Jennifer Williams

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for contacts and the waterfall is satisfying to watch but i keep reading about JS8Call and how its supposed to be more like actual conversation over weak signal paths. finally installed it last week and honestly im a little confused about the workflow compared to WSJT-X. like the timing grid feels more relaxed which i get is the point but im not sure im decoding everything i should be.
for context im on a IC-7300 into a fan dipole in the attic, not ideal i know, and im usually running 25-30 watts because neighbors. on FT8 i can work 20m pretty reliably into europe from the midwest. on JS8Call im seeing stations but the decode rate feels lower, not sure if thats a config thing or just the nature of the mode. is there a setting im probably missing or is this just how it is and you kinda have to be patient with it.
also totally unrelated but does anyone still run PSK31 regularly, i fired up fldigi the other day just for nostalgia and there were actually a few guys on 14.070 which surprised me

yeah the missing balun is almost certainly your problem or at least a big part of it. without a choke balun at the feedpoint the coax shield becomes part of the radiating system and your analyzer is seeing a mix of the actual antenna impedance plus whatever common mode currents are doing. can throw your readings off enough to make a decent antenna look like a mess. honestly just wind yourself a quick ugly balun, like 8-10 turns of the coax in a coil about 6 inches diameter right at the feedpoint, even that'll make a noticeable difference before you go building something fancier.
the 150kHz low resonance is also pretty normal for an inverted-V vs a flat dipole. the formula 468/f is really for a flat dipole in free space and when you droop the legs you're effectively increasing the electrical length a bit. 45 degrees isnt super steep but it'll still shift things down some. try trimming maybe 6 inches off each leg and remeasure after you get that balun situation sorted. dont trim too much at once, easier to take wire off than put it back.

Yeah first activations can feel a little overwhelming but honestly once you get there and get assigned to a position it clicks pretty fast. The main thing is just show up early, check in with whoever is running the net control or the incident comms, and don't freelance. ICS stuff matters here, you work through your supervisor and you don't go making decisions on your own even if you think you know better. Most ECs will give you a specific position and frequency assignment so you're not just standing around guessing.
As for gear, always bring your own HT fully charged plus a spare battery if you have one. Bring a notepad and pen, people forget this constantly and it makes you look disorganized. I wouldn't haul out all your antenna gear unless your EC specifically asked for it, for an event like that most of the comms will be simplex or through a local repeater they've already coordinated. Just ask your EC ahead of time what the tactical frequencies are so you can program them in before you show up, saves a ton of headache on the day.
You'll do fine, honestly the first one is mostly just learning the rhythm of it.

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for contacts and the waterfall is satisfying to watch but i keep reading about JS8Call and how its supposed to be more like actual conversation over weak signal paths. finally installed it last week and honestly im a little confused about the workflow compared to WSJT-X. like the timing grid feels more relaxed which i get is the point but im not sure im decoding everything i should be.
for context im on a IC-7300 into a fan dipole in the attic, not ideal i know, and im usually running 25-30 watts because neighbors. on FT8 i can work 20m pretty reliably into europe from the midwest. on JS8Call im seeing stations but the decode rate feels lower, not sure if thats a config thing or just the nature of the mode. is there a setting im probably missing or is this just how it is and you kinda have to be patient with it.
also totally unrelated but does anyone still run PSK31 regularly, i fired up fldigi the other day just for nostalgia and there were actually a few guys on 14.070 which surprised me

i was in the same boat not that long ago honestly. what finally clicked for me was thinking of LoTW as the "serious" one for awards and eQSL as more of a fun/casual confirmation thing. i use both just because why not, takes like two seconds to upload to both after a session.
one thing nobody told me when i started — you can use TQSL to upload your logs to LoTW and a lot of logging software can do it automatically which is nice. and yeah definitely check your certificate situation because mine wasnt working for weeks and i couldnt figure out why, turned out i had the wrong date range set on it or something like that

yeah that freeze moment you described is super common and honestly the whole point of doing the exercises in the first place. i remember my first real activation (not even a drill, actual flooding event) and i had practiced plenty but the moment the EC handed me a formal message to relay i blanked on the ICS-213 format for like a solid minute. not great when people are waiting.
what helped me most was honestly just doing weekly nets consistently. not just checking in, but volunteering for net control whenever i could. handling traffic on the NTS nets is also really good practice because you're dealing with formal message format under a little bit of time pressure. its not the same as a disaster scenario obviously but the reps add up.
the other thing i do is every few months i just go sit in my car with my go-kit and pretend i drove somewhere and need to set up from scratch. no wifi, no looking stuff up, just me and the radio. you find out real fast what you actually know versus what you think you know.

the arrow antenna is solid for this, good choice. one thing i didnt see you mention is are you doing full duplex or are you transmitting and then switching to receive to hear yourself? if youre not doing full duplex that makes it way harder because you literally cant hear yourself while youre transmitting to correct in real time. the 818 can do it but you need two radios or a rig that supports split operation properly for sat work, a lot of guys use like an old VX-7R or something for the uplink and a separate receiver for downlink. just something to think about if thats the issue

so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just been doing VHF/UHF stuff, some APRS, helped out with a few public service events. but lately ive been really curious about HF and everyone keeps telling me i should just go get my General already. my question is how difficult is the exam compared to the tech exam because honestly the tech exam was not that bad but i remember studying for like 3 weeks and still feeling nervous going in.
i downloaded the question pool and just kind of skimmed it and some of it looks familiar but then there's stuff about like propagation and operating practices and some electrical theory that I'm not sure i ever really learned properly. is there a certain section that trips people up the most? i feel like the regulations part is gonna be the hardest for me personally but maybe im wrong. also do the HF privileges kick in right away after you pass or do you have to wait for the FCC to update your license or something