Lisa Garcia

so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did stuff with my Icom 7300 from the shack, nothing wrong with it but i kept reading about QRP and figured id give it a shot. picked up one of those QCX mini kits from QRP Labs and spent a weekend putting it together. im not the best at soldering but i took my time and it actually worked first try which was honestly shocking. first contact was about 340 miles on 40m with 5 watts and the other guy gave me a 579, like i was actually surprised it worked that well. now im kinda obsessed. been thinking about taking it out portable with a random wire antenna and a 4:1 unun just to see what happens. anyone doing a lot of parks on the air type stuff with these little kits or similar rigs? curious what antenna setups people are using when they go out because i dont really want to lug around a big antenna tuner

the ICS paperwork thing is so real. we had almost the exact same problem at our first drill a few years back. what helped us was actually running shorter tabletop sessions in between the big exercises just focused on the forms, boring as that sounds. like an hour at a club meeting where someone walks through an ICS-214 with a fake scenario. people groaned about it but when we did the next full drill the improvement was really noticeable. for the EOC integration stuff — definitely reach out to your county emergency manager before you do anything else. some of them are great to work with and will actually invite you to participate in their own exercises which is way more valuable than running something internally. others are a bit territorial so you kind of have to feel it out. but showing up with an actual capability demonstration rather than just saying hey we're hams we can help goes a long way. knowing your winlink setup cold, being able to show message traffic flowing reliably, that kind of thing tends to impress people who've had bad experiences with volunteers in the past.

i was in the exact same spot like 6 months ago lol. what helped me was finding a net that specifically says its a beginner or training net because net control on those is super patient and basically walks you through it. theres one on my local repeater every tuesday and the first time i checked in my heart was pounding for no reason, but the net control guy just said welcome and that was that. now i do it without even thinking about it. special event stations are fun once you get a few contacts under your belt — theres usually a pile up and it moves fast so maybe not the first thing to try but definitely something to work toward

ok so I just upgraded to general last month and im still trying to figure out where I can actually transmit. I know there are band edges and stuff but honestly the ARRL band plan chart I printed out is kind of confusing to read. like on 40 meters it shows different segments for different modes but then I hear people talking in places that dont match what the chart says. also whats the deal with staying away from band edges? my elmer mentioned something about not operating right at the edge but I didnt fully understand why. do most rigs drift or something? is it a legal thing or just a courtesy thing. sorry if this is a dumb question im still figuring all this out

same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, totally stumbled onto an opening on 10 while i was just messing around. ended up working Brazil which was my first ever south american contact so that was pretty cool. i had no idea what i was doing honestly just started calling CQ and someone came back to me. i should probably learn more about the propagation stuff because i feel like im missing openings all the time just from not knowing when to check

so i've been running a lip mount with a diamond NR770H on my truck for about two years and honestly it works fine but i keep reading that NMO is the way to go and i'm starting to second guess myself. the lip mount is on the passenger side rear, grounded okay i think, SWR is like 1.3 on 2m and a bit higher on 70cm but still under 1.8 so i figured whatever it's good enough. but then i was at a club meeting last month and this guy says my ground plane is probably garbage and i'm leaving a few dB on the table. now i cant stop thinking about it. drilling a hole in the roof of a truck i'm still making payments on feels like a commitment though. is it actually worth it or is this one of those things that sounds better on paper and makes almost no real difference on the air

i was so nervous my first check in too lol. i actually fumbled my callsign phonetics and had to repeat myself but the net control just said copy and moved on like nothing happened. these guys really dont care, theyre just happy to have new people joining. just go for it

yeah i think i'm going, my elmer dragged me to my first one last spring and honestly it was way better than i expected. didnt buy anything but just talking to people and seeing all the old gear was cool. do you know if they usually have a license testing session there too? i keep meaning to upgrade to general and never get around to scheduling a VE session

so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a local state forest reference here in ohio and honestly it went way better than i expected. got there early Saturday morning, set up my KX3 with a wire antenna slung between two trees and just started calling CQ WWFF on 40m. within maybe 10 minutes i had a small pileup going which i was NOT prepared for at all lol ended up with 47 QSOs over about 3 hours which i know isnt a ton compared to what i see some folks log but for a first time out im pretty happy. got a few hunters calling in from europe too which was a nice surprise on 40m at that time of day. my questions are mainly around the logging side of things. do i need to upload to both wwff.cc AND somewhere else or is that the main spot now? i was using HAMRS in the field and then converted to adif when i got home. also wondering if theres a minimum number of QSOs to count as a valid activation — i thought i heard 44 somewhere but want to make sure im not misremembering that. and one more thing, do phone and CW contacts count the same toward that total or is it separate? anyway really enjoyed it, way more social than just sitting at the home station calling DX. the spot where i set up had a creek nearby and the whole thing just felt really good. definitely going to keep doing this.

so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4782 if anyone knows it, and wow i did not expect it to feel so different from just operating from home. i brought my KX2 and a random wire antenna i threw together the night before, honestly wasnt even sure the antenna was tuned right but the internal tuner seemed happy enough with it. took me almost 20 minutes just to get set up because i forgot how awkward it is doing everything on a picnic table with wind and the coax kept sliding off. but once i started calling CQ POTA on 40m i was honestly surprised how fast people came back, like within maybe 30 seconds i had my first contact. ended up with 23 QSOs in about an hour which i know isnt a huge pile but it was enough to activate and i was pretty happy. the thing nobody told me though is how much the hunters appreciate a slow careful operator. had one guy who must have been mobile because he was super hard to copy and we went back and forth like 4 times and i was worried i was holding up the frequency but people were patient. anyway im already planning my next one, thinking about trying SSB next time since i did this one all CW. anybody have tips for picking a good frequency when you get to the park? i always second guess myself on that part.

so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend at a state forest near me, KFF-something i had to look up the reference number on the website beforehand. i was honestly pretty nervous because ive done a handful of SOTA summits but this felt different somehow, maybe because i wasnt sure how much interest there would be from chasers. set up my endfed on some branches, ran 25 watts on 40m and got about 18 contacts in maybe 40 minutes which i think is enough to log the activation as valid? i kept seeing different numbers thrown around, some people say 10 contacts some say 44 for the full activation award thing. anyway the park itself was gorgeous, creek running through it, nobody else around. made it onto parksnpeaks and spotted myself through the app which helped a ton. my question is mainly about logging — do i need to submit the log to WWFF separately from whatever i upload to LOTW? and is there a specific adif field for the nature reference that i should be filling in? my logger on the phone didnt seem to have a dedicated spot for it. also curious if anyone activates these regularly, seems like theres not as many activators in my area compared to SOTA.

yeah the band plan stuff in part 97 can be a real headache to read through especially the first time. so for technicians on 10 meters — you do get SSB voice privileges in that 28.3 to 28.5 segment, so your club guy was maybe thinking of a different band or mixing something up. you can make phone contacts there no problem as long as you have your ticket. you also get CW basically across the whole HF range techs are allowed in, plus some RTTY and data on 10m below the phone segment i think around 28.0 to 28.3. as for just listening on 40 or 80, part 97 doesnt regulate receiving at all, only transmitting. you can spin the dial and listen to whatever you want without any license. thats actually a great way to learn before you upgrade — just sit on 7.200 on a weekend and youll hear all kinds of operating styles good and bad.

totally worth it in my opinion. went from a terrible 2x3 call to a nice short 1x2 and the difference on the air is huge. people actually remember my call now and its so much easier in contests. the waiting part sucks but just pick like 25 calls in order of preference and submit the application. worst case you dont get your first choice but youll probably get something decent from your list

honest answer — leave everything at default for now and dont mess with weight or sidetone pitch or any of that stuff yet. i went down that rabbit hole early on and it just distracted me from actually learning the code. the difference between iambic A and B is real but it wont matter to you for months, most people just pick one and stick with it. mode A is fine to start. the paddle brand thing is... yeah youre overthinking it a little but also not entirely wrong. a cheap paddle with wobbly contacts or weird tension can genuinely make learning harder. that said ive seen people learn on terrible paddles and be totally fine. just make sure the tension and spacing feel adjustable and you can dial it in. if the amazon one has those adjustments youre probably okay for now. come back to the gear question in six months when you actually know what you want from a paddle.

so ive been chasing 3Y0 for about two years on and off, obviously not that specific one but you know the type — those slots that only come around every decade or so. anyway last month there was a decent DXpedition active on 17m and 20m and i finally managed to break through after honestly embarrassing myself for like the first hour and a half. what actually changed things for me was stopping the full call thing. i know everyone says it but i kept defaulting to giving my full callsign every single time even when the DX was clearly working split and pulling partials. once i started just throwing the last two letters of my suffix consistently and waiting — like actually waiting and listening to where he was coming back in the pileup — things got a lot better. i started timing my calls to land just as he finished acknowledging the previous QSO instead of the second i heard him say QRZ. also swapped from my usual 100w to running the amp at about 500w which probably helped but i honestly think the timing and partial call thing mattered more. anyone else have techniques that work consistently or is it just always kind of a crapshoot depending on conditions and how the op is working the pile

nice W4C is a good region to start in. i did my first POTA around the same time i started SOTA and honestly POTA is a little more chill since you dont have the time pressure from weather as much. but that feeling when the pile up starts is addictive lol. whats your next summit?

rsp1a is what i'd get in your situation, no question. hackrf is more of a tinkerers tool, great if you want to do stuff like replay attacks on garage doors or mess with weather satellite uplinks on the transmit side, but the rx performance leaves something to be desired compared to a dedicated receive-only SDR at that price range. you're basically paying for the tx and the wide coverage. one thing nobody mentions is the SDRplay has pretty good driver support and the API is stable, ive had zero issues running it under gqrx on linux which is what i mostly use. the rtl-sdr community is huge so theres more random software floating around for that ecosystem but the RSP stuff is solid enough that it doesnt really matter

so i've been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now and finally decided to actually go for the technician exam. i downloaded a couple things and bought a book i think its the ARRL one but honestly i dont even know if thats the right one or if there's something better out there. like do people still use books or is everything online now? also i keep seeing people mention the question pool and i guess im confused because i thought the test was random questions but apparently you can actually study the exact questions that might show up? that seems almost too easy but i dont want to miss something. been doing some quizzes on ham study dot org i think it is and some of the questions about like frequency privileges and the electrical stuff is tripping me up pretty bad. any advice from people who actually went through this recently would be helpful

This is helpful but missing one detail - many CW expressions like 73 and 88 have carried over to voice communications. You'll hear "73" said on phone contacts all the time now. It's neat how these weren't ham radio inventions but adopted from existing telegraph practices.

not a dumb question at all, everyone starts somewhere. so the first one you want is the Technician license, thats the entry level and it gets you access to VHF/UHF stuff which is plenty to get started with. the test is 35 questions and you need to get 26 right, its multiple choice and honestly not that bad if you put in a week or two of studying. for study resources most people these days use HamStudy.org or the HamTestOnline site, i personally liked HamStudy because it tracks which questions youre getting wrong and drills you on those. theres also a book by Gordon West that some people swear by but i never used it myself. the question pool is public so technically you could just memorize all the answers but actually understanding the material helps when you get on the air and dont want to feel completely lost. find a local club too, they usually run license classes and the VEs (the volunteer examiners who give the test) are almost always club members. ARRL website has a club finder if you dont know where to look. good luck

so ive been messing around with this for a few weeks now and im starting to wonder if i'm overcomplicating it. basically i have an old yaesu g-450a rotator and the controller is functional but i want to be able to drive it from the shack PC, maybe tie it into WSJT-X or at least have it track az/el from a file or something. i saw a few projects online where people used an arduino mega with some relay boards and a voltage divider on the feedback pot to read the heading, seemed straightforward enough. problem is i keep getting weird readings on the analog input, like it'll say 180 degrees but the antenna is clearly pointing somewhere else and it drifts around. i checked the wiring twice and the pot voltage looks reasonable on the meter but something is just off. using a 10-bit ADC on the uno isnt helping i think, or maybe my voltage reference is just noisy. running off USB power which is probably not ideal. has anyone actually got one of these working reliably? wondering if i should just spend the $30 on one of the commercial arduino-based rotator controller boards or keep hacking at it myself. also thought about maybe throwing a raspberry pi in there so i could run hamlib rotctld natively but that feels like scope creep at this point

so i passed my tech exam about three weeks ago and im trying to figure out which handheld to get as my first radio. ive been lurking and reading reviews for like two weeks straight and honestly i think it made things worse because now i have like six tabs open and no idea what to do the main thing i want to do is hit local repeaters and maybe eventually do some APRS stuff once i figure that out. my budget is pretty flexible, i could go up to like $200 maybe a little more if it actually makes sense. i keep seeing people mention the Baofeng UV-5R which is like $25 and also the Yaesu FT-60 which is way more, and i genuinely cant tell if the cheaper one is fine for a beginner or if ill regret it later. also someone in another thread mentioned the Kenwood TH-D74 which seems amazing but also $600 so probably not right now anyway any thoughts would be helpful, especially from people who have actually used these things day to day and not just read the specs

im still pretty new to chasing DX seriously (only been licensed about 2 years) but one thing my elmer told me that helped was to say only your callsign once, clearly, and then shut up. i used to just keep calling over and over thinking more = better chance but apparently thats the worst thing you can do in a big pileup because you just become part of the noise floor. hard habit to break honestly.

so i got my general about 4 months ago and everyone keeps telling me to try a contest to really get comfortable operating and i figured CQ WW would be a good one to jump into since theres so much activity. but honestly i dont even know where to start. like i understand the exchange is signal report plus CQ zone but i keep second guessing myself on what zone im actually in and whether i need to send my full callsign every time or just the suffix after the first contact. also is it worth even trying with my modest setup, its just a dipole up about 30 feet and a 100w radio, nothing fancy. i see some of these guys with stacked yagis and kilowatts and i feel like im just gonna be invisible. should i just search and pounce the whole time or is there a point where running a frequency makes sense for a newer operator any tips would be really appreciated, i dont want to make a fool of myself on the air

yeah the band data from icom radios has a small settling time before all 4 lines are stable — i ran into the exact same thing with a homebrew bandpass filter switcher i built a couple years ago. what worked for me was just adding about a 50ms delay in the arduino after detecting any change on the band data lines before i actually acted on the new value. not the most elegant solution but it works reliably and the switching is still way faster than anything that matters in practice. on the pi zero idea — i actually do run a pi for my shack automation stuff but i keep the actual relay driving on a separate arduino nano just because the pi's GPIO isnt great for time-sensitive stuff and you dont want a kernel hiccup firing your relays at the wrong moment. the pi talks to the nano over serial and handles all the logging and web ui stuff. best of both worlds honestly and a pi zero is like five bucks so why not