Melissa Baker

went through the exact same confusion when i got my ticket. the band plan stuff especially. one thing nobody told me early on is that the FCC rules in Part 97 are kind of the floor not the ceiling — like the band plans you see from ARRL are voluntary gentlemens agreements on top of the legal requirements, so you can techncially transmit phone where the band plan says CW only and not violate Part 97, but youll make a lot of enemies doing it lol. anyway yeah what the other guy said about ID is right. and welcome to the hobby, 10m is a lot of fun when the band is open

so i finally finished my first scratch built QRP rig, been working off the EMRFD book and a few youtube builds for reference. its a 40m CW only thing, probably putting out around 3-4 watts measured into a dummy load. honestly i was expecting total disaster but the dang thing actually oscillated on the right frequency and i made a contact into ohio from kentucky on the first real try which i thought was pretty cool. anyway my question is about efficiency, im noticing the final transistor (2n2222a) gets pretty warm after like 10 minutes of operating even at this power level. is that normal or am i doing something wrong with the bias? i copied the design pretty closely from the book but i might have gotten a resistor value wrong somewhere. also wondering if anyone has tips on enclosures for portable use, right now its just sitting on a piece of plywood which works but isnt exactly field ready. also for what its worth the receiver side is a direct conversion setup and its workable but kinda rough, lots of audio hum that i cant quite track down. might be a grounding thing. anyway loving qrp so far, wish i had gotten into building years ago

I've been using remotehams for about 8 months now and its pretty solid for ft8. latency is usually around 200-300ms which is fine for digital modes. tried some cw with it but thats where you really notice the delay. the browser interface works well enough though sometimes it gets laggy if your hotel wifi is garbage. for the price its not bad if you travel alot like you said

yeah the Q codes thing is one of those things that feels overwhelming at first but honestly you only end up using maybe a dozen of them regularly. QTH is your location, QSL means confirmed or acknowledged, QRZ is basically "who's calling" or someone asking if the frequency is in use, QRM is interference from other stations and QRN is natural static like from lightning or whatever. QSO is just a contact or conversation, which you already picked up on. the rest of them you'll just kind of absorb as you hear them. theres an ARRL reference page that lists them all but honestly dont try to memorize the whole thing, just look them up as they come up and after a few months of being on the air it clicks. also 73 isnt a Q code but everyone uses it and it just means best regards, kind of a goodbye

oh man i went down this exact rabbit hole last winter. what helped me a lot was just bookmarking the DXwatch page with my filters already set in the URL, that way when i open it its already showing just 20m and 17m CW which is mostly what i work. small thing but it saves time when a spot pops up in a chat or something and you want to check the band quick. also the QRZ logbook has a feature where it'll flag entities you havent worked before right in the lookup — if youre already logging on QRZ that might save you a tab since you dont have to cross reference separately. i only noticed it like a year into using QRZ and felt kinda silly for missing it that long haha

Don't start cutting anything yet - those dimensions will change! What modeling software did you use for the initial design? 4NEC2 optimization can give different results, but if done correctly there shouldn't be major issues.

I did mine about 6 months ago and experienced similar display quirks for the first week. They eventually cleared up on their own. Make sure you used proper ESD precautions and documented everything with photos - those ribbon cables are finicky!

so ive been on HF for about 12 years now and done some satellite work but EME has always been this thing in the back of my head that i keep telling myself ill look into someday. well someday is apparently now because i spent last weekend going down a rabbit hole and now im more confused than when i started. from what i can piece together youre basically looking at either a big dish or a yagi array, a high power amp, and an extremely low noise preamp right at the feedpoint. the path loss on 2m EME is something like 252 dB which is just an insane number to think about. most of what ive been reading says the minimum viable setup on 2m is probably 4 yagis and 500 watts or thereabouts, but then i see guys making contacts with a single long yagi using JT65 so im not sure where the floor actually is these days with digital modes. i guess my main question is — if you were starting from scratch on a modest budget and already had a decent 2m transceiver, what would you prioritize first. the antenna or getting the preamp situation sorted. ive got room for a decent array but i live in a fairly rural area so noise floor shouldnt be too bad. any thoughts appreciated, even if its just pointing me at resources ive probably already found

ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and im on HF a little bit but honestly half the time i have no idea what people are saying. like i know CQ obviously and 73 but then someone will say something like QRM or QSB or throw out a bunch of letters and i just kind of sit there confused. is there like a master list somewhere or do you just pick it up over time? also whats the deal with some people saying things like OM or YL and stuff like that, is that rude or just normal? i dont want to say something wrong on air and embarrass myself

yeah the split listening thing is huge and most people never bother to actually study where the DX is picking up. they just throw their call in the middle of the pack and wonder why nothing happens. ive watched guys run 1500w and a beam and still not crack a pileup because they're transmitting exactly where 400 other people are. the timing delay trick works too, i call it the 'half beat' method in my head, never heard anyone else describe it that way but it makes sense — you're essentially finding a small gap in the noise floor right after the initial surge. another thing that helped me was shortening my callsign transmission when conditions are decent. if the band is clean i'll just send my suffix a couple times instead of the full call, easier for the DX op to pull out of the mess. obivously that depends on how unique your suffix is though, if you're a K1AB type you might get confused with others. the frustrating part is theres no formula, sometimes you do everything right and still get skunked for a whole session then crack it on the first try the next day with the same exact approach

QMX first try is impressive, i botched a couple joints on mine and had to reflow them before it came up. ohio on 5w to a wire is a solid start honestly. i wouldnt stress too much about squeezing every last bit of efficiency right away, just operate it and youll naturally start noticing what seems to help and what doesnt

yeah you basically just pick them up over time honestly. the ones you really hear all the time are QRM which is interference from other stations, QRN is natural static like from lightning and storms, QSB is when your signal is fading in and out, QRP means low power operation like 5 watts or under, and QRO is the opposite running high power. QRZ is somebody asking who is calling them, you hear that constantly. QSY means moving to a different frequency. theres a full ITU list online somewhere but honestly half those codes you will never hear on the air. the ones i listed plus the ones you already know cover probably 90% of what you'll encounter on a normal day. as for 73 vs 88 — 73 is best regards, basically your standard friendly goodbye, everybody uses it. 88 is love and kisses and its traditionally only sent to a woman or a close female friend. some people think its outdated or whatever but thats the traditional meaning so just stick with 73 unless you actually know the person well

so ive been using an RTL-SDR v3 dongle for about a year now, mostly listening to airband and some amateur stuff, occasionally poking around on 40m with it and SDR# on the laptop. works fine honestly but i keep reading that the dynamic range is pretty limited and ive definitely noticed it gets stomped on bad when theres strong signals nearby, like there's a pager transmitter about 2 miles from me and it just wrecks everything in a wide chunk of spectrum. anyway been looking at upgrading and the two things im actually considering are the SDRplay RSP1A (usually see it around $110 or so) and the HackRF One which is more like $300-350 for a legit one from Great Scott Gadgets. i know the HackRF can transmit which is sort of interesting but im not sure i actually need that, mostly i just want better reception sensitivity and to get rid of the blocking issue. someone on reddit mentioned the RSP1A has hardware filtering but i dont really understand how that helps practically. does anyone actually use both of these or has compared them side by side? the specs sheets dont really tell me what i want to know about real world use. running SDR# mostly but ive played with SDRangel a bit and that crashed constantly so i gave up on it

the resonant frequency shifting lower is almost certainly the inverted-V effect combined with end proximity to that fence. when you droop the legs down they electrically look longer than they actually are, so the antenna thinks its bigger than it is. the 468/f number is really for a flat-top dipole with the ends well clear of everything, inverted-V usually needs the legs trimmed a bit shorter than that formula gives you. but honestly the bigger issue is probably the lack of a choke. without one the coax braid becomes part of your antenna system and that screws everything up - affects the feedpoint impedance, shifts resonance, all kinds of weirdness. wind like 8-10 turns of your feedline into a coil right at the feedpoint, or get some ferrite beads on there, and then remeasure before you cut anything else. you might find things look a lot better after that. i spent two weekends chasing a similar problem on my 80m dipole before someone told me the same thing.

the path looks fine, WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 is pretty much the go-to for mobile. one thing to check though — are you sure the digipeaters you're seeing are also iGates? because a digi and an iGate are two different things. a digipeater just rebroadcasts your packet on RF, it doesnt push anything to the internet. you need an iGate in range that's connected to APRS-IS to actually get your position onto aprs.fi. pull up aprs.fi or findu.com and look at what stations are actually gating traffic in your area. if there's a coverage gap with no iGates, your packets are bouncing around on RF but never touching the internet. happens a lot in rural areas and even some suburban spots where the infrastructure is all older digis with no internet connection anymore.

so ive been at this morse code thing for about a year now and when i first started i made really good progress, went from basically zero to around 10-11wpm in maybe 3 months which felt great. but then somewhere around 12-13wpm i just hit this wall and i cannot seem to break through it no matter what i do. my goal is 20wpm, i know thats where a lot of the real CW action is on HF and i want to be able to ragchew without people having to slow down for me constantly. right now i practice with the G4FON trainer for maybe 20 minutes every morning before work, doing Koch method still, and i feel like im just running in place. i can copy most characters fine at 13 but when i try to bump it up to 14 or 15 everything just falls apart and i panic and lose my place. anyone else been through this? is this just a thing that happens and you push through it, or is there something specific i should be changing about how i practice? im starting to wonder if my method is wrong or if i just need to be patient. my sending is actually pretty decent i think but receiving is where i struggle.

the Pi and Arduino combo is probably more than you need honestly but it does make the web interface part way easier so i get why you'd go that route. one thing i'd throw out there — if the Ham-IV motor is the original one those things can pull a fair bit of current when starting up so make sure whatever H-bridge you're using is rated for it. i fried a L298N module the first time i tried something similar, those little blue modules off amazon are not as robust as the datasheet implies. went to a Pololu high-current driver after that and no more problems.

I've been asked to fill in as NCS for our weekly club net, but I'm honestly pretty nervous about it. I've been checking in for about six months now, but the thought of actually running the net has me worried. Any tips for a first-time net control operator? I know the format but I'm afraid I'll forget something important or stumble over my words.

yeah what he said about the rate drop being normal is true but also like... are you doing anything with packet or skimmer? even just having bandmap data feeding in changes everything for figuring out where to go when a run dries up. i know some categories dont allow it but if youre just trying to improve your operating it's worth at least experimenting with assisted to see how you'd use the information if you had it. SO2R is kind of addictive once you get into it but the audio management alone took me probably two full contest seasons to really get comfortable with, youre essentially trying to copy one radio in one ear while transmitting on the other and having a qso and its a lot going on. N1MM has decent SO2R support and there are guys who've done it with pretty modest gear but honestly the first upgrade i'd make in your situation isnt a second radio its just more seat time and maybe going back and listening to recordings of your operating if you ever do that

went last year, honestly wasnt as big as i remembered it being back in the day but still worth going if your not too far. the outdoor tables had some decent stuff early in the morning, guy was selling a whole box of connectors and coax ends for almost nothing. indoor vendors were pretty much the same as always, couple guys selling new radios at barely below retail which whatever. the talk-in was working fine on the local repeater so that part was easy at least

so ive had my tech license for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use it for local 2m repeater stuff and the occasional APRS thing. but ive been reading about HF and it sounds like thats where all the real action is. a buddy at my club said i should just go for the General now while im still in study mode from the tech exam problem is i pulled up the question pool and it feels way harder than the technician stuff. like theres a lot about propagation and feed lines and i dont really know where to start. im using hamstudy.org which is what i used before but i feel like im just memorizing answers without understanding anything. is that how most people do it or should i actually try to learn the theory behind it also whats the deal with HF privileges as a General, like what bands do i actually get access to and is 40m a good starting point? heard someone mention 20m for DX but i dont even have an HF rig yet so maybe im getting ahead of myself

welcome to the addiction lol, you picked a great combo with hiking and radio. to answer your questions - the 4 contacts can all be on the same band and mode, no requirement to spread them out. so yes 4 contacts on 2m FM counts just fine if you can get them. no distance requirement either, technically a contact 5 miles away is just as valid as a DX contact, though obviously HF gets you more options and makes it easier especially if you're on a less popular summit. posting an alert ahead of time on sotawatch is not required but man it makes your life so much easier. chasers watch for alerts and will literally be sitting there waiting for you when you get to the top. i've done a couple unannounced activations and you end up just calling CQ into the void for a while until someone notices you on the RBN. the G90 is a solid rig for this by the way, good choice. just bring enough wire for a simple end fed or something and you'll be fine on 40m.

honestly i tried SO2R once and went back to SO1R, at least for SS. the mult situation in sweepstakes is different than dx contests because you need sections not rare dx entities so the second radio mult hunting thing feels less critical to me. where SO2R really shines imo is when you can run a pileup on one radio and grab a quick S&P qso on the other during your own turnaround time. that part does add up over a 24 hour op. but if your antennas arent well isolated you spend more time chasing rf gremlins than you do making contacts and that drives me insane. if you do try it spend a weekend just testing the two radio setup outside of contest conditions first, transmit on one and see what the other radio does, check the s-meter see if youre getting any bleedthrough. worth knowing before 1800z on a saturday

also check the tension on the Bencher paddle itself. those things go out of adjustment sitting in a box and if the gap is too wide or the spring tension is off youll fight it the whole time without realizing thats the problem. i had mine sitting for a couple years and spent two weeks thinking i was the problem before i actually looked at the paddle gaps and they were way off

not a dumb question at all, this trips up a lot of new generals. so yeah the 7.175 vs 7.200 thing is a region issue — in ITU region 2 which is the americas, us general class phone starts at 7.175 MHz. the 7.200 figure you might be seeing is probably from older references or non-US band plans. the band edge thing is important and your friend was right to mention it. when you're on USB, your actual transmitted signal extends upward from your dial frequency, roughly 3 khz or so depending on your audio passband. so if you tune to 7.300 which is the top of the 40m allocation for us hams, your signal is actually sticking out above the band edge and thats an FCC violation not just bad manners. most people stay at least 3 khz down from the edge to be safe, some go more. same deal at the bottom, on LSB your signal goes downward from the dial so you have to think about that too. the ARRL band plan is worth bookmarking, it shows both the legal limits and the gentlemans agreement stuff like where cw guys hang out vs phone etc.