CW Lover

I made that exact jump about 18 months ago and honestly... it depends on what you're doing. For casual dx and some contesting the dual watch is genuinely useful, not just a gimmick. During a contest I'll often park one receiver on a run frequency and use the other to S&P at the same time. once you get used to it you wonder how you didn't have it before. that said the receive performance between the two isn't night and day in normal conditions. Where the 7610 does pull ahead is in really crowded band conditions, the roofing filters are better and if you're working a busy contest weekend with signals wall to wall you'll notice it. 7300 ain't bad but it does start to struggle a bit when things get dense. if your antenna situation is the weak link tho, and a G5RV at 35ft probably is leaving some performance there, i'd probably fix that first. a better antenna will do more for your signal reports than swapping radios. put it this way — the guys you're trying to work dont know or care what radio you have, they just hear your signal.

so i've been putting off building the QMX for probably six months now, just intimidated i guess. finally sat down last weekend and did it, took me about 4 hours spread over two evenings and honestly it went smoother than i expected. fired it up on 40m and immediately heard a pile up on some DX station which i thought was a good sign lol anyway i made my first contact with it running about 4 watts into a simple end-fed and the other guy gave me a 559 which i was pretty stoked about. but i have some questions for people who've been doing QRP longer than me. first, how much does antenna really matter at these power levels -- like i know it always matters but does it matter MORE when youre only running 4-5 watts? and second, im having trouble deciding if i should try to squeeze more efficiency out of my current setup or just get comfortable operating QRP first before i start optimizing everything. also is 40m the best band to start on or should i be trying other bands sorry for the scattered questions, just excited and have a lot to learn still

this is really interesting to read, im pretty new to ARES (just got my general a few months ago) and havent done a full drill yet. our EC mentioned theres one coming up in the fall and i signed up but i honestly dont know what to expect. reading your post makes me think i should probably practice more on simplex before then instead of just relying on the repeater all the time. do you think its worth doing some informal practice contacts on simplex just to get comfortable with the idea of how different it feels?

so i looked into this too but ended up just setting up my own remote setup with an rsp1a and some custom scripts. took a weekend to figure out but now i dont have any monthly fees and can access everything from my phone if needed. the remotehams thing looked nice but i'm too cheap to pay ongoing fees when i can cobble something together myself. that said if you want something that just works out of the box it might be worth it

honestly its not a hard rule most of the time, its more just good practice especially when conditions are rough or if theres any chance of confusion. letters like M and N or B and D can sound almost identical on a scratchy signal so phonetics just clears that up fast. on something like a local 2m repeater with a strong signal people usually just say their call straight and nobody bats an eye. but on HF when youre working someone far away or in a contest or doing any kind of formal net, phonetics are pretty much expected. for your call specifically id say just use them whenever you think theres a chance the other station might mishear you, which when youre new is probably most of the time until you get comfortable. nobody's going to think you sound weird for using them, its the opposite actually

Both will work, but consider your operating style. Different transponder modes require specific compensation strategies - linear transponders need reversed corrections. SatPC32 excels at this complexity. Gpredict is more versatile if you work other modes too.

i did the same thing on my first one haha just showed up with no alert posted and sat there wondering why nobody was answering. also the aprs2sota thing is worth looking into if you have an aprs radio, it can auto spot you when you hit the summit which is pretty slick

the waiting period is 18 days from when your application is accepted, thats been pretty consistent for a while now. after that window closes the FCC runs the assignment and you find out pretty quick after that, usually within a day or two. the whole thing end to end is roughly three weeks give or take. as for the district thing — you can actually apply for calls from any district, you dont have to match where you live. thats one of the nice things about the current vanity system. so if you like a 2-land call go ahead and throw it on your list. the only real restriction is license class, like you cant grab an extra-class format call on a General, but as long as the call is available and fits your class youre good. i'd also suggest checking ae7q.com before you submit, it shows you availability and history of specific calls which is way more useful than the FCC site honestly

I got my Tech license two weeks ago and want to start checking into our local Thursday night net on the 146.52 repeater. I've been listening for a month but I'm nervous about actually checking in. What's the proper procedure? Do I just give my call and location when they call for check-ins? Any tips for a new ham would be really appreciated!

so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and figured id just ask. i have a decent 2m/70cm setup at home, currently running a diamond X50 on a j-pipe mount off the chimney and it gets me into the local repeaters just fine most of the time. but theres this one repeater about 35 miles out that i can hit but its kinda marginal — sometimes full quieting sometimes it sounds like im in a tunnel. someone at the club told me to try a yagi and aim it at that repeater but like, i use 4-5 different repeaters in different directions so that doesnt make a ton of sense to me. another guy said just get a taller collinear with more gain. the X50 is rated at 6.5 over 4.5 dbd i think, something like that. is going to like a 5/8 over 5/8 actually gonna make a noticeable difference or is it marginal enough that im wasting money also wondering if the issue is actually my feedline. im running about 40ft of RG8X right now which i know isnt ideal at 70cm but on 2m its probably fine right

i was in exactly the same spot about a year ago and went with the UV-5R just because it was cheap and figured if i hated the hobby id only be out like 25 bucks. ended up being fine and i used it for months before upgrading. now i have a VX-6R and yeah the difference is real but i dont regret starting cheap either. you kind of learn what features you actually care about by using a basic one first

so ive been running a mag mount diamond NR770H on my f150 for about two years now and its been fine, gets into the local repeaters no problem, but ive always had this nagging feeling im leaving performance on the table. the mount sits on the roof toward the back and the cable snakes through the weather stripping on the rear door which honestly isn't great long term. been thinking about doing a proper NMO mount through the roof — drilling the hole is what keeps stopping me. truck is a 2019 so still feels kinda new to me and i keep putting it off. anyone actually done a side by side comparison between a decent mag mount and a proper NMO install with the same antenna? like is the difference even noticeable on VHF or am i overthinking this also curious what people are using for the antenna itself if i do go NMO. was looking at the Larsen NMO270 or maybe just getting a whip and tuning it myself

Interesting discussion came up at club meeting about proper vs informal Q-code usage. While not an egregious use of this Q-signal, it is technically incorrect when people say "QTH IS Springfield" - QRM is often used (incorrectly) as a noun. Sometimes Q-codes are used informally with a slightly different meaning. In informal ham language, some codes have slightly diverted from their original meaning and are used just as a replacement for a specific word. What's the consensus on this? Should we stick to the ITU International Radio Regulations from 1947 definitions, or has modern usage evolved? Curious what others think about maintaining traditional meanings vs accepting common usage.

yeah the technician HF privileges are a bit scattered across the bands so i get why its confusing. basically on 10m you get a decent chunk — you can do phone (SSB) on 28.300 to 28.500 MHz which is actually pretty useful especially when the band is open. on 40m, 15m, and 80m you do have some CW-only segments but theyre pretty narrow slices and like you said if you dont have a key its not super relevant yet. the full breakdown is in Part 97 section 97.301 if you want to look it up yourself, the FCC website has the actual text and its not as painful to read as you'd think. as for enforcement, its not totally an honor system but yeah the FCC isnt sitting there with a scanner listening to every QSO. that said they do respond to complaints and have issued fines and license revocations before, especially for intentional interference or operating outside your privileges repeatedly. the amateur community itself does a lot of the policing honestly, you get guys who will call you out on the air if youre somewhere you shouldnt be.

the spreadsheet thing is totally normal, i have a notepad next to my radio with all my regular nets written down and my wife gives me the same look haha. for special event stations the ARRL has a page that lists them but honestly i find out about most of them through the W1AW bulletins — if you're not copying those yet, worth tuning in or just reading them on the website. also QRZ sometimes has announcements in the forums and club newsletters are goldmines for this kind of thing if you're on a few email lists. one thing i started doing is just listening around on weekends when i have time. you'd be surprised how many special event stations you stumble across just by slowly tuning the HF bands on a saturday morning. caught a 13 colonies station that way a couple summers ago and had no idea the event was even going on until i heard them calling CQ

yeah i went through basically the same thing with my first 40m wire. ended up having to trim like 4 inches total off both legs before it landed where i wanted. took me three trips up the ladder but got it to about 1.2:1 at 7.2 which is where i mostly operate. the pvc center insulator works fine btw, ive been running mine in weather for two seasons and no issues yet. only thing id say is make sure your connections at the center are soldered well and weatherproofed, i used self-amalgamating tape and that seems to hold up.

i was in the same boat not that long ago honestly. what helped me was just picking ONE cluster source and sticking with it for a while so i could get a feel for how it works before comparing them. i went with DXwatch because someone here recommended it and the band filter thing is pretty easy once you find it. took me like three sessions to figure out where everything was but now i dont even think about it. one thing nobody told me early on — double check the spot before you jump on a frequency, sometimes spots are wrong or way out of date and youll just be transmitting into nothing wondering why nobody responds lol. learned that one the hard way

yeah the ARRL book is fine but its definitely written more for actually learning the hobby than just cramming for the test. I used it as a supplement but did most of my prep with the question pool directly. one thing that helped me was not just memorizing answers but at least sort of understanding the why behind the rules questions, the FCC part 97 stuff especially, because those tend to make more intuitive sense once you get the logic and then you dont have to brute force memorize them. the math questions people freak out about but honestly on the tech exam its pretty basic, ohms law is just V=IR and theyll give you numbers where you can almost figure it out without even doing math if you know the ballpark. give yourself 3-4 weeks if youre doing it casually, you'll be fine

no rule that says you have to use them on a clear FM repeater, its really more of a convention and honestly good habit to build. the reason it matters is that on HF or during any kind of weak signal or noisy conditions certain letters just sound identical — B and D, M and N, S and F, etc. if you're used to just spelling things out normally you'll get caught off guard when conditions are bad and someone cant copy you. the guys using 'Texas' for T or 'Boston' for B are using what some people call 'American phonetics' or just regional habit. it's not wrong exactly but it can cause confusion if youre ever talking to someone overseas who only knows NATO, which is kind of the whole point of having a standard in the first place. ive worked stations that had no idea what i meant when i said something off-script. honestly just learn the NATO ones and use them all the time even when you dont need to. it becomes automatic after a while and you'll be glad you did when you finally get into a pile-up or something where conditions are rough

Looking for advice on a 40m dipole build where I need to keep total length under 50 feet due to property constraints. Experimenting a 20 40 meter short coil loaded dipole antenna with the goal to keep the total length under 40 feet so that the dipole can be mounted on two 20 foot fiberglass pole to make a 20/40 meter rotatable dipole. I'm considering loading coils at about 11 meters from center feed point similar to what I've seen documented. Planning to use speaker wire construction with homebrew balun. What inductance values have others used for 40m loading coils? Also concerned about bandwidth limitations with loaded elements.

The §97.315(b)(2) deletion is interesting from a technical perspective. This provision grandfathered HF amplifiers purchased before April 28, 1978, and those manufactured before that date with marketing waivers. Any pre-1978 amplifiers still in use would need to meet current certification requirements now.

I've been using the 705 for about 2 years now and rarely have trouble getting contacts, even on poor band days. The key is antenna - my EFHW up 20 feet works great. The VHF/UHF is a bonus for local contacts when HF is dead.

yeah the rate optimization thing is kind of separate from SO2R tbh. even single radio there's a lot of people leaving points on the table just with bad operating habits — like staying on a dead frequency too long, not knowing when to switch from run to S&P based on the rate, stuff like that. i kept a rate sheet for the first time in WPX last year and it was kind of eye opening how much variance there was hour to hour and it wasnt always band conditions causing it SO2R is great but if your fundamentals arent solid yet it might just be adding complexity without the payoff. get your single radio rate really dialed in first is my take

so ive been running my FT-857D for about 3 years now mostly mobile and it's been fine but ive always felt like the receive on 40m especially was a little soft compared to my buddies IC-7300 whenever we'd operate portable together. figured id look into the Collins filter mod and also ended up going down a rabbit hole on the IPO/AMP switching and noise blanker adjustments. ended up doing the RX preamp tweak that floats around on eham, basically adjusting the bias on the front end slightly, and also added a Murata ceramic filter in the first IF stage which i got off a guy parting out a 756 Pro. wasnt cheap but the difference on a crowded 40m SSB segment is actually noticeable. the noise floor dropped maybe 2-3dB by my estimate which doesnt sound like much but in a pileup its a real difference. also did the extended TX mod since im licensed for it anyway and the MARS/CAP mod was straightforward but thats pretty well documented everywhere. the IF filter thing took me a couple hours and a few choice words when i dropped a screw somewhere in the chassis. anyone else done mods on the 857 family? curious if theres anything im missing that made a meaningful difference for you. ive seen people talk about the AGC mod but not sure if its worth the hassle on a rig thats already 10+ years old.

honestly the question pool memorization approach isnt as crazy as it sounds for the tech exam. the pool is only like 400 something questions and the actual test pulls from those exact questions word for word, so if you can get like 80% on the practice tests consistently you're probably fine. hamstudy.org is what most people use these days, it tracks which questions you're weak on and kind of focuses your studying there. i wouldnt bother with the handbook at all for this, thats overkill. took me maybe 2 weeks of doing 20-30 questions a night before i felt solid. the electrical and RF sections trip up a lot of new folks so maybe spend a little extra time there if the formulas make your eyes glaze over