Jessica Nakamura

so ive been licensed about two years now and for most of that time i was just doing local stuff and some casual HF but lately ive gotten really into DX and someone at my club mentioned i should look into DXCC and now im kind of obsessed with the idea but also completely confused by the whole system like i understand the basic concept, work 100 entities and you get the award, but the credit submission part is where i get lost. do i need QSL cards for every single contact or can i use LoTW confirmations? and what about WAS and WAZ, are those totally separate programs you track independently or does some of the logging overlap? i have like 40-something entities confirmed on LoTW already from stuff i worked without even thinking about it and i didnt realize i could have been submitting credits this whole time also someone mentioned mixed mode vs phone only vs digital only awards and now my head is spinning. any of you guys who have been through this process willing to give a basic rundown? im not looking for a shortcut just trying to understand how the machinery works before i really commit to chasing this seriously

the collinear route is probably more practical for a mobile install honestly. a properly made 5/8 over 5/8 colinear will give you real measurable gain over a 1/4 wave and you dont have the directional problem. the cheap mag mounts usually have terrible ground planes and lossy coax too so theres a lot of low hanging fruit before you start bolting yagis to your roof rack. that said i ran a 2el tape measure yagi zip tied to a broom stick on my rear window once just to hit a distant repeater during a road trip and it actually worked great for that specific use case lol. but yeah for everyday mobile use get a decent antenna with a good mount, run LMR-400 or equivalent to the radio, and make sure your ground plane is solid. that alone might solve your 65 mile problem without doing anything exotic.

the spot on the split thing took me forever to figure out too. i always just tuned to whatever the cluster said and called with everyone else. complete waste of time on big ones. one thing i'd add is antenna polarization on ssb — i've had good luck when conditions were weird just rotating my yagi slightly off what i thought was optimal and suddenly the dx could hear me fine. not sure if that's real or just confirmation bias honestly but it happened enough times i keep doing it

20 has definitely been hit or miss lately. I think we're starting to see the downward trend in the solar cycle. Been hearing more activity on 17 during the day though, might want to give that a try if your antenna works there. Also check the solar indices - I noticed the SFI has been dropping the past couple weeks

Field Day 2025 is June 28-29 with the "Radio Connects" theme, and 1067 sites are already listed on the station locator. Now's the time to check and double-check everything - gear, accessories, power chain from generator to all cables. What's that one thing everyone forgets until Saturday morning? I'm thinking coax adapters, spare fuses, and backup mic cables. Also planning our "Radio Connects" public outreach - we want to share the joy and community of amateur radio with people who may not get this chance often.