Kenneth Davis

Been running both modes simultaneously with my IC-9700 and second antenna. QRA64 definitely pulls out signals that JT65 can't decode, especially during libration fading nulls. Weekend QRA64 activity on 2m EME is becoming significant - I'd estimate 30-40% of my contacts are now QRA64.

yeah what he said. i'll add that when i first got on air i was so worried about doing phonetics wrong that i just avoided identifying for longer than i should have lol. just learn the nato set and use it whenever theres any doubt, nobody is going to judge you for being extra clear. the weird custom phonetics drive me a little crazy personally because you have half a second of confusion trying to decode what letter they meant

so ive been on HF for about 8 months now and every time i get a signal report the other guy says my audio is muddy or muffled or just kinda hard to copy. im running an IC-7300 which i know is a good radio so i dont think its the rig itself but maybe how ive got it set up. im using the stock hand mic that came with it and i just talk into it like i would a phone i guess. compression is on because i thought that helped with getting out further but maybe thats the problem? i honestly dont even know where to start with this. someone at the club said something about the TX bandwidth setting but i havent touched that yet. any ideas before i start randomly poking at menus

yeah the menu thing on the 7300 is real, spent like two evenings just going through every submenu trying to figure out where icom hid the NR settings. once you've mapped it out mentally it's fine but that first week is a little rough. the waterfall though — same experience here, completely changes how you approach a band, especially on 17 and 12 where activity can be kind of sparse and you'd otherwise just be spinning the dial hoping. i came from a Kenwood TS-590SG which is also a really solid radio and honestly the receiver on the 590 holds up surprisingly well against the 7300, some guys swear the 590 still edges it out in certain conditions but for general use i think the 7300 wins just because of the SDR front end and the display. the analog meters on older rigs are kind of satisfying in a way you lose with the touchscreen stuff but i dont miss them enough to go back. how's your audio sounding on transmit? mine needed a bit of tweaking with the mic gain and compression before it sounded decent on SSB.

i mean i only have the 7300 so cant really compare directly but the waterfall alone is worth it imo, i use it constantly just to see whats happening on a band before i even tune anywhere. setup for wsjt-x took me like 20 minutes the first time which was pretty painless. only thing i'd say is the stock mic is kinda meh but thats pretty common

honestly when i first got my ticket i was so stressed about saying the right phonetics i would blank on letters mid-callsign which was way more embarassing than saying the wrong word. my advice just practice the NATO ones until they come automatically and dont overthink it. i still slip up occasionally and say something random for a letter and nobody has ever made a big deal about it on any repeater ive used. the only time ive seen people actually care is in nets where the net control is trying to get a clean log and even then they just ask you to repeat

yeah i went two years ago, the outdoor flea market was still pretty decent honestly. found a surprisingly clean MFJ tuner for like 20 bucks. your buddy might just be comparing it to the old days when the thing was absolutely massive and yes most clubs do have tables near the entrance area usually, thats actually how i ended up joining mine, just walked up and chatted for a few minutes. way less weird than showing up to a meeting cold

I had the same disappointment with my HackRF clone from AliExpress. Turns out the issue was partly driver-related - try the latest hackrf tools and make sure you have proper calibration. Also check your antenna setup - the HackRF is more sensitive to impedance mismatches than the RTL-SDR.

so i finally got my general ticket back in the spring and ive been mostly just doing casual ragchews on 40m and some digital stuff but my buddy at the club keeps telling me i should try CQ WW this october and i figured why not, worst case i just learn something right the thing is i dont really understand how the whole exchange works in phone contests, like i get that you're sending signal reports and zones but it goes SO fast when i tune around and i can barely catch what people are saying half the time. is there like a good way to practice before the actual weekend or should i just jump in and embarrass myself until it clicks also wondering if it's even worth trying from my setup which is just a G5RV up about 25 feet and a hundred watt radio. i see people talking about stacked yagis and amplifiers and stuff and i feel like i'd just be noise in the background. maybe i should try ARRL Field Day first since thats coming up too and seems a little more relaxed? idk open to advice here

so this has been going on for about three weeks now and i cant figure it out. the rig transmits fine for maybe 5-10 minutes and then just... drops. ptt still activates, the tx light comes on, ALC is moving, but no rf out. sometimes it comes back on its own after 30 seconds, sometimes i have to key up and unkey a couple times. happens on all bands, 40m seems worst but that might just be because i spend more time there. i pulled the finals and they look fine visually, no discoloration, solder joints look okay to me. the pa bias hasnt been touched since i bought the radio used about two years ago. i was thinking maybe the low pass filter relay is sticking? i swapped to a dummy load and it still does it so i dont think its antenna related. voltages on the 13.8v rail look stable on my meter while its happening but i havent put a scope on it yet. anyone dealt with this before on an 857 specifically? ive seen some stuff about the finals going soft but this doesnt quite match that pattern to me.

the Q codes actually came from way before ham radio, maritime and commercial telegraphy used them first which is kind of cool. so some of them make more sense in that context than they do sitting in your shack talking to someone two states over. QRT for instance means stop transmitting or im shutting down, which on a ship had real urgency to it obviously one thing that trips people up is QRM vs QRN because they sound similar and both mean interference but the distinction matters. also QRO is the opposite of QRP, it means high power, so if someone says they run QRO they mean they're not running barefoot they've got an amp. i remeber being just as confused as you when i started, theres a lot of tribal knowledge in this hobby that nobody really explains formally