Brian Wilson

your swr sounds fine for 40m honestly, inverted-V's tend to run a little higher impedance than a flat dipole but 1.8 at the low end is workable, most tuners and rigs handle that no problem. as for the balun question — technically you dont need one to make contacts, plenty of people run dipoles without any choke and they work. but the reason people push them is to keep RF off the coax shield, without a choke the outside of the coax braid becomes part of the antenna and can cause common mode current issues which leads to RF in the shack, weird SWR readings, sometimes the rig acting up. if youre just ragchewing and not noticing any problems then youre probably okay for now. that said a simple W2DU style choke or even just winding 8-10 turns of coax into a coil right at the feedpoint costs basically nothing and is worth doing at some point. for 40m you could also wind some coax through a mix 31 toroid if you have one laying around. but dont stress it if everything is working, get on the air and have fun with it first.

yeah JS8Call takes some getting used to, the decode threshold is actually a bit higher than FT8 by design because the messages are longer and more free-form so the codec has more work to do. if you're not already running it, make sure your audio levels into the software are clean — same deal as WSJT-X, you dont want to be clipping. the waterfall in JS8Call should show your noise floor around -20 or so relative to your reference level, something like that anyway. the thing people dont always realize is JS8Call isnt really trying to be FT8. FT8 is basically a logging machine, you exchange signal reports and grid squares and youre done in 90 seconds. JS8Call is more like a very slow IRC channel with error correction. once you kind of embrace that mindset and stop expecting quick contacts it gets more interesting. i use it mostly for nts-style traffic passing practice and checking in with a few guys in my state who run a net on it tuesday nights. and yeah PSK31 is still out there, 20m and 40m especially on weekends. nowhere near what it was like 2007 or whatever but not dead either

so ive been on HF for about two years now mostly running digital but ive been trying to get more into SSB phone and the reports i get back are all over the place. some guys say im pretty readable, others say i sound like im in a tin can or that theres a kind of hollow echo thing going on. im running an IC-7300 into a shockmount mic, nothing fancy, and i set the audio levels by ear mostly. i did play with the TX equalizer a bit but honestly i dont really know what im doing in there. the thing that bugs me is i can hear myself on a SDR i have set up nearby and i think i sound fine but obviously im not the best judge. is there some systematic way to actually dial this in or is it just one of those things where you have to get a patient friend to give you honest reports while you tweak. also wondering if the compression settings matter as much as people say or if thats overrated

2.1:1 is honestly not bad for a first build and an inverted-V at 25 feet — that configuration naturally has a slightly lower feedpoint impedance than a flat top because of the angle on the legs, so you're already fighting that a bit. most tuners will handle it no problem but yeah if you want to understand whats going on thats the right instinct. the solder joint matters more than people think actually, not because a bad joint causes dramatic SWR changes but because a cold joint or a connection thats not fully making contact can cause intermittent issues and weird readings. if it looked shiny and flowed right you're probably fine. one thing i'd check is whether the coax shield braid is fully connected and not just a couple strands touching — ive seen people lose like half their radiated power to a sketchy shield connection and not realize it. honestly though try raising the apex a few more feet if you can, that alone might bring you down closer to 1.5:1. and dont trim anything yet until you know what frequency its actually resonant at — stick an antenna analyzer on it if you have access to one and sweep it, youll see exactly where the dip is.

so i passed my technician exam last thursday after studying for about 3 weeks and i was honestly pretty nervous to actually key up for the first time. been listening on the local repeater for like a month just getting a feel for how people talk and the timing and all that. finally just did it yesterday morning, said my callsign and that i was a new op looking to make a contact and this older guy came back to me right away which was great. we talked for maybe 10 minutes about where i live and what got me into radio, he was really patient with me when i fumbled around trying to remember the proper way to sign off. anyway just wanted to say hi here too since ive been lurking on this forum for a while reading about equipment and stuff. running a baofeng uv-5r for now which i know everyone has opinions about but it got me on the air so whatever

ok so i passed my general back in march and ive been trying to figure out the 40 meter band and honestly the band plan stuff is making my head spin a little. like i understand theres phone and cw portions but when i look at different sources online i get slightly different answers on where the edges are and what i can actually do vs what i should do vs what im legally allowed to do. my elmer kind of glossed over this and said just stay away from the band edges which fine but i want to actually understand it. also whats the deal with 7.125 or wherever it is, someone on a net told me to be careful around there but didnt explain why. is there like one authoritative place i should just look this up or is it really as confusing as it seems

so ive been running a TM-V71A in my car for about two months now and the antenna situation is still kind of a mess. right now i've got a mag mount on the roof which works okay but i keep reading that mag mounts are terrible long term and i should do a proper mount. thing is i really dont want to drill into my car, its a 2019 honda accord and i'd like to keep it looking decent when i eventually sell it. ive been looking at the trunk lip mounts and the hatch mounts but im not sure which ones are actually good vs just cheap junk. also my SWR seems a little high on 70cm, hovering around 1.8 or so, not sure if thats the antenna or the coax routing or what. the mag mount is a Tram 1185 if that matters. basically just looking for what other mobile ops are running on sedans without drilling. and if anyone has thoughts on that SWR reading id appreciate it.