Diana Washington

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and just got into chasing DX a little bit, nothing crazy, just trying to work some new countries when i can. somebody at the club mentioned cluster spotting and i downloaded the QRZ app and also bookmarked DXwatch but honestly im kind of confused about how theyre supposed to work together or if you even use both at the same time. like right now i have DXwatch open on my laptop and im watching spots roll in, i can see stations getting spotted on various bands, but i dont totally understand the workflow. do i just see a spot, tune to that frequency, and call? is it really that simple? and does the QRZ app talk to the same cluster network or is it pulling from somewhere different. also sometimes i see spots that are like 20-30 minutes old and the station is obviously long gone, is there a way to filter that or is that just how it is sometimes not trying to overthink this but i want to make sure im not being that guy who shows up on a frequency and has no idea whats going on lol

i built almost exactly this with a Pi Pico actually, not an arduino, but same idea. the pico is nice because you get two cores and can dedicate one to just watching the CI-V traffic without it interfering with the relay switching logic. not sure if that matters much at the speeds were talking about but it felt cleaner to me. one thing i'd say is dont underestimate the grounding. spent probably two weekends chasing RF in my audio and it turned out the relay board ground wasnt tied to the chassis ground. once i sorted that out most of the noise went away. also put the relay board in a small metal enclosure, that helped too.

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and honestly its great for what it is but its basically just an exchange machine, you cant really have a conversation. someone at my local club mentioned JS8Call and said its more like actual messaging but still uses weak signal propagation, which sounds interesting to me because i like the idea of being able to reach someone on 40m during the day when voice is basically useless here but still actually talk to them my question is whether its actually worth setting up separately or if its just more complexity for not much payoff. i already have WSJT-X running fine with a signalink into my 7300 and i understand JS8Call is a totally different piece of software. does it conflict with anything or share the same audio interface setup. also curious how active it actually is, like are there people on there or is it a ghost town most of the time also someone mentioned PSK31 in the same breath and i know thats older but is that still a thing people actually use or is it pretty much dead at this point

i mean i use my 991A for VHF EME stuff through a preamp so thats probably not your situation lol but yeah for straight HF use the 7300 gets recommended constantly for a reason. the touch interface takes maybe a week to get used to and then it feels weird going back to knobs-only rigs. only complaint ive seen from people is the TX audio needs some tweaking out of the box, worth looking up the settings before you get on air with it

honestly you dont need all three but a lot of us end up using at least two. LoTW is pretty much the gold standard if you care about DXCC or WAS because the ARRL requires it for those awards. eQSL is way more casual and some people love it, some dont bother — i know a bunch of DX stations that only upload to eQSL and skip LoTW entirely which is frustrating when you need that entity confirmed. paper cards though, i still send them for anything that feels special. a nice QSO with a rare DX station or a grid square i needed, yeah im printing a card. theres something about getting a physical card in the mail that no digital system replaces. but for everyday contacts on the local repeater or random FT8 stuff, just LoTW is fine. most logging software like WSJT-X or Log4OM can auto-upload to LoTW so after the initial setup you barely think about it. since you already got TQSL sorted out youre past the hardest part, seriously that certificate process trips up a lot of new hams.

Just got my Tech license last week and I'd love to start checking into some local nets to practice my on-air skills. I found a few repeater nets on Madison County ARES net that does regular check-ins and business, but I'm nervous about messing up the protocol. How exactly do you check in properly? Do you wait for net control to call for check-ins, or can you jump in anytime? I don't want to step on anyone or sound like a total newbie (even though I am!). Also, should I have anything prepared to say beyond my call and location? Thanks for any advice - this community has been incredibly helpful already!

The FT-891 arrived yesterday and I spent most of the evening getting it set up. I have to say, coming from the simple world of VHF/UHF repeaters, this thing is pretty intimidating! So many buttons, menus, and settings. The manual is thick enough to use as a doorstop. Why I Chose the FT-891 I went back and forth between several radios for weeks. The IC-7300 kept coming up in reviews as the gold standard for new HF operators, but honestly it was just out of my budget range. The FT-891 seemed like a good compromise - it has most of the modern features I wanted like a waterfall display and decent built-in antenna tuner, but at a price point I could actually afford. I also liked that it's compact. My shack is really just a corner of my bedroom right now, so space is at a premium. The 891 fits nicely on my small desk without taking over the whole area. Setting It Up The unboxing was exciting, but then reality hit when I realized I needed to figure out how to actually connect everything. The radio came with a basic DC power cable, but I needed to get a proper power supply. After reading some forums, I ended up getting an Astron RS-35M. It's probably overkill for this radio, but I figured it would give me room to grow. Getting the power supply wired up was straightforward enough - red to positive, black to negative, nothing too scary there. The manual recommends heavy gauge wire for the DC connection, so I used 12 AWG which seems to work fine. The antenna situation is still a work in progress. Right now I have a simple wire dipole cut for 20 meters stretched between my house and a tree in the backyard. It's not pretty and it's definitely not optimal, but it's what I can do in my current living situation. The built-in tuner in the 891 seems to handle it okay, though I know I'm probably not getting the best performance. First Impressions The display is really nice compared to older radios I've seen at the club. The waterfall display actually helps me understand what's happening on the band in a way that just listening never did. I can see the signals visually and it makes tuning around much more intuitive. The audio quality through the built-in speaker is decent, though I've been using headphones most of the time since I'm operating in the bedroom and don't want to disturb anyone. The headphone jack is conveniently located on the front panel. One thing that's taking some getting used to is all the menu options. There are so many settings to tweak! I'm trying not to go overboard and change everything at once, but it's tempting. The noise reduction features are pretty impressive - much better than I expected from a radio in this price range. Making My First HF Contacts Last night I finally worked up the courage to make my first HF contact. I'd been listening for a few days getting comfortable with the bands, but actually transmitting felt like a big step. I found a station in Texas calling CQ on 20 meters and managed to work him without too much trouble. He was running high power and had a great signal, so it wasn't exactly a challenging contact, but it felt amazing to actually talk to someone hundreds of miles away with my own equipment. This morning I got up early and caught some interesting DX on 40 meters. I didn't try to work anyone since I'm still not confident with my operating procedures, but just listening to stations from different countries was fascinating. The propagation seems much different from what I'm used to on VHF. Things I'm Still Learning The antenna tuner is something I need to understand better. It seems to tune up fine on most frequencies, but I'm not really sure when I should and shouldn't use it. I've been reading about SWR and impedance matching, but there's definitely a lot more to learn there. Band planning is another area where I feel like a beginner again. On VHF it's pretty straightforward - repeaters are here, simplex is there. But HF has all these different sub-bands for different license classes and different activities. I bought the ARRL band plan chart to tape up next to the radio, which helps. I also want to get into digital modes eventually. The 891 has a USB port that's supposed to make computer interfacing easier, but I haven't tackled that yet. One thing at a time! Next Steps My immediate priority is improving my antenna situation. The wire dipole works, but I'd like something more permanent and efficient. I'm thinking about trying a fan dipole that would cover multiple bands, or maybe looking into a vertical antenna that would fit better in my small yard. I also want to join in on some of the nets I've been hearing. There's a local emergency net that meets twice a week, and it seems like good practice for improving my operating skills in a friendly environment. Overall, I'm really happy with the FT-891 so far. It feels like a big step up from my previous equipment, and I'm excited to explore what HF has to offer. The learning curve is steep, but that's part of what makes this hobby interesting. Every contact teaches me something new. If anyone has tips for a new HF operator or suggestions for getting the most out of this radio, I'd love to hear them!