Rachel Martinez

also just to add - i was in the same boat when i started and one thing that tripped me up was that some repeaters around here are linked into systems like IRLP or Allstar and they have like weird quirks where theres a delay before the repeater lets you in or theres a special tone sequence you gotta send first. worth checking if the repeater has a website or a club behind it, usually theres info on there about how it all works and if theres any linking stuff going on

oh man i had the exact same problem when i first got my radio, spent like two weeks thinking my HT was broken because i could hear the repeater fine but it was like i was invisible. turns out i had encode turned off completely. once i figured out where that setting was buried in the menu it was fine. one thing i'll add — some linked repeater systems are a little tricky because when your signal gets relayed across the link there can be a slight delay before you actually hear yourself come back through. so sometimes i thought nobody heard me but they actually did, i was just being impatient and keying up again. the linked machines that go through Echolink or IRLP or whatever sometimes have like a half second or full second delay before you hear the tail. just something to keep in mind if you start noticing weirdness on certain machines.

im in basically the same boat as you, been with our RACES group for about 6 months and havent been activated yet. this is actually really helpful to read because i was kind of imagining it being way more intense than maybe it is. did your EC give you a specific assignment before you showed up or did you just figure it out when you got there? thats one thing im not sure about for our group, like how formal the check-in process is supposed to be

so ive been running a casual 40m net on wednesday evenings, 7.245 MHz around 8pm local (eastern), been going for about 6 months now and we usually get maybe 8-12 check-ins depending on conditions. its a traffic-free net, just casual ragchew style with a loose topic each week, nothing formal. lately though propagation has been kinda rough and we've had a few wednesdays where only 4 or 5 stations checked in which feels a little thin. im wondering if anyone here participates in nets regularly and has any suggestions for getting the word out more, or honestly just if you want to come check in some wednesday. we also try to do something a little special around holidays, last december we had a special event style format where people shared shack stories and it went over really well. also curious if anyone knows of other casual nets running on similar frequencies mid-week, dont want to step on anything that's already established in that part of the band.

honest answer — SO2R helped me way more when conditions were mediocre than when they were great. when the bands are hot you're making contacts fast enough on one radio that the second one almost gets in the way until you really have the muscle memory down. but in a slow period where you're running 20m and it starts to dry up, being able to flip over and work a few guys on 15 without losing your run frequency is huge. that's where the rate really shows up in the log i used the microham MK2R for a long time and it's solid but yeah it's not cheap. a buddy of mine built something with a pair of bandpass filters and a homebrew switching setup that works surprisingly well for a fraction of the cost, but it took him a while to get the isolation right so he wasnt blowing up his front ends. if you already have the 7300 sitting there i'd honestly just try it with some decent bandpass filters first before dropping money on a controller and see if the two-radio workflow even clicks for you

yeah im going, booked the hotel like 3 months ago because last year i waited too long and everything near the arena was already gone. the flea market is honestly the best part, i picked up a barely used 706 for way under market value two years back. just walk the whole thing before you buy anything, prices drop a lot by sunday afternoon when guys dont want to haul stuff back home

welcome to the club, the waiting thing is no joke. i've been with our county ARES group for probably 6 years now and some activations are wall to wall traffic and some you basically just prove the link works and sit there. both are valuable honestly, EOC needs to know the comms path is solid even if they end up not needing it much. one thing i'd add — if your group doesnt already do tabletop exercises between real events, maybe suggest it to your EC. we started doing quarterly tabletops and it made a huge difference in how people handle the actual thing. stuff like simulated message traffic, practicing formal NTS-style messages if your group uses those, figuring out who's actually comfortable with what roles. a lot of guys show up to the real activation not sure if they're supposed to be handling ICS forms or just relaying voice traffic and that confusion costs time. also i keep a change of clothes and a small thing of instant coffee in my bag now. learned that the hard way after a 14 hour winter shelter assignment. just saying.

so ive been working on this DC receiver for about two months now, based loosely on the old Neophyte design but i changed out a few parts because i couldnt source the exact transistors. the thing actually receives, which honestly surprised me after the first power-on smoke test (lost a 7805 but whatever). im getting signal, SSB is kinda intelligible, CW is decent actually. the problem is this low frequency hum that gets into everything. its not 60hz exactly, sounds lower maybe, and it pulses kind of rhythmically. i checked my power supply filtering and added another 1000uf cap across the rails which helped a tiny bit but its still there. the LO is running off a NE602 with a colpitts oscillator and i wonder if the oscillator is coupling into the audio stage somehow. my layout is pretty rough, just point to point on some perf board. anyone dealt with this before? im not sure if its RF getting rectified somewhere or if its just my grounding being a mess. probably the grounding honestly.

so ive been licensed about 3 years now and done a fair bit of HF but mostly just ragchewing and the occasional contest. lately ive been getting more into DX and i think i want to actually go for DXCC properly. i have maybe 60-70 countries confirmed on lotw already just from random contacts i never really paid attention to, which is kind of exciting actually. my question is more about how the whole credit submission process works. like i know you need 100 confirmed entities but do all the confirmations have to come from lotw or can you still use paper QSLs? and is there a fee every time you want to get credits added or is it more like a one time thing. also what about WAS and WAZ, are those handled the same way through ARRL or is WAZ a separate thing through some other org. i feel like ive been ignoring all this paperwork side of the hobby and now im trying to catch up and its a bit overwhelming honestly.

the gateway timeout thing drove me insane when i was first setting up vara hf. one thing i dont see mentioned much is that vara HF full vs the free version makes a pretty noticeable difference in marginal conditions, the free version tops out at like 700 bps i think and the paid one gets way higher throughput which matters a lot when propagation isnt cooperating. not saying you need to buy it right away but if you find yourself doing this regularly its probably worth it. also check that your audio levels going into vara are set right, i had mine slightly too hot for a long time and it was causing all kinds of weird connection failures that looked like propagation problems but were actually just clipping on the tx audio. theres a built in ALC indicator in vara, keep it in the green.

so ive been working on my morse code for about a year now, started from basically zero and got up to around 13wpm which felt great at the time but now i just cant seem to push past it. like i'll be copying along fine and then i hit a word i dont recognize instantly and my whole brain just locks up and i fall behind and then i'm lost for the next 30 seconds trying to catch up. i've been using the LCWO site mostly, some jt65 ops in my club told me to just listen to actual QSOs on 40m but honestly i can barely make out what people are sending at that speed. somebody else told me i need to do the Koch method properly but i thought i was already doing that? not sure what im doing wrong or if this is just a plateau everyone hits. did anyone else get stuck around here and actually make it through to 20wpm? curious how long it took and what actually worked

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and honestly its great for chasing DX and filling the log but it kind of feels hollow after a while you know? like youre just exchanging signal reports and grid squares and thats it. read about JS8Call a while back and finally installed it last week and i gotta say its a different experience entirely — you can actually type sentences to people which sounds obvious but its a big deal after FT8 where the protocol basically wont let you say anything meaningful. the tradeoff is real though. JS8Call is way slower and the SNR requirements arent quite as brutal as FT8 but its not like you can work -24 dB stations either. i was running it on 40m last night around 0200z and there were maybe a dozen guys active in my region, compared to the wall of signals on 7.074. so its a quieter experience in both senses of the word. curious if anyone here runs both regularly and how you split your time between them. also wondering if PSK31 is even worth going back to at this point or if its basically dead on most bands. i fired it up on 20m last weekend and found maybe 3-4 signals the whole session which was kind of depressing compared to what it used to be.

so i've been mostly a 40m and 80m guy for the past couple years because honestly the higher bands just seemed dead whenever i checked. but yesterday afternoon i spun the dial up to 10m kind of on a whim and it was absolutely packed. worked a couple stations in south america and even heard some europeans coming through which i haven't done in forever on that band. checked the solar flux index after and it was sitting around 180 something which i guess is pretty high? i'm still kind of learning how all that stuff connects — like i know higher SFI generally means better HF propagation but i dont really have a feel for what numbers mean what. is 180 considered exceptional or is that just like normal solar max territory? and how do i know when to actually go look at 10m vs just assuming its dead also curious if anyone knows if 12m and 15m have been opening up too, i never really work those bands but maybe i should start paying more attention

so i was at work all day and kept checking dxmaps on my phone and 10m looked absolutely bonkers — stations from south america, europe, all over the place showing up and i was stuck in meetings until like 7pm and by the time i got home and fired up the rig the band was basically dead. typical. anyway this got me thinking about how i should actually be tracking the solar flux more consistently instead of just randomly checking when i happen to remember. i've been licensed about 8 months and i still don't really have a good feel for how to predict when conditions are going to be good. like i understand the basics — higher sfi means better HF propagation especially on the higher bands — but i dont really know how to look at a day and go "yeah tonight or tomorrow morning is gonna be good for DX." is there a good resource or just some rules of thumb people use? also does the A and K index actually matter as much as people say or is it more of a secondary thing

yeah you basically have it right. the RMS gateway is just a relay — it has an internet connection and when you connect to it over RF, it passes your session through to one of the CMS nodes. there are a handful of CMS servers geographically spread out and they all stay in sync so it genuinely doesnt matter which RMS you hit, your inbox follows you. if you connected through a gateway in your area yesterday and then someone replies, you can pick that message up through a completely different gateway today, no issues. for the HF side — Vara HF is the way to go these days honestly, Winmor kind of fell out of favor. but you need a decent soundcard interface and your levels have to be dialed in or youre gonna have a bad time. pactor is obviously better performance wise but the modem costs a small fortune so most people dont bother unless they're doing serious emcomm or maritime stuff. if you can get Vara HF working on 20m or 40m you can hit a gateway pretty much anywhere in the country from most locations in the US.

i passed mine last month and the memorize the answers approach actually works fine for passing but yeah you'll feel lost once you actually try to get on a repeater and dont know what youre doing lol. i used the gordon west technician book and it was pretty readable, not dry like some study guides. the part about frequencies and band plans took me the longest honestly. good luck

so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and im starting to drive myself crazy. currently running a 40m dipole at about 25 feet, fed with coax, works okay but i feel like im leaving something on the table especially on DX. a buddy of mine keeps telling me to just put up a vertical and call it a day because of the low angle radiation but i dunno, every time i look into it the ground loss thing starts to worry me. i dont have a great spot for a radial field — backyard is pretty small and my XYL already has opinions about the garden beds. the dipole does fine for stateside stuff and i can work some DX when conditions cooperate but i feel like signals are kind of middling. is it worth the hassle of switching or should i just try to get the dipole up higher if i can. the support situation is kind of awkward, i have one decent tree and a fence post thats... not that sturdy. not really looking to put up a beam, at least not yet, just trying to figure out which direction makes more sense before i spend money on wire or a vertical. anyone been through this same decision

so ive been on SSB for about two years now and honestly my audio has always been kind of mediocre. people can copy me fine but ive gotten a few comments about it sounding a little thin or distant, one guy said i sounded like i was in a tunnel which... not great. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which should be a pretty solid combo by most accounts but something isnt clicking. ive read a bunch about compression settings, the bass and treble rolloff stuff, keeping TX bandwidth somewhere around 2.4-2.8khz for good intelligibility without splattering everywhere. i think my levels are ok, im peaking around -10 to -15 on the ALC which i thought was the right ballpark but maybe im wrong. mic gain is at like 55% on the radio. anyone have thoughts on what actually moves the needle for SSB audio quality vs what people just argue about endlessly? like is the compressor on the 7300 actually useful or does it just make things worse if you dont set it up right. genuinely curious what experienced ops have found vs what just sounds good on paper

yeah so the single yagi thing is technically true but heavily depends on who you're working. there are stations running 4x10 element yagis and kilowatts that will pull out weaker signals than you'd think possible with JT65, so if you get in the log with one of those guys running 200-400w and two yagis it can happen. my first EME contact was with OH2PO back when i had 4x9el yagis and about 600w, and even that felt marginal at times. the path loss on 2m EME is something like 252dB on a good day and JT65B gives you maybe 28-30dB over CW so the math does work out but you're really at the mercy of the other stations antenna and preamp situation. on the NF question — honestly at 2m the difference between 0.3 and 0.5 is probably not going to change your life but going from a 1.0dB preamp to a 0.5dB unit actually does show up. where it really matters is getting the preamp physically as close to the feed as possible. coax loss before the LNA kills you way more than 0.2dB of noise figure difference. i run a mast-mounted MGF1302 based preamp right at the feedpoint and that made a bigger difference than any other single change i made. also moon noise — yes sky noise varies but at 144MHz the moon itself isnt that noisy compared to HF galactic noise so you still have a decent system noise window to work with if youre pointed away from the galactic center

i was in almost exactly your situation two years ago and i will say — dont overthink it. the first contest i ever did solo i made like 47 contacts and thought i was doing terrible but afterward i was completely hooked and now i barely miss a major contest weekend. something about the rhythm of it just clicks after a few hours. one thing i'd add about SOTA — it helped me get comfortable just operating in general, keying up, making quick contacts, dealing with pileups from the chaser side. but contesting is its own skill set. they complement each other more than compete. if theres an activation happening near you before CQ WW weekend that might actually be a nice low-pressure warmup for just getting reps in on the radio. also check if your club is doing any kind of group effort for CQ WW, a lot of clubs put together multi-op stations and that could be a good middle ground between watching like you did at Field Day and going full solo

i did my first checkin like 6 weeks ago and was so nervous lol but honestly the net control guy was super friendly and kinda walked me through it when i fumbled. traffic nets are a bit more structured if you ever wanna try those, theres a whole formal process for passing messages, but a rag chew net is pretty much just people saying hi and chatting. also keep an eye out for special event stations if you want something fun, there was one last month for a local museum and you could get a certificate for making contact, stuff like that is posted on the arrl website sometimes

so i finally got activated for the first time last weekend, our county ARES group got called out to support a pretty bad flooding situation about 30 miles east of town. ive been a member for like 8 months and done all the training nets and the ICS-100 and 200 courses online but nothing really prepared me for just... how different it feels when its actually real. the EC had us set up at the EOC and i was assigned to handle traffic between the shelter at the high school and the county emergency manager. seemed straightforward but the volume of messages got pretty heavy around hour 4 and i started second guessing my message handling, like was i using the right format, should i be logging timestamps differently, stuff like that. nobody complained but i kept feeling like i was just barely keeping up. anyway it went okay i think. just curious if other people felt kind of lost their first time out even after doing all the training. also wondering if there's stuff you wish you'd practiced more before your first real activation

so ive been running a little nagoya mag mount on the roof of my car for about a year now and it works ok but im getting paranoid about it scratching the paint and also it slides around a little when i make sharp turns which im sure isnt great for the coax either. been thinking about switching to a trunk lip mount but i honestly dont know if theyll work as well on a regular sedan vs like an SUV or pickup. im running a yaesu ft-7900r into a dual band antenna, mostly just hitting local repeaters and occasionally doing some simplex stuff on 2m during nets. anyone have experience with trunk lip mounts on a car with a short trunk? my trunk lid is pretty sloped so im not sure how well it would clamp on. also curious if theres a ground plane issue i should worry about since the antenna would be off to the side instead of centered on the roof. i know in theory centered is always better but figured id ask people who have actually done this in the real world.

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, got a few nice DX QSOs in the log and some decent stateside stuff too. but i honestly have no idea what the proper way to confirm all this is. like i know about QSL cards, my elmer from the club has a whole wall of them which is super cool, but then theres LoTW and eQSL and i cant figure out if i need all of them or just one or what. i signed up for eQSL a while back and i think i have some confirmations in there but i havent really looked at it in months. never set up LoTW because the whole TQSL certificate thing looked really confusing when i tried to read about it. is LoTW actually worth the hassle? and do people still bother mailing physical cards or is that kind of a dying thing now? also do any of the major awards like DXCC actually accept eQSL or is it just LoTW? i want to eventually go for some awards but i dont want to put in all this effort logging stuff and then find out my confirmations dont count for anything

This sounds like insufficient front-end filtering. The Band Pass Filter should reject everything above and below your target band. A 40m BPF with sharp skirts is essential for direct conversion work - the mixer sees everything your antenna picks up.