont get a spot out. i had a disaster on my second activation where my feedline connector just came apart in the cold and i spent like 20 minutes fixing it with numb fingers so you're already ahead of where i was

good timing on joining ARES, they'll teach you a lot. okay so the way i think about go-kits is you build around your mission first, not around gear. for ARES EOC support you probably dont need a full portable antenna setup if there's already infrastructure there, so that changes things a lot compared to someone doing field comms from scratch.
for power the bioenno stuff is solid, i've been running a 30ah lifepo4 for a couple years now and it handles a full 12 hour shift on the 991 without breaking a sweat as long as im not running high power the whole time. jackery works too but the lifepo4 chemistry handles being discharged and recharged more regularly without degrading as fast. get a small PWM or MPPT solar panel too so you can top it off if the deployment goes long.
for cables i just started using those velcro cable ties and labeling everything with a label maker. sounds boring but pulling out a labeled bag that says "SO239 to BNC adapters" is a lifesaver at 2am during an activation. also keep a laminated sheet in the kit with your frequencies, PL tones, and the contact list for your net. you'd be surprised how much your brain goes blank when stuff is actually going down.

ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and ive been having a blast making contacts but the whole QSL confirmation thing is kind of overwhelming me. like i understand the basic concept, you confirm the contact happened, but theres so many ways to do it now and i cant figure out if i need to use all of them or just pick one.
i signed up for LoTW because my elmer said thats the one that counts for DXCC and stuff, and i uploaded a few logs but honestly i dont really understand the whole TQSL certificate process, it took me forever to get that set up. then someone in a pileup told me to also get on eQSL which i did but it seems like a totally different thing? and then some older ops keep asking me for physical cards through the bureau and i dont even know how the bureau works yet.
do most people use all three or is it common to just stick with LoTW? i dont have any particular awards im chasing right now, just enjoying operating. also does it cost money to send cards through the bureau because i've heard mixed things about that

yeah what he said. also id suggest getting to your station a bit early just so you can do a radio check with net control before things kick off. nothing worse than discovering your HT isnt hitting the repeater when the runners are already coming through. some of those marathon routes go through weird terrain and you might need to find a better spot to stand or think about whether a whip antenna upgrade would help.
the phonetic alphabet thing -- dont stress it. if you blank on one just say the letter, people will understand you, especially in a friendly local event like this. the ICS stuff and proper procedures matter more in a real disaster activation but for a race support gig everyone is pretty relaxed about it.

congrats on the first one, it absolutely gets easier. the first couple activations you're basically just trying to remember everything at the same time and it feels like a lot. after maybe 3 or 4 you'll have a system and it becomes second nature.
the ranger thing happens a lot, honestly most of them are pretty positive about it once you explain. i usually bring a little printed card with a brief explanation of what amateur radio is and the WWFF program specifically, some rangers have never heard of it and think you're doing something weird with a radio. saved me a few awkward conversations.
61 contacts for a debut is solid by the way, a lot of first timers dont quite make the 44 threshold because they underestimate how long setup takes or pick a reference with terrible propagation conditions. sounds like you picked well.

yeah the TCXO on those is a genuine improvement, not placebo. i did mine probably 4 years ago and same experience. the stock oscillator on the 817 was never great and yaesu knew it which is why they sold the TCXO-9 as an option in the first place.
as far as other mods, honestly the one thing i'd actually recommend is the internal battery pack upgrade if you're doing any portable work. not a performance thing but swapping to a higher capacity lithium pack makes a real difference in the field. some people do the PA mod you mentioned but from what i've read the gain is marginal like maybe half a watt on a good day and the risk of killing the finals on a radio that's getting harder to find parts for just doesnt seem worth it to me. the thermal management in that radio isnt great to begin with so adding more dissipation seems like asking for trouble eventually.

so ive been running APRS for a few months now, mostly just for position tracking when i go out portable, and that part works fine — i can see my callsign popping up on aprs.fi no problem. but i tried sending a message to another local ham yesterday and he never got it, and i also tried sending one to my own station from aprsdroid on my phone and nothing showed up in my TNC log.
my setup is a kenwood d72 going into a kantronics KPC-3+ and then into a 2m antenna, running 25w. path is set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which i thought was standard. i can see my beacons digipeating through the local fill-in digi and hitting the igate so its definitely getting to the internet side. just the messaging piece that seems broken.
anybody dealt with this before? wondering if its a config thing on the TNC or something with the d72 settings. didnt change anything recently that i know of.

yeah i was the same way when i first started, sat there listening for like 4 nets in a row before i actually keyed up lol. the thing that helped me was finding out our local net actually posts the check-in format right on the club website so i printed it out and just read from it the first few times. felt a little silly but nobody cares, everyone was a beginner once. now i just do it without thinking about it.
the special event thing — do you know which one it is? theres a few going on this month i think. if its the one im thinking of they might have a specific frequency listed on the QRZ page for the event callsign, worth checking there first before you go hunting for them

yeah the activity thing is the real issue tbh. i tried it last winter and could never find anyone to actually have a conversation with on 40, just a bunch of beacons and automated stations. maybe i was on at the wrong times idk. FT4 is kinda in between if you just want something faster than FT8 but it has the same problem where theres no room for actual words
if you want real text conversations PSK31 still has some life left in it, theres usually activity around 14.070 on 20m and its weirdly satisfying to just type at someone in real time. RTTY is fun too if you want to feel like its 1985

so i've been wanting to get my technician license for a while now and i finally decided to just do it. problem is i dont really know where to start. i downloaded some pdf of the question pool from the arrl website i think? but it's just like 400 questions and i dont know if i'm supposed to just memorize all of them or what. my buddy who has his general said something about just doing practice tests over and over but that feels like cheating somehow, like i wont actually understand the material. is there a study guide that actually explains the why behind stuff or do most people just grind the question pool. also how long did it take you guys to feel ready