Michael Rodriguez

yeah 30% confirmation rate on LoTW is actually pretty typical, especially when you're working a lot of domestic stations or newer hams who don't bother with it. some people only upload once a year, some never do. the rate goes up a lot when you're working DX because those guys are usually award-chasing and stay on top of their uploads. as for physical cards — definitely still a thing, especially in the DX community. the general rule of thumb is you should send one back if you receive one, its just good manners. some people use the bureau system through ARRL which is way cheaper than direct mail for international stuff, you basically batch up cards and they sort and forward them. takes forever though, like months sometimes. eQSL is kind of the weird middle child. some awards accept it, DXCC doesn't, so a lot of serious DX chasers don't prioritize it. but its fine for keeping a record and some people really like the customization options for making their own card designs. honestly just use all three and don't stress it, confirmations will pile up over time.

im pretty new to all this propagation stuff too so take this with a grain of salt but i started using the DX toolkit app on my phone and it shows solar data, the A and K indices, all that. i dont fully understand everything it shows yet but it helped me figure out why some days i just couldnt reach anybody. my elmer told me to check the flux index first thing in the morning and if its below like 100 the higher bands are gonna be rough — not impossible but rough. above 150 and apparently things get pretty exciting on 10m and up. havent personally experienced a good 10m opening yet since i just got licenced in spring but i keep checking.

so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general class) and everyone keeps telling me i should try doing some contests to improve my operating skills. i get the basic idea but honestly the whole thing seems kind of overwhelming. like i was looking at the CQ WW calendar and then someone mentioned ARRL sweepstakes and then theres Field Day which i thought was just a club thing but apparently you can do it solo? and then theres all this SOTA stuff which seems different but people lump it together sometimes when talking about operating events. i guess my main question is — for someone running a pretty basic HF setup (IC-7300 and a wire antenna in the backyard) whats a reasonable first contest to try without feeling completely lost. i dont want to just sit there spinning the dial and not knowing whats happening. do most people use logging software from the start or is there a way to do it on paper first just to get a feel for it

Getting ready to install my first mobile VHF/UHF radio (Icom IC-2730A) in my F-150. I've read conflicting advice about power connections - some say run direct to battery, others say use the fuse box. What's the proper way to wire a 50-watt dual band radio? Do I really need 12AWG wire for such a short run from the cab to the engine bay? Also concerned about voltage drop when transmitting.

hamstudy is fine but if you want to actually understand what youre learning and not just memorize answers, the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual is worth picking up. its like $30 and walks you through everything. i know some people just flashcard their way through and pass fine but then they get on the air and have no idea whats going on, so depends what you want out of it. also check if theres a local club near you, a lot of them run free licensing classes and have volunteer examiners so you can take the test right there at the end of the class. finding my local club was honestly the best thing i did when i was starting out

so i've been putting off building a QRP kit for probably two years now, always told myself i'd get to it when i had time. well i finally sat down over the past few weekends and built a QCX Mini on 40 meters and honestly i dont know why i waited so long. the whole process was super satisfying even though i had to reflow a couple solder joints that were giving me grief on the BPF section. first real QSO was with a station in ohio, im in the pacific northwest, running maybe 4 watts. i know thats not jaw dropping for 40m but for my first homebrew rig it felt pretty amazing. the built in alignment and test functions on the QCX are really clever, made it way easier to get everything dialed in without needing a ton of bench equipment. anyway wondering if anyone else here is into QRP and what kits or scratch builds youve tried. i'm already eyeing the 20 meter version for SOTA stuff since i want to get into that. also any tips for a lightweight antenna setup that would work well for portable ops? im thinking a linked dipole but open to ideas

Hi all! Finally passed my Technician exam last week and got my call sign KC1XYZ. Super excited but also pretty nervous about making my first QSO. I've got a Baofeng UV-5R and found the local 2m repeater, but every time I key up to call CQ I chicken out. Any tips for a brand new ham on how to get over the mic fright? What should I say for my first contact?

yeah the jump from RTL direct sampling to a proper HF receiver like the RSPdx is pretty significant, not gonna sugarcoat it. the dynamic range alone is night and day especially if youre anywhere near a strong AM broadcast station. i run the RSPdx with SDRuno and its honestly pretty solid for shortwave and utility stuff. the 1kHz to 2GHz coverage without needing an upconverter is the main thing for me. that said your antenna situation is probably going to be the bigger limiting factor honestly. a 30ft long wire out the window is going to pick up a ton of noise depending on where you live. i'd almost say get a better antenna situation sorted first, but if your current setup is already decent and you're just getting frustrated with the dongle limitations then yeah the RSPdx is worth it. SDRuno is a bit clunky compared to SDR# but you get used to it, and it does work well with the RSP hardware natively.

I had the exact same problem when I started! Double-check that you've programmed the CTCSS tone correctly by looking it up in a repeater directory - sometimes the listing shows DCS codes instead of CTCSS tones, and they're not interchangeable. Also try holding your PTT a bit longer to give the tone decoder time to recognize your signal.

congrats on the first one, that 34 QSO count is solid especially with a random wire. i remeber my first activation being a total mess, forgot to log half the calls correctly and had to do a lot of guessing when i uploaded lol one thing that helped me a lot was using the POTA spots page on my phone while operating so i could see if anyone else was already on my park reference, avoids the awkward situation of two activators on the same frequency. also for 40m i usually try to get set up and spotted by like 9 or 10am local time before the band gets weird in the afternoon the hunters really are a great group, very forgiving of new activators. just keep doing it, after 5 or 6 activations it all becomes second nature

oh man i was exactly at this same wall around 13-14wpm for what felt like forever. the thing that finally got me moving again was stopping the random 5 letter groups completely. your brain just learns to hear individual letters instead of building that whole word recognition thing that you need to get faster. switch to real words, common ones, and honestly just copying real QSO traffic off the air even if you can only catch half of it. the RufzXP program helped me a lot too, its a callsign copying program and it auto adjusts speed based on how youre doing which is kind of addictive. the farnsworth thing your club guy mentioned is worth understanding though -- basically the idea is you send the characters themselves at a high speed like 20wpm but put extra space between them so your brain learns the sound of the letter at the speed you eventually want, not the slow mushy version. if youre practicing at 13wpm character speed you might be building habits that are actually hard to break later. some people swear by this approach from day one. either way dont give up, 20wpm is very doable and once it clicks past like 18 it gets easier again weirdly enough.

check aprsdirect.com too, sometimes aprs.fi has caching weirdness or just doesnt show stuff right away especially if you havent beaconed in a while and the entry aged out. if you dont see it on multiple sites then yeah something else is going on. also what symbol are you using out of curiosity — youre right that it shouldnt matter for actual digipeating/igating but im just curious

Just got my General but want to learn morse code to try CW. Complete beginner - never learned it before. I'm overwhelmed by all the different methods and apps out there. What's the best approach for someone starting from absolute scratch? Should I start with the Koch method or Farnsworth timing? Any specific apps or programs you'd recommend? Looking for practical advice from those who've been through this journey recently.

so ive been running a remote station for about two years now, basically a raspberry pi, rigctld, and a web interface I cobbled together from various github projects. works ok but its kind of a pain to maintain especially when something crashes at 2am and i cant figure out if its the audio routing or the hamlib connection or what. been looking at RemoteHams and their SDR remote stuff lately. the idea of having something more turnkey is appealing but i dunno, feels like you're kind of locked into their ecosystem. anyone running their RCForb client or the SDR side of things for real HF ops? im curious how the latency handling is on weaker signals, like is it actually usable for something like CW or digital modes where timing matters, or is it mostly fine for SSB ragchewing. also peripherally curious about linking this into some kind of internet linking setup, i have an echolink node on a local 2m repeater and was wondering if there's any overlap or people who've done something interesting connecting the two worlds. probably a dumb idea but it crossed my mind.

WAS is probably the best one to start with honestly, just because you can work all 50 states without needing to stay up until 2am hoping some rare DX entity pops up on the cluster. with a G5RV at 30 feet and 100 watts you should be able to knock out most of the states within a few months if you put in the time, the harder ones are usually the less populated states out west and things like Delaware just because not many people operate from there for DXCC you need 100 confirmed entities to get the basic award and yeah your setup can definitely get you there, maybe not the really tough ones like some of the Pacific islands but there are enough active entities out there that 100 is very achievable. LoTW is the way to go for confirmations these days, a lot of dx operators upload there and it saves you the whole QSL card mailing hassle. get your station set up on LoTW first before anything else that would be my suggestion WAZ i'd honestly worry about last, 40 zones sounds simple but a few of them are genuinely rare and youll be waiting a while for zone 26 or some of the arctic zones to show up

I just passed mine like three months ago so its pretty fresh. the practice tests on hamstudy are almost exactly what the real exam feels like so just keep doing those until youre consistently hitting 85 or better and youll be fine. some of the questions about amateur satellite operation and some of the obscure operating rules i just flat out memorized and moved on, not everything needs a deep understanding the band access is real though, first weekend after i got my new call i worked a station in the Azores that was sitting right in the extra segment on 40m with basically nobody calling him

so ive been a Tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing local 2m stuff and some APRS. i keep hearing people talk about HF and it sounds really cool but honestly the General exam looks kind of intimidating when i look at the question pool. like there's a ton of electrical theory stuff in there that i dont really remember from school. i guess my question is how long did it take most people to study for it and is there stuff on the exam that you actually need to know to operate or is it more like memorize and forget type stuff. also does passing General actually give you enough HF privileges to do something useful or do you need Extra for the good stuff

attic dipole at 25w and you're working europe on FT8 on 20m, thats actually pretty solid honestly. i ran a similar setup for two years before i could put something outside. i tried JS8Call a few times and it never really clicked for me personally, i think im just too impatient for it. i mostly bounce between FT8, FT4 when the bands are decent, and i still throw on RTTY for the big contests because theres something about RTTY contesting that just feels different from the WSJT stuff. more chaotic i guess. anyway probably not helpful but just my two cents

yeah the noise issue is almost certainly your power supply and the relay transients coupling in. USB power from a laptop is notoriously noisy for analog work. try running the arduino from a separate regulated 5v supply and use a 10uf tantalum plus a 0.1uf ceramic right at the AREF pin — that made a huge difference for me on a similar project. also if you can, put a small RC filter on the pot wiper before it hits the analog input, something like 10k and 1uf, that'll roll off the high frequency garbage. the relay chatter thing is a real problem. you probably want to add flyback diodes if you havent already and maybe put the relay coil drive on a separate ground trace that only joins at the power input. or honestly just swap to a motor driver IC like an L298 and ditch the relays entirely for a cleaner setup. the T2X motor isnt pulling that much current if i remember right. for hamlib integration later, look at the rotctld daemon and there are already some arduino sketches floating around that speak the hamlib protocol directly over serial. saves you having to write that part yourself.

yeah the setup time thing is real, took me like 3 or 4 activations before i got my kit dialed in enough that i could be on the air in under 15 minutes. biggest thing for me was pre-cutting all my guy ropes to the right length and putting little loops in the ends so i wasnt messing around tying knots with cold fingers. also i stopped using the linked dipole honestly, switched to an end fed halfwave and just use a single wire which is so much faster to deploy. the tradeoff is you need a tuner but i keep mine clipped to the feedpoint so its all one piece. 40 minute setup is totally normal for a first time out though dont sweat it, you still qualified and thats what matters

pretty much a feel thing yeah, but the general idea is you use phonetics whenever theres any chance of confusion or if conditions are less than perfect. on a quiet local repeater with a strong signal you can sometimes get away with just saying the letters but its still considered good practice to at least do it once phonetically, especially when youre first identifying. net control probably just wanted to make sure they copied you correctly, dont sweat it too much. on HF where there might be QRM or propagation weirdness you basically always want to use phonetics for calls and any important info like signal reports or your QTH. ive been doing this for going on 12 years and i still default to phonetics anytime im not 100% sure the other guy is hearing me clean.

yeah the 40m situation is a bit of a mess to wrap your head around at first. so legally as a general you can do phone from 7.175 up to 7.300, thats your actual FCC allocation. everything below 7.175 is CW and digital for generals, techs dont get anything useful on 40 in terms of voice. the dx window stuff around 7.200 is more of a voluntary thing — the idea being that DX stations and the people working them tend to congregate up there and if you just fire up a ragchew on 7.200 youre gonna step on a pileup and nobody will be happy. not illegal, just frowned upon pretty hard. the band edge thing is real in a practical sense. your radio has to stay within its allocation so if you set your dial to exactly 7.175 and youre running USB, your actual transmitted signal extends upward from there so your suppressed carrier is at 7.175 but the audio content goes up a couple khz. you wont get in trouble per se but if youre transmitting LSB and dial down near 7.175 your signal could theoretically go below it. most people just stay a few khz inside the edge to be safe. 7.178 or so is a pretty common starting point if you dont want to stress about it

yeah the speed thing your club guy mentioned is the Koch method basically — the idea is you learn at like 15-20 wpm from day one so your brain learns to recognize the sounds as characters instead of counting dits and dahs. if you learn slow you end up counting and then when you try to speed up later you hit a wall and its a real pain to unlearn. i went through that myself years ago and honestly wish someone had told me earlier. for apps i'd say just pick one and stick with it, the jumping around is probably hurting you more than the app choice itself. LCWO dot net is what a lot of people use, its a web based thing and follows the Koch method pretty well. morse trainer apps are fine too but some of them let you go too slow which can reinforce the counting habit. the main thing honestly is just consistency, even 10-15 minutes a day beats doing an hour once a week. took me probably 4 months before i was making my first real QSOs on CW and they were rough but it works if you just keep at it

been running FT8 for about 6 months now and love how it pulls signals out of the noise but lately ive been hearing about JS8Call and wondering if its worth switching over or adding to my setup. seems like JS8 might be better for actual conversations instead of just grid square collecting? anyone made the jump and can compare the two for weak signal stuff running a 100w rig with a dipole at about 30ft if that matters

I had similar issues during our recent emergency exercise. Double-check your excluded frequency bands settings - if you don't have antennas for certain bands, make sure they're properly excluded or you'll get SWR issues. The automatic system tries all available gateways across multiple bands.