Rachel Martinez

honestly might just be a bonding issue with the truck body. i ran into something similar and spent weeks chasing RF problems before someone told me to just bond the hood and trunk lid (or in your case the bed) with braided ground straps. made a huge difference on my install. not saying thats definitely your problem but its worth checking before you start moving the antenna around.

yeah youre mostly right on those. QSL is confirmed/acknowledged, QRZ is who is calling me, QRM is man-made interference (like from another station or electrical noise from humans), QRN is natural static like from thunderstorms, and QSB is signal fading. theres honestly a ton of them and nobody memorizes all of them, you just pick up the common ones over time from being on the air. the reason people say them out loud on phone is just tradition, goes back to CW days when they were used as shorthand in morse to save time. some of the old timers still default to them even on SSB just out of habit. theres a full ITU list online if you want to look them up but honestly you only ever hear maybe 15-20 of them regularly. QTH is your location, QSY means change frequency, QRT means shutting down or going off the air. those three come up all the time. just listen for a while and itll click pretty fast

honest answer — it depends a lot on your antennas and how serious you want to get. the interstation interference is real and if you dont have decent separation between your antennas or good bandpass filters you will absolutely hear your own radio 2 on radio 1 and vice versa. i tried it with two dipoles in different directions and it was a mess until i got a pair of 4O3A filters. after that it was actually usable. for the rate question, yeah at 600-700 qsos SO2R probably wont magically push you to 1200 because rate optimization is more about knowing when to run vs S&P, when to move a multiplier, when to give up on a dead band and switch. SO2R helps a lot when you can keep a run going on one band and snipe mults on another but you have to be mentally ready to manage two radios simultaneously which sounds easy and is not. i remember my first SO2R contest i was so focused on the second radio that i let my run frequency die completely. its like rubbing your head and patting your stomach at first. the N1MM integration with a microHAM or even a homebrew SO2R box is actually pretty solid once its configured. worth doing if you have the gear already sitting there, just go in with low expectations for the first couple contests while you learn to drive it

I've had my 857D for going on 8 years and never cracked it open, partly scared to mess something up and partly because it's been working fine for what I do. But the filter thing is tempting, on a crowded 40m SSB night it does feel a little mushy compared to my older 706. Maybe a dumb question but do you need any special tools or just normal JIS screwdrivers and steady hands

had something similar happen to my 857 couple years back. turned out to be a bad diode in the rf board, think it was d1015 or something like that. you getting any noise at all on 20m or totally dead? if its completely silent might be worth checking the bandpass filters first before digging into the mixer circuits

oh man i went through this exact same thing when i was first getting into DX, felt like i was always showing up to an empty party lol. one thing that helped me was the DX Summit site which is basically another cluster aggregator — some people swear by it over DXwatch just because the filtering options feel a bit more intuitive, i dunno its personal preference really. also clublog has a neat thing where you can see live activity stats for a particular DXCC entity which helps you figure out when a station is likely to be most active. havent used DX Toolkit personally but i think it might be an older app, might be worth checking out the App Store reviews and seeing when it was last updated. there are a few others on android that work ok, i forget the names offhand but if you search ham dx cluster on the play store a couple decent ones come up. the HRD integration route the other guy mentioned is probably the cleaner solution if you're already on that platform though.

so ive been trying to check into that sunday morning net on 40m for like 3 weeks now and nobody's there. used to be around 14.240 at 0800 local but now i just hear static. did they move or am i missing something? the old timer who used to run it was KB4something but i dont remember his full call

the id thing is only when you transmit, not when youre just listening. you dont even have to id at all if you never key up. the 10 minute rule applies during a qso and then once more at the end. so if you have a 45 minute ragchew you'd id roughly every 10 mins during it and then once more when you sign off. pretty straightforward once it clicks. the business comms thing trips a lot of new hams up. basically you cant use the radio to conduct or facilitate actual business transactions or to do stuff that would normally cost money if you did it through normal channels. two hams deciding to meet for coffee isnt a violation even if they're both operators at the same club or whatever. where it gets gray is like if you own a business and you're using the radio to coordinate employees or take orders or something like that. thats when you're in trouble. as for how strict the fcc is... honestly they dont have a ton of enforcement resources and most stuff gets handled through complaints from other hams first. that doesnt mean you should push it but casual mistakes arent gonna land you in federal court. just try to operate in the spirit of the rules and you'll be fine.

not a dumb question at all, the band charts can be confusing because some of them are outdated or just wrong. the ARRL website has a PDF that gets updated and thats probably your best bet for an accurate one. for 40m phone as a general youre looking at 7.175 to 7.300 MHz, the extra class guys get a bit more down toward 7.125. on power — yeah 1500 watts is the general max under part 97.313 but theres a catch, you're supposed to use the minimum power necessary to make the contact. nobody really runs legal limit all the time anyway and on 40m with an IC-7300 youre probably fine at 100 watts for most things. just stay in your allocation and you'll be good. the FCC isnt out there hunting down new generals for accidentally wandering 2 kHz.

so i was reading through the ARRL bulletin this morning and apparently theres some proposed changes coming to the 60 meter band allocation, something about additional channels being considered for coordination with international agreements. i might be misreading it honestly, the wording in those FCC documents always makes my head spin a little. also noticed Icom apparently teased something on their social media last week, looks like it might be a new handheld or a lower cost HF rig — the photo was super blurry and people are going nuts in the comments speculating. anybody seen anything more concrete about that? on the propagation front, the 10 and 12 meter bands have been absolutely wild lately. worked a station in South Africa yesterday on 10m with just my vertical and 100 watts, couldnt believe it. solar flux has been running pretty high and it shows. feels like solar cycle 25 is really starting to deliver now, way better than the last couple years for sure. anyway just wanted to see if anyone else is keeping up with all this stuff. feels like a lot happening at once in the hobby right now which is kind of exciting.

So I finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend, been meaning to do one for ages after lurking on the WWFF groups online. Picked a state forest about 45 minutes from home, KFF reference, packed up the FT-818 and my linked dipole and hiked in maybe a mile or so to a decent clearing. First thing I underestimated was how long it takes to get 44 contacts. I know POTA only needs 10 so I kind of assumed it wouldnt be that different but wow. Took me about 3.5 hours on 40m and 20m combined. Signals were decent but I kept losing the pileup and had to call CQ for stretches that felt like forever. Also forgot to post a spot before I left the car so the first hour was pretty slow until someone spotted me. But honestly? The whole experience was great. Sitting out there in the woods with headphones on, birds going nuts around me, it's kind of hard to explain to non-hams why it's so much better than operating from the shack. Something about it just clicks. Anyone have tips for getting to 44 faster? Do people usually pre-announce activations on the WWFF groups ahead of time or just rely on self-spotting once you're out there?

not dumb questions at all, everyone goes through this when they start out. so the short version is LoTW is run by the ARRL and it's the one that actually counts for DXCC and most of the major awards. eQSL is a separate thing, some people use it too but it's not accepted for DXCC. they're kind of competitors in a way, LoTW just has more weight in the awards world. paper cards through the bureau can take months, sometimes longer depending on where the other station is located and how often they check their bureau. six weeks is nothing, i've waited over a year for some cards from certain parts of the world. if you're in a hurry you can do direct card exchange which is faster but costs a bit more with return postage and all that. for FT8 specifically almost everyone is on LoTW, the logging software like WSJT-X and log4om can upload to LoTW automatically which is really nice. honestly for day to day confirmation LoTW is what most serious operators use but a lot of people still send paper cards just because they're fun to get in the mail. i've got a whole wall of them and i still enjoy it even after 20+ years in the hobby.

so ive been a tech for about two years now and mostly just been doing 2m and 70cm stuff, some APRS, talked on a few nets. but i keep hearing people talk about HF and honestly it sounds way more interesting and i want to get in on that. so i decided to finally sit down and study for the general exam. the problem is im not really sure where to start. i downloaded the question pool from arrl or wherever and its just... a lot. like some of it makes sense because i remember it from the tech exam but theres a ton of stuff about operating privileges and propagation and like a whole section on electrical stuff that kind of goes over my head. i guess my main question is how long did it take you guys to actually feel ready for this thing and is there a certain way to study that actually works or do you just kind of memorize the questions also i saw something about HF privileges being different depending on which band and i dont fully understand that yet either, like do i get access to all the HF bands once i pass or not

Been running Pi 5 with KM4ACK's Build-a-Pi project - it gives you complete control over the build and allows you to choose applications rather than downloading a pre-built image. Much better performance than my old HamPi setup, especially for GNU Radio applications. The audio timing issues are usually USB sound card related, not CPU.

ok so i just passed my technician a few weeks ago and got my callsign from the FCC, its a sequential one that just got assigned to me automatically. totally fine with it but now im reading about vanity calls and im kind of lost on how that whole process works. from what i understand you can apply for a specific callsign that somebody else had before or one that fits a certain format, like a 1x2 or 2x1 or whatever. but i dont really get the timing of it all. like do you have to wait a certain amount of time after you get your license before you can apply? and how do you even know which ones are available? is there a database you check or does the FCC website just show you somehow also my elmer mentioned something about a 10 year wait for certain callsigns after the previous holder goes SK or lets their license lapse, is that true or did i misunderstand him? i tried googling this but every result is either super outdated or way too technical for where im at right now. just want to understand the basics before i decide if i even want to bother with the vanity process

PSK31 is still out there, 14.070 on 20m still has some life on weekends, not like it used to be but people are on. I actually prefer it over FT8 for exactly the reason you said — feels like a real conversation. RTTY still has contest weekends which keeps it going too if youre into that. but yeah FT8 kind of ate everything when it came out, hard to argue with the propagation reach you get from it even with a modest antenna like yours

so ive been running FT8 for probably two years now and i get it, its great for contacts and the weak signal stuff is genuinely impressive, i was working stations last week at like -18dB that i never would have heard on SSB, but honestly after a while it starts to feel like youre just collecting grid squares and not actually talking to anyone started messing around with JS8Call a few months back and its a completely different vibe, you can actually type out real sentences and have a back and forth, the latency is kind of annoying and it definitely needs a better signal than FT8 to decode reliably but at least when im done i feel like i talked to a human being curious if anyone here runs both regularly and how you decide which one to use on a given day, also wondering if the JS8Call activity on 40m has picked up at all, when i first fired it up it seemed pretty dead compared to the FT8 watering holes

so i got my general ticket about 6 weeks ago and im thinking about getting a vanity call but the timing on the fcc site is confusing me. it says something about 18 month periods and i dont really get when i can apply. my current call is kc9xyz (fake obviously) and ive been looking at some 2x3 calls that seem available. do i have to wait some specific time after getting my license or can i just apply whenever? also heard something about fees going up soon but cant find solid info on that

the frequency notebook is a really good call and honestly something I see people forget constantly. I laminated a card with all my local repeaters, simplex calling frequencies, and the ARES/RACES frequencies for my county and it just lives in the kit permanently. also throw in a printed copy of whatever nets you participate in and their schedules. one thing that bit me at my first activation — power. I had the battery, great, but I forgot the charging cable for it and a way to charge it from solar or a car. ended up borrowing a cable which was embarrassing. also a small 12v car adapter for when you are near a running vehicle is worth having. oh and spare fuses, like just tape a few to the inside of the case. the license thing, technically you just need to be able to provide your callsign and the FCC database is the official record now, but some served agencies still want to see a physical card especially if youre working with people who dont know you. I just printed mine out and put it in a ziplock with my ARES ID card.

yeah they're both pulling from the DX cluster network but they aggregate from different nodes so you'll see some variation depending on which servers they're connected to and the propagation of spots through the network, it's not instant everywhere. DXwatch is pretty solid for visualization though. for filtering by band on DXwatch, there should be a little dropdown or checkbox row along the top of the spot list, might be hidden depending on your screen size. on mobile it's kind of a pain to find. if you're on a desktop browser it's a lot more usable honestly. for android i've been using Ham Radio Deluxe's companion app on and off but the one most people seem to recommend just for spotting is probably DX Alert or just using the mobile browser version of DXwatch. the cluster server thing can be annoying to configure, i usually point mine at dxc.ve7cc.net on port 7300 which seems pretty reliable. just make sure you're sending your callsign when you connect or some servers will drop you after a minute or two.

did the NMO hole on my last two vehicles and honestly it's the only way to go if you're serious about it. the lip mounts work okay but the ground plane situation is never ideal and you can tell, especially on UHF where it actually matters more. the difference versus a good mag mount is probably not huge on 2m, your repeater contacts wont care, but the NMO just feels solid and the coax routing is so much cleaner. i ran mine through the A pillar and down under the dash and you'd never know it was there. the hole thing sounds scary but it really isn't if you use a proper NMO mount with a good seal. i used a Larsen NMO mount with the self-sealing gasket and put a dab of silicone around the edge just for peace of mind. three years and no leaks. if you ever sell the truck you fill it, color match it, and most people would never notice. i use the Tram 1185 on my current rig, dual band, works great, reasonably priced. but honestly the antenna matters way less than the mount and ground connection.

So I finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a state forest near me, been meaning to do one for ages and kept putting it off. Ended up using my IC-705 with a wire dipole slung between two trees, nothing fancy. The reference I activated was KFF-XXXX (well one of the state forest ones anyway) and I managed to get 44 QSOs in about 2.5 hours which I was pretty happy with. My question is about logging -- I used HAMRS out in the field but I'm a bit confused about uploading to WWFF Logsearch vs just sending it to ADIF. Do I need to do both or does one feed the other automatically? I read the instructions on the website and honestly it wasnt super clear to me. Also do the contacts I make count toward the hunters award for the people I worked, like do they even need to know its a WWFF activation for it to count for them? Also side note -- operating in the woods is just incredible. Had a deer walk about 15 feet from me while I was in a pileup on 40m, didnt even care I was there. Highly recommend to anyone who hasnt tried it yet.

yeah the FCC site is a bit of a maze the first time you go through it. so the short version is yes you can apply for a vanity call pretty much anytime after you get your license, theres no waiting period for that. the sequential call you got assigned is just whatever the system spits out next in line for your district, but vanity lets you request something specific from the pool of available or previously held calls. the formats you qualify for depend on your license class. as a general you can get a 1x3, 2x2, or 2x3 format. the shorter ones like 1x2 or 2x1 are reserved for extras, so if you want one of those youll need to upgrade first. and yes they do charge a fee now, i think its around $35 every 10 years same as the regular license renewal, so not a huge deal. as for the third party sites, AE7Q is the one most people use and its totally free and legitimate, he just aggregates the FCC data and makes it way easier to search for available calls. you still file the actual application through the FCC ULS yourself though, dont pay anyone to do that part, its not that complicated once you know where to click.

yeah the latency thing with SSB over a flaky upstream is just kind of a fact of life unfortunately. ive been running a remote IC-7610 for about two years now and what helped me most was actually just setting the audio codec in RemoteHams to something lower bitrate and accepting slightly worse audio quality in exchange for way less jitter. the default settings they give you arent optimized for anything less than a pretty solid connection. also QoS on the router at the remote end makes a bigger difference than people think, prioritizing that outbound audio stream so it doesnt get stomped by whatever else is on the network. the SDR panadapter piece — if youre on a 7300 you can actually just pipe the IQ data out the USB and run SDR# or HDSDR on the local PC and have that feed through a separate VNC session or something. its a little clunky but works fine. some guys run a dedicated RTL-SDR dongle at the remote end just for the pan instead of loading up the main rig connection, which actually makes sense when you think about it. the echolink fallback idea isnt crazy but youre basically maintaining two totally separate systems at that point. i tried something similar with a cheap HT and a RaspberryPi running svxlink and it was more trouble than it was worth for me personally. but if your parents can occasionally go kick a router it might be overkill anyway

so i finally got around to setting up for satellite work after talking about it for like two years. running a 2m/70cm cross yagi on an az/el rotor i picked up used, feeding into an ic-9700. everything looks good on paper but actually operating through a linear transponder bird like AO-73 or FO-29 is way harder than i expected and im not sure if its a setup issue or just the learning curve. the doppler correction is the main thing tripping me up. i have SDR# and also gpredict running but keeping my uplink and downlink both compensated at the same time while actually trying to make a contact is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. by the time i tune my downlink to hear myself the pass is half over. is there a way to get gpredict to push doppler corrections directly to the 9700 or do most people just do it manually and get used to it? i saw something about hamlib but wasnt sure if that actually works well with the 9700 specifically. also not sure if my polarization is off — getting signals but they seem weaker than what i see other people reporting. sequencer is on the list but havent built one yet.