Helen Taylor

the path loss is actually closer to 252dB on 2m depending on lunar distance, but yeah roughly that ballpark. honest answer on your antenna question — a single long yagi running JT65B can absolutely work EME, especially with a good low-noise preamp at the feedpoint. ive seen guys make contacts with a single 9el cross-yagi and 100 watts, its slow going but it happens. the 4-yagi array is obviously way better, each time you double your antenna elements you get 3dB which adds up fast. H-frame vs X-frame is mostly a mechanical preference thing in my experience, the stacking distances matter more than which frame style you use. if you go with 4x yagis you want to get the horizontal and vertical spacing optimized for your specific yagi design, usually around 2.2 to 2.6 wavelengths depending on the boom length. dont just guess at the spacing, there are stacking calculators online and its worth spending an hour on it. the other thing people underestimate is the preamp. a 0.3dB noise figure vs a 0.6dB one sounds like nothing but at these signal levels it matters. EME pro is still the go-to logging software for this stuff if you havent looked at it yet.

ok so i passed my general exam like three weeks ago and ive been trying to figure out exactly what frequencies im allowed to use. i read through part 97 but honestly its kind of hard to parse, like i get the basic idea but then theres all these sub-bands and allocations and i keep second guessing myself before i transmit anywhere. specifically im confused about the 40 meter band because i keep hearing technicians can use part of it too? and then theres the whole thing about phone vs CW privileges and where the lines are. i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere im not supposed to. is there like a plain english version of this somewhere or do i just have to memorize the band plan chart

Ham Radio Prep analyzed thousands of practice test results and found the top 10 questions that prospective hams have the most difficulty with. Paying attention to these could make the difference between passing or failing. I'm particularly struggling with antenna calculations and RF exposure limits. The wavelength formula (Wavelength x Frequency = 300) keeps tripping me up. How do you quickly calculate wavelength from frequency during the exam?What's the easiest way to remember RF exposure power density limits?Any memory tricks for the different antenna types and their characteristics?