Nicole Martin

35 feet of LMR-400 on 2m is basically nothing, you're losing maybe half a dB there so the coax run length isnt your problem. definitely sounds like a mechanical/connector issue. the random connector from the parts bin thing jumped out at me - do you know what the actual spec on that connector was? some of the cheap silver plated ones that come in bulk bags are junk and dont make a solid connection at the center pin, especially after thermalcycling through a winter.

i ran an 857 as my main HF rig for like 4 years and honestly the filter situation was always my biggest complaint. ended up just living with it because the form factor was too convenient for my setup to switch. never tried the sherwood filter specifically but a buddy of mine swears by it for exactly what you're describing on 40. one thing i did do was the ref oscillator upgrade, there's a TCXO option that tightens up the frequency stability noticeably, especially on digital modes where drift actually matters. probably not relevant if youre mostly doing phone but figured id mention it since youre already in there poking around anyway.

so ive been messing with an RTL-SDR v3 for about a year now, mostly just listening to aircraft and the occasional P25 trunking stuff in my area, and im starting to feel like i'm hitting the ceiling of what the dongle can do. dynamic range is just not there when i try to do anything near the broadcast FM band, which yeah i know is kind of a known thing with RTL dongles but its getting annoying. anyway ive been looking at either the HackRF One or the SDRplay RSP1B and i cant quite figure out which direction to go. the HackRF has TX which is appealing even though i dont have an immediate use for it, but ive heard the noise floor isnt actually that great compared to what you'd expect for the price. the RSP1B looks cleaner on paper, 1kHz to 2GHz, 14-bit ADC, that all sounds good but its receive-only and the SDRuno software is... i dunno, ive only seen screenshots. mostly i want better performance for HF stuff, maybe some weather satellite decoding, and just general poking around. running SDR# and GQRX on a linux box. anyone actually used both and can give me a real world take rather than the spec sheet comparison i keep finding?

welcome to the addiction lol. I just did my 10th activation last month and I still get that same nervous energy waiting to see if anyone comes back to my first call. there's something about being on a hilltop with a wire in a tree that just hits different than operating from home. one thing i'd add about the 2m FM thing is that if you ever activate somewhere with good line of sight coverage, it can be surprisingly fun to work a few locals on VHF between HF contacts. I did a summit last fall where i got more 2m contacts than HF just because the takeoff was so good, had people calling from like 80 miles out on a rubber duck which surprised me.

so i've been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it got me curious. i looked it up and apparently you have to take a test? i dont really know where to start or what the difference is between all the license levels. someone at work mentioned technician and general but i have no idea what that means practically speaking. like do i need to buy a radio first or study first, and how hard is the test actually? i feel like i'm going in circles just reading stuff online because half of it seems outdated. any advice would be appreciated

oh man i was in literally the exact same spot like six months ago with my first HT. one thing that helped me was just going to a local club meeting and asking someone there — they basically programmed the whole thing for me in like two minutes and explained what each setting was doing. way faster than trying to decode the baofeng menu system on your own which is honestly kind of a nightmare. the tone thing is kind of weird to wrap your head around at first but once you get it it makes total sense. and yeah just kerchunking the repeater (keying up super quick without saying anything) can tell you if you're getting in but i've heard some people say its kind of bad form to do it too much, like more than once or twice. better to just say your call and say testing like the other guy said.

Begali paddles on a K3, that's a nice combo. I'm kind of jealous actually. I'm still on a cheap MFJ that I keep meaning to replace. One thing that helped me with the choppy feeling was just making QSOs, even short ones, instead of just practicing into a dummy load. Something about the pressure of an actual exchange where someone's listening makes you slow down and be deliberate. Try calling CQ on 40m around 7.055 or wherever your regional watering hole is and just do slow casual contacts. People are generally pretty patient with someone who's obviously still developing their fist.

Congrats on the install, FT-7900 is a solid radio for mobile use, Ive had one for probably six years now and its been pretty bulletproof. On the coax routing — yeah definitely dont leave it in the door seal, itll eventually cut through the jacket and then youll have all kinds of grief. What I did on my truck was find the factory grommet where the factory wiring passes through the firewall, there's usually one on the drivers side that already has some slack in it. You can carefully push an additional wire or coax through that existing grommet without drilling anything new. Gets a little fiddly but totally doable. If you want a clean permanent antenna mount look into a lip mount for the rain gutter area or a stake pocket mount in the bed, no drilling required and way more stable than a mag mount long term. The voltage dip is completely normal, 13.2 when transmitting on high power is nothing to worry about as long as it bounces back up when you release the PTT. Your alternator is doing its job. You'd start getting concerned if you were seeing like 11 something or it was staying low. As long as connections are clean and tight you're fine.

yeah the Es this season has been something else, i had a similar night last thursday where 6m just opened up out of nowhere around 7pm local and i worked like 14 new grids in maybe 90 minutes. one of those nights where you just dont want to go to bed because you know the second you do it'll close up. my wife has stopped asking why im still up at midnight staring at WSJT-X. on the icom thing, i think you're maybe thinking of the IC-905 related stuff? or there was some talk about a new entry level HF rig but i cant confirm that's real. icom did post something vague on their japanese site a few weeks back that got people speculating but nothing concrete yet. id take the club meeting rumors with a grain of salt until someone posts a press release or something from Dayton. speaking of which Hamvention isnt that far off and that's usually when the big announcements drop so maybe just wait and see

so ive been on HF for about two years now mostly doing digital but lately ive been spending more time on SSB phone and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds like im talking through a pillow or theres too much bass or whatever. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which i thought was supposed to be a pretty solid combo, i got the mic because everyone kept recommending it on here and other forums. ive got the mic gain sitting around 50-60% and the ALC is barely moving, maybe just kissing the bottom of the scale. compression is off. i did read somewhere that the 7300 has some eq built in and maybe i should be messing with that but i honestly havent touched it much, just left it at flat. the reports im getting are from a few different guys on 40m so its not just one person with a bad receiver or whatever. is this a mic placement thing or do i actually need to dig into the DSP settings? feels like it should just work out of the box with a decent mic but apparently not. any ideas appreciated, been chasing this for like a month

yeah the ALC thing is huge and most people ignore it. general rule of thumb on the 7300 is you want the ALC meter barely ticking on voice peaks, not sitting there pinned or even hitting the middle of the range. if its riding high constantly youre basically compressing the snot out of your signal and it starts sounding distorted and mushy on the other end. back off the mic gain until the ALC is just kissing the first couple segments on peaks and youll probably sound a lot better. also with the PR-40 specifically — its a dynamic so it wants you pretty close to it, like 2-3 inches. people underestimate how much mic technique matters on SSB. if youre across the room or talking at an angle the low end falls apart and you end up sounding thin or boxy. the 7300 has a built in monitor function too, plug headphones in and key up and you can hear roughly what youre putting out. not a perfect representation but better than flying blind.

omg 10m opened here too!! i'm pretty new to HF (only got my general like 6 weeks ago) and i was just scanning around and suddenly all these signals and i had no idea what was happening at first lol. managed to work two stations which might not sound like much but for me that was huge. still figuring out how to log stuff properly and when to call CQ vs just answer someone. its a lot. but yeah 10 meters seems cool when its actually doing something. had no idea conditions could change that fast.

honestly for 10-15 contests a year i'd say get the station working first and worry about squeezing every last mult out later. i spent two weekends debugging why my logging software kept sending CW to the wrong radio and that was time i could've just been on the air working contacts the normal way. not saying dont do it, just that single op well-executed beats SO2R done badly every time. the rate gains are real though, especially in the dead spots. like 0200 local when 20 is dying and 40 isnt quite hopping yet, being able to keep a run on 40 while hunting mults on 15 during that weird transition window is actually pretty useful. thats probably where i notice it most versus just late-night grinding.

Don't stress too much about it, first activations are always a little overwhelming but that's honestly part of the learning. Every ARES group runs things a little differently depending on how tight the EC is and what the served agency expects, but for a county exercise you'll probably check in at a staging area, get assigned a position or a net, and then mostly just listen and handle traffic as it comes in. Bring your own radio for sure — some EOCs have gear but you never really know if it's going to be working or if someone else already grabbed it. Your 857 and the jpole should be totally fine for most VHF work. The thing nobody tells you going in is there's usually a lot of waiting mixed in with bursts of activity. Bring water and snacks and something to take notes with. Paper and pencil, not just your phone. Oh and make sure your ICS-213 forms are printed out ahead of time if your group uses those for message handling, that trips up a lot of newer folks who dont realize they need them on hand.

i run a 991A and its fine but yeah the fan noise is a thing people mention and its not wrong, gets a little annoying during late night operating when the shack is quiet. also the menus are classic yaesu which means prepare to spend an afternoon just figuring out where everything is. not a dealbreaker but worth knowing going in. the HF audio on SSB is totally acceptable though, i wouldnt say it sounds bad.

so ive been licensed since last spring and i keep hearing about CQ WW and Field Day and SOTA and all these events and honestly i dont really know where to start. like i understand the basics of making contacts but the whole contest thing still feels kind of overwhelming. i sat down and tried to get into CQ WW SSB last fall for about 20 minutes and then gave up because i couldnt figure out if i was doing the exchange right and i didnt want to mess up other peoples logs. i have a fairly modest setup, just a G90 and a wire antenna in the backyard, nothing fancy. is that even enough to participate meaningfully in something like ARRL Field Day or do you really need a big station? and how do people keep track of everything so fast, the logging software i guess? im using WSJT-X for FT8 mostly but i know thats a different animal entirely. also someone mentioned SOTA activations and that sounds really cool honestly, getting out on a summit and operating portable. is that considered a contest or more just an operating award thing? any advice for a newer guy trying to figure out where to plug in would be great

honestly the crossover point is really station dependent and also how practiced you are at it. when i first started SO2R seriously i was probably making myself 20% slower for the first few contests just because the mental overhead wasnt automatic yet. now its more like muscle memory but it took a while. the 80-90/hr threshold thing i think comes from the idea that if youre running that fast theres almost no dead time to work the second radio anyway without dropping a call on the run frequency and that hurts you more than the extra qso wouldve helped. where SO2R really pays off for most contesters at an intermediate level is the S&P phase or when your run dies and you need to rebuild — you can keep the rate from cratering as bad while you find a new frequency. also the bleedthrough issue you mentioned — whats your antenna spacing like? even with good bandpass filters if the antennas are under like 50ft apart on the same band youre gonna have a bad time. stacked verticals for 40 with close spacing will just murder each other.

i started with a UV-5R and have zero regrets honestly, it got me on the air and i learned a ton just fumbling around with it. the menu system is annoying but you figure it out. been using it for almost two years now and it still works fine for hitting repeaters around town. that said i did eventually get a Kenwood TH-D74 and yeah the difference is pretty humbling, but thats also like a $500 radio so not really a fair comparison. for getting started the cheap baofeng totally does the job, just download chirp before you do anything else or you will spend hours manually programming it and regret your life choices

we ran a 18 hour exercise last fall and the generator debate came up for us too. ended up with one team running a yamaha inverter genny and one team on straight battery with a 200 watt solar setup and honestly the battery/solar team had way fewer problems. the genny team kept fussing with it, ran it out of fuel once, and the noise was a constant complaint from everyone around them. one thing nobody mentioned yet — whats your feedline situation? ive seen people get a perfect antenna up and then lose half their signal to a sketchy coax connector or RG-58 run thats way too long. for portable stuff i dont run anything longer than about 50 feet of LMR-400 equivalent and i keep all my PL-259s freshly soldered. sounds basic but field conditions are rough on connectors.

so the tri-county fest is coming up saturday and im debating whether its worth the drive. last year they had a pretty decent swap meet but half the tables were just old CB radios and random coax connectors nobody wanted. hoping its better this year. anyone else planning on going? also does anyone know if the club is doing a license testing session there, my buddy wants to get his tech and it would be cool if he could just knock it out at the fest

so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has all this antenna stuff in his yard and got me curious. i looked it up and apparently you need a license to transmit? which makes sense i guess. anyway i found out theres like multiple levels of license and im not sure which one to go for first or if i need to do them in order or what. i downloaded some app called ham study or something like that and it has practice questions but honestly some of them are really confusing and i dont understand the explanations. like the electrical theory stuff especially. do i need to actually understand all of it or can i just memorize the answers? the pool is like 400 something questions right? how long did it take you guys to study before you felt ready to actually sit for the test

oh man i remember my first net check-in, i completely blanked on my own callsign for like a full second which was embarrassing. you'll get comfortable with it pretty fast though, after maybe 3 or 4 times it just feels normal. one thing that helped me was having a little notepad with my check-in info written out so i wasnt trying to remember everything while also being nervous. sounds silly but it actually worked

yeah what he said about the sidebands is the big thing people dont realize at first. i actually had someone point out to me early on that when you set your dial to say 7.299 on USB the actual audio frequencies in your voice are going out above that. took me a while to really internalize it. the dial frequency is just the carrier, the signal is wider than that. also worth knowing that 40m phone allocation in the US starts at 7.175 for generals so dont forget about that lower edge either. theres quite a bit of room between 7.175 and 7.297ish for phone, you dont need to be crowding the top end anyway honestly

yeah the PR-40 is kind of a dark mic by nature, its designed more for broadcast and podcasting than radio. i ran one for a while and ended up boosting around 2.5khz pretty significantly in the 7300s parametric EQ and that helped a lot. you might also check where youre positioning it relative to your mouth — those large diaphragm mics are really proximity sensitive and even a few inches makes a huge difference in how much bass buildup you get. honestly though the most useful thing i ever did was use the monitoring feature on the 7300 to actually listen to myself through headphones while transmitting. its kind of weird to do at first but you hear exactly what youre putting out and it changes how you think about the whole thing. way better than guessing from other peoples reports

yeah the joke ones are definitely a thing lol. theres a guy on our local net who always says X as in xylophone and everyone kind of groans. but seriously on something like a traffic net or emcomm stuff you really want to stick to the standard phonetics because the whole point is the other person shouldnt have to think about what letter you mean. i messed up a callsign relay once because i used a non-standard one and the net control wrote down the wrong letter. felt pretty dumb. so like casual chat on a repeater whatever but anything where accuracy matters just use NATO