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yeah done something pretty similar with a 7300 and an arduino mega actually. the ci-v stuff isnt that bad once you get your head around it — its just serial at 9600 baud by default and the radio sends band change packets automatically if you enable it in the menu. i wrote a little state machine that listens for the frequency data and then fires the appropriate relay. took maybe a weekend to get working reliably. one thing ill say though — use an optocoupler between the arduino outputs and your relay board if youre switching anything with real RF nearby. had some really weird resets early on that turned out to be RF getting back into the arduino through the relay coils. common ground issue mostly but the optocouplers just killed the problem entirely. also put a flyback diode across each relay coil if your relay board doesnt already have them, some of the cheap ones from amazon dont bother. for your use case a nano is totally fine honestly. a pi would be overkill unless you want a web interface or logging or something. the nano boots in like 2 seconds and just works, no waiting for linux to come up.

yeah the hurry up and wait thing catches almost everyone off guard their first time out. i think a lot of people come in expecting it to be like a busy contest weekend where the radio never stops and its really not like that at all. the value you're providing is just being there and being ready, even when nothing is happening. sounds like your EC has a decent program going if you had ICS prereqs and regular nets before they activated you. some groups around here just throw people in with zero preparation and it shows. the welfare traffic surge you described is pretty typical for shelter ops, quiet quiet quiet then a family wants to pass a message and suddenly three more people are in line behind them. one thing i'd say for next time, bring something quiet to do during the slow stretches, a book or whatever, just something that doesnt distract you from the radio. i used to try to study for my Extra during long activations which was maybe not ideal but it kept me from going crazy

The Begali Adventure is the best portable set of paddles I've ever used. If you're serious about POTA and plan to do a lot of activations, invest in good equipment from the start. You'll appreciate the quality when you're tired and cold on a mountaintop!

so i finally joined my county ARES group about three months ago after getting my general last spring and ive been going to the monthly nets and trainings but we just got notified theres going to be an actual activation next weekend for a big 5k charity run they do every year in our area. the EC said they need people to man aid station positions and relay messages back to the EOC and honestly im kind of nervous. like i know the theory from the training sessions but actually doing it in a real situation with people counting on you is different right my setup is pretty basic, just my HT and a spare battery pack, but our EC mentioned something about bringing a go bag. i dont really have a proper go bag put together yet, not sure if that matters for something like this or if its more for like actual disasters. also not sure what the net control expectations are since ive only ever called in on the weekly check-in nets. anyone done something like this before and can give me a heads up on what it actually looks like day of?

Running a similar setup here with excellent results. Key point: enable "Simulate Internet Outage" mode rather than just disconnecting your network. This puts RMS Relay in the proper state for HF forwarding. Also monitor your HF forwarding logs - they'll show exactly why messages aren't being forwarded. Usually it's a configuration issue, not propagation.

this is making me want to get more involved with our local ARES group honestly. ive been licensed for about a year and a half and i keep meaning to show up to meetings but life gets in the way. the go-kit interoperability thing you mentioned is something i wonder about too — like i have a basic setup but i have no idea if it would actually play nice with what everyone else is running. do most groups have like a standard config you're supposed to follow or is it kind of whatever people bring

As a newer ham, this is exactly the kind of technical detail I need to understand! Is the 2.1:1 VSWR harmful to my radio, or just inefficient? I'm hesitant to drill my car roof but want good performance. Would a mag mount on the roof be a good compromise for testing before committing to the permanent mount?

ok so i finally got my technician license about 3 weeks ago and ive been listening to the local 2m net on tuesday nights for a couple weeks now just to get a feel for it. the net control guy seems really friendly and i think im ready to actually check in but im honestly not sure what im supposed to say when he calls for check-ins. like do i just say my callsign and wait? do i say my name too? i dont want to step on anyone or do it wrong and embarass myself in front of everyone. theres probably like 15-20 people on this net every week so its a bit nerve wracking. any advice would be great

so i finally did my first ever WWFF activation last weekend, been meaning to try it for ages after stumbling across it online. picked a local nature reserve about 45 mins from home, KFF-something i had to look up the reference number on the wwff.world site the night before. packed up the FT-891 and a wire antenna, threw the whole thing in a backpack and drove out saturday morning. the operating part went fine honestly, made my 44 contacts easy enough on 40m mostly with a few on 20m. but i completely forgot to look up what the actual activation threshold was beforehand so i was just guessing — turns out 44 is more than enough but i was up to like 30 contacts before i even thought to check haha. also my logging was a mess, i was just scribbling in a notebook and trying to keep up with a small pileup which i was NOT expecting at all for a random nature reserve in the middle of nowhere. uploading to the wwff database afterwards was a bit confusing too, first time using it. anyone have a good workflow for this stuff? like do most people use an app in the field or just paper and transfer later? and is there a way to know ahead of time if a reference has been activated recently or if its kind of rare

i went through this exact thing last year and ended up doing both which probably isnt what you want to hear lol. dipole went up first because it was easy, then i spent about three weekends laying radials for a vertical. the vertical does seem to hear better on the low angle stuff, had a few contacts where i could barely hear something on the dipole and switched over and they were much clearer. but the dipole is quieter in terms of noise floor at my QTH so for rag chewing i usually leave it there anyway. if your lot only allows one antenna i'd probably do the dipole just to get on the air and not stress about it

Been running my contest station with basic #12 equipment grounds for years with zero RF issues. The real problem is usually common-mode currents on the feedline, not inadequate station grounding. Fix the source, not the symptoms.

i dont know, maybe its the weather changing or something but ive been spending way more time just hanging out on 40m in the evenings lately. not chasing dx or doing any contests, just ragchewing with whoever shows up. had a solid 45 minute chat with a guy in ohio last night about absolutely nothing ham radio related and it was great. reminded me why i got into this in the first place honestly anyway just wanted to share that. sometimes its nice to just sit there with a cup of coffee and a modest wire antenna and not care about signal reports

HamAlert is the one i always tell people about. free, works great, you just set up triggers for whatever entities or bands you want and it does the work for you. saved me a bunch of missed ones already

Ground conductivity at your operating site makes a huge difference with the GP. On good soil, the GP wins hands down. On rock or poor ground, the vertical dipole often performs as well or better. I'd suggest trying the dipole - you can always go back to the GP if needed.

yeah what he said about the ADC depth is the real thing people gloss over. 8 bit on the HackRF means youre gonna see compression on strong signals way sooner. i actually went RTL-SDR to HackRF and then ended up getting an RSP2 anyway because the HackRF just wasnt cutting it for serious HF monitoring. now the HackRF sits on the shelf mostly. SDRuno isnt that bad once you get used to it but i get it, SDR++ is just cleaner. works fine with the RSP stuff now

so ive been on HF for about a year now, mostly on 40m SSB, and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds 'boxy' or 'in a barrel' which i've heard is a common thing but cant figure out what's causing it. my setup is an IC-7300 with the stock mic and im running it mostly default settings out of the box. i did mess with the TX bandwidth a little bit trying to narrow it down thinking that would help with interference but maybe that made it worse? also i noticed some guys on the band sound absolutely crystal clear like they're in a studio and others sound like they're calling from underwater. is that mostly the mic or is there more to it than that. i dont have a $500 mic or anything, just wondering if theres settings i should be looking at first before i spend money

Take several practice exams - you get a good idea on what sections make up the bulk of the exam. After several of these, you'll start to see repeat questions and get a feel for the actual exam. I used a free phone app that tracked my progress.

honestly just use HamStudy.org and grind through the question pool. the tech pool is only like 400ish questions and the actual test pulls from those exact questions word for word so once you recognize them youre basically set. i studied for maybe 10 days doing like 20-30 questions a day and passed with a 90something. the ARRL book is great but its way more than you need just to pass the test. for the math stuff, yeah theres some ohms law questions and maybe a few decibel calculations but its not a huge chunk of the exam. if you can remember E=IR and do basic multiplication youll be fine. the license rules and band privileges are honestly where a lot of people trip up so dont skip that section. once you start getting 85 percent or higher consistently on the practice exams you're probably ready to go find a VE session near you

Our ARES group is planning to deploy cross-band repeaters for an upcoming exercise in hilly terrain where HT coverage is marginal. We'll be using dual-band mobiles to link 70cm simplex with our 2m repeater system. What are the key configuration points to avoid interference and ensure reliable operation? Particularly interested in: CTCSS tone strategy for both sidesPower level recommendationsFrequency coordination between multiple cross-band units

Setting up a Pi 4 as a dedicated contest automation controller to interface with my main Windows N1MM+ logging station. Goal is to handle antenna switching (SteppIR controller), band following for amplifier, and automatic recording of audio for later review. Using Ham-Pi distribution with additional Python scripts for serial control of antenna controller and RF switching matrix. FLRIG handles CAT control of the IC-7610, works perfectly with N1MM+ via TCP/IP. The trickiest part has been getting reliable PTT timing — there's about 50ms delay in the chain that's causing issues with voice keyer timing in rapid-fire contest exchanges. Anyone solved similar latency problems in Pi-based automation systems? Also wondering about best practices for integrating GPIO-controlled relay drivers with contest software timing requirements.

yeah this sounds really familiar honestly. we went through something similar a few years back and the biggest lesson for us was that the paperwork side — message forms, logging, all of that — completely falls apart when people are stressed and improvising. we actually started doing monthly 30-minute nets that are just focused on one specific skill, like one month is just formal traffic passing, next month is just simplex fallback procedures, that kind of thing. nothing fancy but it keeps the muscle memory there. the frequency programming thing is such a common problem and it basically comes down to having one person own that job and everyone knowing who that person is. we have a standing rule that if you havent checked in with the comms officer in the 60 days before a drill your radio gets checked before you're assigned anywhere. sounds rigid but it stopped that problem cold for us. the tabletop idea is good too, we do those in the winter when nobody wants to stand outside and they're actually pretty useful for the newer folks who havent been through a real activation. gets them thinking about the scenarios without the pressure of being on the air in front of everyone.

i went through the exact same thing when i first got on repeaters lol. turns out i had my offset backwards for like two weeks and had no idea. finally someone heard me on a different repeater and helped me figure it out. once you get checked into the repeater and people know you're new they're usually pretty helpful, at least around here people are. the courtesy tone thing is real and people do notice if you jump in before it. nothing that'll get you in trouble but its just good practice and shows you know whats going on.

i was in the exact same spot about a year ago and ended up with the uv-5r first just because of the price and honestly it was fine for learning the basics. programmed it with CHIRP after watching a youtube video and had it talking to the county repeater within like an hour. yeah the build feels a little cheap but mine is still working. that said i did upgrade to a yaesu ft-70dr a few months later and the difference in audio clarity and how easy it is to just use the thing without digging through menus is really noticable. if i was doing it over id probably just start with the ft-70 and skip the middle step, but i get that not everyone wants to spend that much when theyre not sure if theyll stick with the hobby

I've been experimenting with different transmit audio bandwidth settings on my IC-7300 and getting mixed feedback from other stations. Currently running 100Hz-2700Hz passband, but wondering if I should narrow it down to reduce splatter on busy contest weekends. What bandwidth settings are you all using for SSB phone? Also curious about the trade-offs between audio quality versus spectrum efficiency - seems like there's quite a debate on whether wider is always better.

i was in the exact same spot like 8 months ago lol. i ended up going with a baofeng uv-5r just because it was cheap and i wasnt sure if id stick with it. it works fine for what it is but programming it without chirp software is kind of a nightmare so just download chirp right away and save yourself the headache if i was doing it again i'd probably spend a little more and get the ft-65 or even look at the ft-4xr. but the baofeng got me on the air which was the whole point so no regrets really