Linda Johnson

yeah we had almost the exact same argument at our club a few years back, different hilltop same basic problem. ended up going with a pair of M2 2M5WL yagis on the link and it was night and day difference, like the path went from unreliable to basically rock solid. the antenna isnt even that big, fits on a pushup mast no problem. only thing id add is dont cheap out on the feedline for the link end especially if theres any real run from the antenna to the radio. we used LMR-400 and i think it was worth every penny. someone wanted to reuse the old RG-8X that was already on the tower and i'm glad we talked them out of it.

so ive been trying to get Winlink working for maybe three weeks now and i keep hitting walls. i got Winlink Express installed and i can see RMS gateways in the map but im not totally clear on how the whole chain works. like is the RMS gateway just a repeater basically, it receives my packet signal and then forwards it to the internet to reach the CMS server? or is there more to it than that. my current setup is a Kenwood TM-V71A into a Signalink USB, running on 2 meters. ive gotten a few connects but then the session just drops before the message actually goes through. not sure if its my audio levels or if im just too far from the gateway. i did check and theres an RMS node about 22 miles away line of sight should be fine. the other thing thats confusing me is message handling, like once i send an email through Winlink does the recipient just see a regular email or does it look weird on their end. asking because i want to use this for backup comms with my family and theyre not hams obviously. any help appreciated, been lurking here for a while and you guys seem to know this stuff pretty well

so i've been meaning to get into satellite work for a while and last weekend i actually sat down and did it properly. been listening on the LEO birds for months but never actually transmitted. set up my FT-817 with a couple arrow antennas, one for 2m uplink and one for 70cm downlink, hand tracked the pass manually which was... an experience. got a signal through on AO-73 which was exciting but the doppler correction is really messing with me. i understand the concept — satellite is moving so you have to constantly adjust — but in practice im trying to tune the downlink while also moving the antenna and also not tripping over the coax and its kind of chaos. is there any way to do this without a full Az/El rotor setup? i saw some people just use a fixed antenna pointed at like 20-30 degrees and catch part of the pass, wondering if thats viable for actually making contacts or just listening also noticed my signal was way down compared to other stations, running about 3 watts on uplink. should that be enough or do i need more? dont want to be one of those guys who blasts 50 watts into a transponder and hogs the passband

cable management - honestly just velcro straps, a bunch of them, and i mean a BUNCH. i spent like 8 bucks on a roll from amazon and it changed my life for field ops. zip ties work but you end up cutting them when you reconfigure and it gets annoying. also labeling every single cable at both ends before you leave the house, sounds tedious but you'll thank yourself at hour 6 when something stops working and you're trying to trace it in the dark with a headlamp. i keep all my DC power stuff on one side of the table and RF/antenna stuff on the other, just as a personal rule. keeps the mess from spreading as bad.

so i've been mostly a 40m and 80m guy for the past couple years because honestly 10m felt completely dead every time i checked it. but yesterday afternoon i just happened to spin the dial up there and holy cow there were stations everywhere, worked a couple guys in south america and even heard what sounded like a european station though i couldn't pull him out of the noise enough to make a contact. i checked the solar flux index after and it was sitting around 180 which i guess is pretty high? i honestly dont follow the numbers super closely, i kind of just spin the dial and see whats there. but it got me curious about how to actually track this stuff better so i know when to go looking instead of just stumbling onto it by accident. is there like a good site or tool people use to check conditions before they sit down at the rig? also wondering if this is part of a bigger trend or just a fluke day. feels like the cycle might finally be doing something interesting

ok so ive been chasing DX for about a year now and i finally started logging everything properly in LoTW but im still not totally clear on how the whole DXCC thing actually works in practice. like do i need a physical QSL card for every entity or is LoTW confirmation enough for the credit to count toward the award? i keep reading conflicting stuff online. also i'm sitting at 87 confirmed right now which honestly feels pretty good for a year in but i dont really know what the threshold is for applying or if there's like an application fee. i did manage to work a few of the more exotic ones during a recent DXpedition to somewhere in the Pacific — got super lucky with a short opening on 17m — but a lot of those guys never upload to LoTW so i'm just waiting on paper cards which feels like it could take forever. is there a better way to handle this or do you just kind of accept that some of them are gonna take months

so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and done a fair bit of HF DX but lately ive been getting kind of obsessed with the idea of EME. watched a bunch of videos and read through some of the old ON4UN moonbounce stuff and honestly it sounds incredible but also like... a lot. like a LOT a lot. im on 2m mostly, have a pretty decent station already, running about 500w into a 6el yagi which i know is basically nothing for EME. just trying to get a realistic picture of what the minimum viable setup looks like these days, especially with JT65 and WSJT-X doing a lot of the heavy lifting now. ive seen people claim you can work EME with modest arrays but i dont know what modest actually means in this context. is a single long yagi like a 15-18el M2 or similar even worth pointing at the moon or am i just wasting time without at least a 2x or 4x array also curious about receive — i assume a decent preamp at the feedpoint is non-negotiable but what kind of noise figure are people actually running. and is there a good time of month to try first attempts or does that matter less with digital modes

so my local dealer finally got a demo unit of the IC-7760 in and i got to spend about 45 minutes with it yesterday afternoon. been following this one since the announcement and honestly its a lot to take in all at once. the remote head concept is pretty slick in person, way more so than in the promo videos icom put out. the display is huge and the knobs have this really solid feel to them, not that cheap plasticky feedback you get on some rigs. anyway 20 meters was just absolutely roaring when i was there, the dx cluster had like 40 spots on the band all at once and we worked a couple stations with it just to hear the audio. the rx audio through the built in speaker was surprisingly good, not tinny at all. still trying to decide if i can justify the price but man it was hard to walk away from the store. anyone else had hands on time with one yet or is anyone still waiting for stock to show up near them

so ive been using a v3 dongle with the direct sampling mod for a while now and honestly its been pretty good for what it is, pulled in plenty of stuff on MW and 40m just to see whats out there. but ive been eyeballing the RSP1C for a few months and the price difference isnt insane, around $120 vs basically free since i already had the dongle. main thing im wondering is whether the ADC quality actually makes a noticeable difference in practice on crowded HF bands. like i know on paper the RSPx series has way better dynamic range and the front end is less prone to getting stomped on by strong stations nearby, but does that actually translate to like a real world improvement or is it one of those things where the specs look great but you cant really hear the difference unless youre doing some very specific thing. running SDR++ mostly, tried SDRuno once but the interface kind of drove me nuts. also not using any external preamp or filtering right now, just a longwire into a 9:1 unun. setup is fine for casual listening but i keep wondering if the dongle is the actual bottleneck or if its my antenna situation that needs sorting first.

ok so ive been going back and forth on this for probably two months now and i need someone to just tell me im overthinking it. my situation is a pretty average suburban backyard, maybe 60 feet wide and the HOA isnt thrilled about visible antennas so im trying to keep things low profile. right now i have a simple 40m dipole slung between two trees, maybe 25 feet at the apex, ends drooping down a bit because i just dont have the height. it works, i get out, but i keep reading about verticals and wondering if im leaving something on the table especially for DX. the thing is every time i read about verticals for 40m everyone goes straight into radial systems and ground losses and honestly that whole conversation makes my head spin a bit. i understand the theory but putting down 32 or 64 radials in a backyard that my wife actually uses is not going to happen. so im looking at elevated radials maybe 4 of them, but then some guys say thats enough and others say youre just building a compromise. anyone actually compared these two setups on 40m at real suburban heights? not simulation, actual on air results. my dipole at 25 feet is probably closer to a cloud warmer than a real DX antenna anyway so maybe the vertical wouldnt even be worse.

yeah 4 contacts is exactly the minimum so you're good, activation counts. honestly your first one being a partial disaster is basically a rite of passage lol. i forgot my antenna wire completely on my second activation and had to borrow a random wire from my pack to make something work. the kx2 is a great rig for this by the way, ive been running one for about two years now for both SOTA and POTA and it just works. next time maybe tape the counterpoise to the feedpoint so its always there, thats what i do now after forgetting mine twice

so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to actually buy. everyone keeps saying different things and i've been going down rabbit holes on youtube for like three days straight. some people swear by the baofengs as a starter radio and others act like you suggested kicking a puppy if you mention one. i mostly want to be able to hit the local repeaters and maybe do some simplex stuff with a buddy who also just got licensed. we're not doing anything crazy. budget is probably around $100 give or take but i could stretch a little if it actually makes sense to. is there a middle ground option that wont make the old timers cringe but also isnt like a $300 yaesu or whatever also does the number of watts even matter that much for just hitting a nearby repeater? the one we want to use is maybe 8 miles away and i live on kind of a flat area with some trees but nothing crazy hilly

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now (technician) and ive been thinking about upgrading but honestly the thing that keeps pulling me toward ham radio in general is morse code. like theres something about it that just seems really cool to me but i have absolutely no idea how to even begin learning it. i tried just looking up the alphabet chart and staring at it but that obviously went nowhere fast. is there like a method that actually works or is it just one of those things where you grind it out and hope for the best? i dont want to spend months doing it wrong. also not sure if i should be using an app or actual audio or what. any thoughts appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question

so ive been a General for about 3 years now and i keep telling myself im gonna go for the Extra but every time i look at the practice exams i get bogged down in the filter stuff and the math-heavy questions and just kind of give up and close the tab. the operating privileges honestly arent that big a deal for me since i mostly do 40m and 20m anyway and generals can work those bands fine but theres something about just having the full ticket that appeals to me i guess. anyway i started going through the question pool more seriously this week and some of the stuff about LC circuits and reactance i sort of remember from when i was studying for General but now its like way more in depth. and then theres all the stuff about amplifier classes and transmission line theory that i genuinely have no idea where to even start. is there a good way to approach this stuff or do most people just brute force memorize the pool? i feel like id rather actually understand it but maybe thats not realistic with how big the pool is

oh man i remember this exact feeling, it was probably the most frustrating part of the whole journey for me. what helped me more than anything was listening to fast code even when i couldnt copy it. like i mean really fast, 25 or 30wpm, just as background while i was doing other stuff around the shack. your brain starts to recognize the rhythm of words and common sequences without you even trying. took a few weeks before i noticed it but suddenly 15wpm started feeling slower to me. the other thing is dont practice copying letter by letter. if you're still sounding out dah-dit-dah in your head thats gonna be your ceiling. you gotta get to where you just hear Q and thats it, no translation step. some people call it head copy. LCWO is actually good for this if you crank the character speed up high (like 20wpm) and drop the farnsworth spacing way down so you have more time between characters. start recognizing sounds not sequences. that honestly is what finally broke me through the 15wpm wall.

the qcx mini is what i went to after messing around with cheap kits and its a huge step up, the filtering alone makes a difference when the bands are crowded. also just throwing this out there but have you tried SOTA or POTA yet because QRP portable operating kind of clicks into place when you have an actual reason to be out in the field. its way more fun than just sitting in the park tbh, you get people specifically hunting for you and the exchanges actually mean something

so i've been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just ragchewed on 40m and did some local stuff but last month i worked my first legitimate DX pile up — caught a ZL station on 20m and something just clicked for me. been hooked ever since. i went and read all the ARRL DXCC rules and honestly my brain kind of melted halfway through. i get the basic concept, 100 entities confirmed, submit your QSL cards or use LoTW, whatever. but a few things are confusing me. first off — do i need to submit all 100 at once or can i submit as i go? i have maybe 35-40 entities worked so far and probably 20 confirmed on LoTW already. also is WAS totally separate from DXCC like do you just apply for them independently or is there some combined tracking thing i'm missing. and WAZ i barely even understand, is that the 40 zones thing? i found the CQ zone map but figuring out which zone a country falls in isnt always obvious to me. anyway sorry for the wall of text im just genuinely excited about this and dont want to waste QSLs or submit stuff wrong and lose credit somehow

yeah i did basically the same thing with a 7600 a while back. the band data lines on icom rigs can be a little glitchy during the transition, the decoder in the radio doesnt always settle instantly. 50ms is actually in the right ballpark honestly, i was using something like 75ms and it was rock solid. you could try reading the band data twice with a short gap and only acting if both reads agree, thats a more proper debounce approach than just a flat delay. cleaner in the logic even if it ends up being similar in practice. on the pi side of things — if you go that route i'd keep the arduino doing all the real-time relay control and just have it report status to the pi over serial or USB. the pi running linux is just not great for anything where timing actually matters, too many other things going on in the OS. but for logging, running hamlib, flrig, wsjtx whatever, its perfect. i have a pi 4 on my desk that basically runs my whole digital station and its been solid for over a year now.

the signal report thing is just SOTA life honestly. youre running like 5 or 10 watts into a wire thats barely in the air and conditions are whatever they are. i just accept that some qsos are gonna be rough. congrats on the first one, now you gotta do POTA too and then youll really never stop going outside lol

so ive been a General for about three years now and i keep telling myself im gonna upgrade but never actually sit down and do it. a buddy of mine at the club just passed his Extra last month and he said the theory section wasnt as brutal as he expected but i dunno, i looked at some of the practice questions on the HF propagation and the filter stuff and my brain just kind of glazes over. like i understand the basics of how a bandpass filter works conceptually but when they start throwing actual math at you and asking about impedance matching at specific frequencies i get lost pretty quick. is there a good way to approach studying for this or do i just need to grind the question pool until it sticks? i kind of did that for Technician and General and passed fine but the Extra pool feels bigger and some of the questions feel like they actually want you to understand the thing, not just memorize it. anyone gone through this recently and have thoughts on how long it realistically takes if youre not an engineer by trade?

the hum is almost certainly grounding — manhattan builds can be great but if your ground returns are all over the place you'll pick up all kinds of garbage. what i usually do is make sure there's a solid ground plane and all the ground connections go back to one point or at least a heavy copper braid running the length of the board. also check your power supply, wall warts are notorious for injecting hum and a small pi filter or even just a 100uF cap close to the supply pins on the 602 and the 386 can help a lot. as for the LO leakage, yeah a buffer between the oscillator and the mixer input helps but honestly on a simple DC rx with a whip or short wire antenna in a non-commercial setting its kind of expected. a single JFET source follower buffer is easy to add and cuts the leakage down considerably. boxing it up will help some too, even just a tin from an altoids mint although proper RF enclosure is better obviously.

if you've already ruled out settings and external stuff then yeah it could be the electret element in the hm-219 mic starting to go. those capsules dont last forever especially if theyve been around RF for a few years. the symptoms you describe, muffled and distorted on peaks, is pretty classic for a partially failed mic element. even though you swapped the mic, did you swap it with the exact same mic model or something different? different mics have different impedance and level and the 7300 expects a certain input from the hm-219 type so a random dynamic mic might not tell you much. worst case if it is hardware in the TX audio chain you're probably looking at the AK4951 codec on the main board. i wouldnt go poking around in there unless you're comfortable with SMD work, those chips arent fun to rework. might be worth sending it to icom's service center if the warranty is out and you can't sort it with settings.

I just passed mine like six weeks ago and honestly the extra segments on 40 were the reason I did it, been trying to work more dx on cw and kept running into the edge of my general privileges at the worst times, super frustrating when a rare one shows up right below where you can transmit the exam is harder than general for sure but not impossibly so, just takes more time with the material. the toughest part for me was the stuff about digital signal procesing and some of the filter design questions but you kind of just have to accept that youre memorizing a few of those rather than truly understanding them unless you have an EE background or something

This gives me hope! I'm at about 8 WPM right now and getting frustrated. I highly recommend CW Academy - I keep hearing great things about their program. Did you do their beginner course or jump to intermediate?

Which sunday morning net are you talking about? There's like 5 different ones on 40 depending on where you are. If it was the Carolina Morning Net they moved to 14.265 about a month ago because of QRM issues. KB4RXJ still runs it but starts at 0730 now instead of 0800.