Michael Johnson

so i finally worked up the nerve to check into the tuesday evening 2m net on our local repeater, been listening for like 3 weeks just to get a feel for how it goes. the net control called for check-ins and i keyed up and just... went blank for a second. remembered my callsign and said it but then completely forgot to give my name and location like everyone else was doing. net control was super nice about it and just asked me for my info but i was pretty embarassed. is there like an unwritten script people follow for these things? i know every net is different but is there a general format i should learn? also is it rude to just listen and not check in, ive been doing that for weeks and wasnt sure if thats frowned upon

VARA FM makes a huge difference over AFSK so good call using that. just one thing i want to add — if you're testing with yourself, make sure you're actually doing a full disconnect and reconnect session to *receive*, not just checking the webmail. the webmail is fine but sometimes i've seen weird caching things where it doesn't refresh immediately. open a fresh session in Winlink Express and do an update and see if the message comes down that way. also the TM-V71A with signalink is a solid combo, had mine running for two years without issues. only gotcha i found was making sure the VOX delay on the signalink was set right so it wasnt cutting off the tail end of transmissions. might not be your issue here but worth double checking if you ever notice incomplete transfers

omg yes the 10 meter thing, I literally just got my general last month and my elmer told me to park on 28.400 and I thought he was messing with me at first because the band sounded dead. Then two days later I come back and its like a completely different band. worked my first DX ever, a station in Argentina, I was shaking a little not gonna lie. ham radio is wild sometimes. no idea about the icom thing im still just using a borrowed radio so im not in the market for anything fancy but it sounds cool from what you're describing

dude this is basically exactly where i am right now, ive been thinking about building something for months but keep putting it off. what kit did you use exactly, was it hard to source the parts? i tried looking up HB-1B and got kind of confused about which version to get. also did you need any special tools for the smd stuff or just a regular iron

honestly the baofeng hate is a little overblown in my opinion. yeah the menus are confusing at first but once you download chirp and just program it from your computer its totally manageable. i started with a UV-5R and used it for almost two years before i upgraded. it gets the job done for local repeaters no question. that said if you can stretch your budget even a little the yaesu FT-65 or even the FT-4XR is a noticeable step up in build quality and the audio really is better. the buttons feel more solid and it just feels like a real radio if that makes sense. but dont let anyone tell you the baofeng is unusable because its not, tons of people start there and its fine.

For PC the G4FON Koch Trainer comes highly recommended. As a Mac user I've not personally used this but it is widely used and has very good feedback. The contest trainer add-on is fantastic for simulating real pileup conditions with QSB/QRM. LCWO is great for online access but G4FON has more realistic audio conditions for serious practice.

so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, W6/NS-something up near Big Bear. been meaning to do one for like two years and kept putting it off. threw the KX2 in my pack with a 40m EFHW and just went for it. the hike was only about 3 miles but man that elevation really gets you when you're also lugging a battery and antenna gear. ended up making 11 contacts in maybe 25 minutes which i guess is enough to count, couple guys were really patient with my fumbling around trying to set up the sotawatch spot from my phone with barely any signal. ran the wire up into a pine tree which was a pain but it worked fine. whole setup with the radio and battery was maybe 4 lbs which felt like a lot more by mile 2. anyway just wanted to share cause i wasnt sure i was ready for it but it wasnt that bad at all. already looking at the next one

dont be embarrassed at all, everyone goes through this and honestly the net control folks have seen it all. the check-in format really does vary by net — some NCS operators ask for call, name, and location all in one go, others just want your call and then they'll ask for info if they need it. best thing to do is listen to a few check-ins before yours and just match what everyone else is doing. if youre still not sure, call sign only is always safe and the NCS will prompt you if they want more. on the breaking in thing — yeah generally in a formal net you want to wait until NCS opens it up for comments or asks if there are any stations with traffic. just jumping in mid-conversation can throw things off, especially on a traffic net where theyre trying to move messages efficiently. ragchew nets are way more relaxed about it though. traffic nets have a pretty specific flow — check in, pass your traffic when called, sign out. its not hard once you see it a couple times but it can feel stiff at first.

omg yes 10m has been crazy i got my technician like 8 months ago and everyone kept telling me to just be patient with HF and now im finally understanding what they meant lol. my elmer had me listen on 28.400 and there were like a dozen stations just chatting casually from all over the place. i didnt transmit yet because im still a little nervous about jumping into a pileup but just hearing it was so cool. didnt realize the solar cycle made such a huge differnce honestly.

Don't use the FT-847's built-in tracking feature for linear transponders. Do not use the satellite tracking built into your radio - let Ham Radio Deluxe do the work for you (for example on the FT-847 this is the Tracking option). I'd recommend switching to Ham Radio Deluxe or another modern tracking program that can handle proper CAT control.

so ive been messing around with an RTL-SDR v3 for about six months now, got it doing direct sampling on HF and its honestly not bad for what it is but im starting to feel the limitations especially below 10 MHz where the noise floor just gets ugly and the dynamic range issues are really obvious when theres a strong broadcast station nearby killing everything around it been looking at the RSP1B and the price is reasonable enough that im not totally scared off, but i keep going back and forth on whether the jump in ADC resolution (14-bit vs 8-bit effectively) is actually going to translate to something i notice in day to day use or if im just going to be paying for specs i cant really hear i mostly do utility monitoring, some amateur bands, occasional MW DX at night. not doing anything fancy. SDRuno seems fine from what ive seen in videos but i havent used it myself. anyone actually made this jump and have thoughts? or is there a reason people still just run with the RTL-SDR even when they can afford better

so I just passed my general back in March and got assigned a sequential call which is fine but honestly its kind of a mouthful and ive been looking into getting a vanity call. I went down a rabbit hole on the ULS system and now im more confused than when I started lol from what I can tell theres like a window period after you get licensed where you cant apply for a vanity? or maybe thats only for certain call districts? I genuinely cant figure out if I need to wait or if I can just go ahead and apply now. my current call is a KD9 something and I was hoping to maybe get a shorter one in a different district since I grew up in the southeast also does anyone know if the 1x2 or 2x1 formats are actually harder to get or is it just random luck in the lottery system. I keep seeing people talk about the lottery but then someone else told me its not really a lottery anymore? im so confused. any help appreciated

yeah the grounding thing is real, ive built a few of these and the ones that gave me hum problems were always the ones where i was sloppy about where grounds connected back to the main rail. like all your grounds should ideally star back to one point near the power input rather than daisy chaining across the board. also -- and this might sound obvious -- are you sure its 60hz hum and not something closer to 120? makes a difference in where you look. 60 would suggest magnetic pickup or a ground loop, 120 usually points to rectifier ripple sneaking through. if youre on a bench supply and it's regulated that second one should be minimal but not impossible depending on the supply. anyway sounds like youre close, hum is way better than no audio at all so you're definitely in the right neighborhood

so ive been a general for about two years now and honestly i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the extra. i use mostly HF, do some casual contesting, and i guess the main thing is i want those sub-bands that generals cant access. the 20m extra portion especially since thats where a lot of the DX seems to hang out from what ive seen. but every time i look at the question pool i get a little intimidated. like the stuff about transmission lines and impedance matching and filter theory... i passed my general without too much trouble but this feels like a different level. is it or am i overthinking it. does the actual exam test you in a way where you need to really understand the math or can you mostly just memorize the question pool and get through it also curious if people felt like they actually learned anything useful from studying for it or is it just trivia you forget the next day

yeah the buddipole on a tripod on 40m is gonna be rough, the feedpoint is like 4 feet off the ground and the whole radiation pattern is basically going straight up which is fine for NVIS but if your EOC liaison is more than 200 miles away you might struggle. inverted-V off a 30 or 33 foot mast is way better. the spiderbeam poles are good but if you want somthing a bit more packable the SOTAbeams poles are lighter and go up to about 10 meters. one thing i'd think about — if the site really doesn't allow stakes at all, you can guy the base of the pole to the trailer hitch of whatever vehicle you drove in. run three guys at 120 degrees and tie two of them to the bumper/hitch area and one to a car wheel. done it a bunch of times in parking lots. obviously you need a long enough feedline run but that's usually not a big deal.

ok so ive had my general for almost two years now and i keep telling myself im gonna actually learn CW properly but i never really committed to it. i can copy maybe 5wpm on a good day if the sending is clean and im not distracted but honestly that feels pretty useless for actually getting on the air and making contacts. i want to get to like 20wpm eventually. not in a rush necessarily but i feel like i've been stuck at 5 forever and i dont even know if im practicing the right way. right now i mostly just do the lcwo.net lessons and sometimes listen to W1AW code practice but i find myself counting dits and dahs which i know is wrong but i cant seem to stop doing it. is there a method that actually works for jumping from beginner speed to something useful? i heard the koch method is the way to go but im already past the character learning stage, i just need speed. does anyone have a routine that worked for them or am i just gonna have to grind through it slowly

so ive been thinking about making the drive out to Xenia again this year, went a few years back and had a blast but the parking situation was kind of a nightmare. wondering if anyone else from around here is planning to go and maybe wants to carpool or at least meet up at the fleamarket section in the morning before it gets too crowded. last time i scored a really clean HF rig for way under market price just by showing up early and walking the outside tables before the doors even opened inside. also does anyone know if the local club is doing a group thing again this year or did that fall apart like it did in 2022

so ive been chasing T32C for a while now and kept getting buried in the pileup every single time. tried the usual stuff, calling on their exact frequency, sending my call twice, whatever. nothing. just wall to wall QRM and i couldnt get a sniff. what finally clicked for me was actually listening to the DXpedition operator's rhythm before i even thought about transmitting. like really listening. they were clearly favoring certain parts of their receive window, i could tell because they kept coming back to stations ending certain frequencies. once i figured out roughly where they were pulling from i just camped maybe 2-3 kHz above where everyone else was piling in and waited for the right moment. also turned off my noise blanker for this because i found it was smearing my TX just slightly and making my signal sound worse than it was. dont know if that actually mattered but hey it worked. anyone else have specific techniques that actually get results? im on a tribander at about 45 feet so nothing special, running about 600w. curious what the split operating folks do different because that seems like an art form on its own.

yeah what he said about the generator is right, 1800w continuous gives you way more headroom than it sounds like. the surge capacity on those hondas is like 2200w so even if everything keys up at once youre probably okay. only time i ever tripped mine was running a big linear which you obviously arent doing. one thing i'll throw out - if you havent already, get a small battery buffer in there. like a 20-30ah LiFePO4 between the generator and your radio gear. smooths out any weirdness and if you need to kill the genny for a few minutes for refueling or whatever you dont lose the whole station. been doing that for years now and it just makes field ops way less stressful. the node will stay up, laptop stays up, you just swap fuel and start it back up. seems like overkill until the one time its not.

so ive been at this for about 4 months now and im sitting at somewhere around 10-11wpm depending on the day and how tired i am. started with the Koch method using lcwo.net back in january and honestly the first couple months felt like nothing was happening and then suddenly i could copy most of what i was hearing which was cool. the thing im struggling with now is that plateau between like 10 and 15wpm. i can hear individual characters fine but when it speeds up a little my brain just kind of freezes and i fall behind and then i lose the whole thing. ive been doing about 20-30 minutes a day on the site and also listening to W1AW practice transmissions when i can catch them. curious how long it took people to get to 20wpm and if there was anything specific that actually helped versus stuff that sounded good but didnt really do much. also wondering if i should just be doing more time per day or if its more about what kind of practice im doing

i was in the same spot like eight months ago, had no idea where to start. i ended up using the gordon west technician book which walks through everything in a pretty readable way, and then i supplemented with hamstudy to do practice exams. took me maybe three weeks before i was consistently scoring in the 90s on practice tests and i figured that was good enough. passed first try. the actual exam felt easier than the practice ones weirdly. one thing nobody told me beforehand — bring two forms of ID to the exam session, i almost got tripped up on that. also if your club does a licensing class those can be really helpful just to ask questions, i wish i had done one but the self study route worked fine too

honestly the general pool is not that bad once you get into it. i was in the same spot maybe two years ago, tech for about a year and then decided to just go for it. i used HamStudy dot org every day for maybe 3 weeks, like 20-30 minutes during lunch, and passed with a 91. the stuff that tripped me up was some of the band plan stuff and the operating practices questions, not the theory. the electrical theory questions look scary but theyre actually pretty formulaic, like if you just remember ohms law and a couple power formulas you can work most of them out. the propagation stuff is genuinely interesting once it clicks, like understanding why 40m is great at night but 10m opens up during solar max is actually cool. dont stress too much about the 62%, if youre consistently practicing the missed questions you will be there in a few weeks easy. and yeah once you get that general ticket and you tune across 40m on a friday night and hear all those contacts happening, its a completely different hobby almost

paper logging is what i still do and ive done like 60 activations. less to go wrong. i just transfer it when i get home and its usually only 10-30 contacts so its not a big deal. also dont forget you can try 20m if 40 gets slow, sometimes 40 is weird in the late morning depending on where you are.

oh wow okay so this is good timing because i just got my general license last month and have literally been sitting here wondering if my setup was broken because i wasnt hearing much for the first few weeks. then last weekend suddenly my whole radio came alive and i had no idea what was happening. so it was the band opening up, thats what that was. i worked my first DX station, a guy in colombia i think, and i was shaking a little honestly. didnt know if i was supposed to give my callsign again or wait or what but he came back to me and it worked out. this hobby is way more exciting than i expected

i had the same wind problem on my first one, ended up just draping the wire over a rock which worked surprisingly ok. also POTA might be worth trying if theres a park near you, way easier terrain usually and you can just sit in the parking lot if you have to haha