Stephanie Clark

i mean this is gonna sound obvious but antenna is still king right. i was running a tribander at 35 feet and getting nowhere on a caribbean dxpedition last spring, neighbor has a 4el yagi up at 55 feet and worked them first call. same power, same radio, same everything basically. kind of demoralizing but also clarified where my money needs to go next lol. the technique stuff you mentioned definitely helps at the margins though, ive noticed the timing thing too even from just listening to big pileups on the rx side you can hear the pattern if you pay attention long enough before just jumping in

so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state forest about 45 minutes from my house, K-4831 if anyone knows it. been hunting from home for a few months and thought yeah how hard can it be, i do this all the time from my shack. well. turns out dragging a radio into the field is a completely different animal and i made basically every rookie mistake possible. first off i forgot my counterpoise at home. just completely left it on my workbench. so my end-fed was basically just flopped on the ground and my noise floor was awful, i was running my KX2 and it kept throwing up the SWR protection every few minutes. i ended up just wrapping some wire around a stick and clipping it to the bnc adapter which honestly worked better than nothing but i was still struggling. second problem was i spotted myself on POTA.app and then immediately had like 12 people call me at once and i panicked and forgot how to do anything. i mean i know how to run a pileup from hunting but being on the other end of it for the first time your brain just goes blank. eventually settled down after like the 6th QSO and got into a rhythm. ended up with 22 contacts over about 90 minutes on 20m SSB, which counts as a valid activation so i'll take it. already planning the next one with a proper parts list this time. anyone else remember their first activation being kind of a mess?

congrats on getting it done, that first one is always the hardest because you build it up so much in your head. 34 QSOs is a solid activation especially solo with modest gear. on the 40m vs 20m question -- honestly both if you can swing it. i usually run a linked dipole so i can drop down to 40 later in the day when 20 starts to get long. mornings 20m is usually great for reaching hunters across the country and you'll get a lot more spots from people who hear you. 40m is more local but thats not a bad thing either, lots of dedicated hunters monitoring it. if you're running an endfed you might just try cutting it for 40 and see how it loads on 20 with your tuner, a lot of people get away with that. also get a fisher space pen or just tape a backup pen to your log clipboard, that charcoal thing is hilarious but i guarantee youll forget the pen again otherwise

yeah the three-log problem is real and kind of annoying. what most people i know do is run WSJT-X pointed at Log4OM via UDP and it just logs FT8 contacts automatically in real time, you barely have to think about it. Log4OM has a UDP server built in specifically for this, just takes a few minutes to configure the ports and it works pretty seamlessly. so your FT8 stuff goes straight into your main log without doing any manual imports for contests its a different story, N1MM is just better for that, theres really not much argument there. the rate display, the dupe checking, the cabrillo export, nothing else comes close for serious contest operating. but what i do is after the contest ends i export the log as ADIF from N1MM and import it into Log4OM to keep everything in one master log. its like a 2 minute job, not really a big deal once you get used to it the IC-7300 plays well with both btw, N1MM talks to it great over the USB cable for CAT control and Log4OM does too. honestly your setup is pretty straightforward, just takes an afternoon to get everything configured and youll be good

so ive been running an old FT-450D for about four years now and it's been fine but i kept reading about the 7300 and finally just ordered one last month. been using it for maybe three weeks and wanted to write up some thoughts while theyre still fresh because i wish someone had told me some of this stuff before i bought it. first off the waterfall is genuinely as useful as everyone says. i know that sounds obvious but i kept thinking it was kind of a gimmick thing and it really isnt. actually caught a JA station on 17m that i wouldve completely scrolled past on the 450D just because i happened to see the trace pop up on the display. that was a nice surprise. what i didnt expect was how long it takes to just get comfortable with the menu system. the 450D menus are kind of buried too but i had them memorized by feel at this point. took me a solid week of actual operating before i stopped accidentally changing the AGC settings when i was trying to do something else. not a complaint really just werent ready for the learning curve on that part. also the receive audio is noticeably different — not sure if better is the right word, just different. sharper maybe? my shack buddy said it sounds more clinical than the Yaesu. probably just getting used to it. overall happy with the purchase but curious if anyone else noticed their receive fatigue kind of went up in the first few weeks before you adjusted to the sound signature.

So i was poking around on the Icom website last night after seeing someone mention it on another group and it looks like theres been some chatter about new rigs coming out possibly later this year. I cant find solid specs anywhere yet, just rumors and a few blurry photos floating around. anybody else seen this or know more than I do? Also completely separate thing — 10 meters has been absolutely wild the last few days. I was just spinning the dial kind of half paying attention and suddenly I'm hearing stations from Brazil and some EU stuff just rolling in. Hasnt been that good in a while, at least from my location. Solar flux must be up because the last few weeks before this it was pretty dead up there. Not really a question I guess just wanted to share since its been kind of an exciting week for the hobby. Feel free to dump any other news or stuff youve seen here too.

yeah dont feel bad about this one, aluminum trucks are kind of a pain. my neighbor went through the exact same thing with his Silverado -- wait that might be steel still, nevermind. but anyway i run a mag mount on my SUV and honestly for just hitting repeaters around town its been totally fine. i know purists hate mag mounts but if it works it works right what repeater are you trying to hit on 70cm? just curious if maybe the repeater itself is the issue and not your setup

yeah the iambic thing takes a while, dont get discouraged. i switched from a straight key to a paddle probably fifteen years ago and i remember thinking the same thing. what helped me was just slowing way down in the keyer speed, like embarrassingly slow, and really focusing on the muscle memory for each letter individually before trying to send at any kind of real pace. the iambic squeeze technique specifically i didnt really use much for a long time, i was mostly just single-paddle too and thats fine honestly, plenty of great ops never use iambic mode at all. one thing that really helped me was using a practice oscillator and just spending 10 minutes a day sending random text, not callsigns or the same words over and over but like newspaper articles or whatever. forces you out of the muscle memory patterns you already have. give it another month before you judge yourself

I went last year and honestly wasnt super impressed with the vendor tables but the flea market outside was worth it. picked up a bunch of coax connectors for basically nothing. also the club had a really good presentation on APRS in the afternoon that i sat in on, didnt expect to learn that much from it

honestly i tried JS8Call for about two weeks and went back to a mix of FT8 and just... plain old PSK31 when i want to actually type at someone. PSK31 is ancient at this point but theres still a small community and the fldigi interface just works, i know it cold. JS8Call felt a bit clunky to me but i might have been doing it wrong, the UI is not exactly intuitive out of the box

so ive been using a cheap rtl-sdr v3 dongle for about a year now and honestly its done pretty well for what it is, been running SDR# and occasionally gqrx on linux depending on which machine im at. mostly doing airband and some NOAA weather sat stuff with a turnstile i threw together. works fine for that. but ive been thinking about picking up an SDRplay RSP1B or maybe the RSP2 because i want better dynamic range, the rtl-sdr gets pretty ugly when theres strong local signals around. i live maybe 3 miles from a couple AM broadcast towers and even with a good bandstop filter its still a mess on HF. the SDRplay supposedly handles that a lot better with the tuner architecture but i dont actually know anyone whos compared them directly for HF specifically. not really interested in transmitting so HackRF is probably overkill and id rather not spend that much anyway. just want cleaner reception especially on 40m and 80m where im trying to decode some WSPR and js8call traffic. anyone made that jump from rtl to SDRplay and actually noticed a difference on the crowded bands?

congrats on passing the exam. ok so the baofeng debate is real but honestly for your use case at this point its probably fine to start with. yeah the filtering isnt great and it can be a little spurious but youre going to be listening and kerchunking repeaters for the first few months anyway, not trying to pass an EME contest. i started on a uv-5r and used it for almost two years before i moved up. that said if you have even like $90 to spare i would honestly look at the yaesu ft-65r. its not that much more and it feels a lot more solid, the menu system is less of a nightmare, and the receiver is noticeably cleaner. the vx-6r is great but thats like $180-200 and i wouldnt throw that at a first HT unless you know youre sticking with the hobby. get something you wont cry over if you drop it at a field day.

so ive been a tech for about 2 years now mostly doing 2m/70cm stuff and some APRS and i finally decided i want to get on HF. everyone keeps telling me to just go get my general already so i started looking at the question pool and honestly its a lot more than i expected. my main confusion is i dont really know which parts of the exam are going to be the hardest or where to focus. like i get that theres electrical theory stuff and i was never great at math in school so that part worries me a bit. also im not totally sure what bands i actually get with general vs what i have now as a tech. do i get all the HF bands or just some of them? i know extra class gets more but i wasnt sure how much more general opens up vs tech. been using ham study dot org to practice and i feel like im getting maybe 75-80% on the practice tests which probably isnt good enough yet. any tips from people who went through this recently? what should i actually study harder vs just memorize

so ive been trying to get back into CW after a long break, maybe 15 years off, and i finally picked up a used Bencher paddle and hooked it up to my radio's built in keyer. the problem is everything i send sounds like garbage to me. the dits and dahs kind of blend together and i cant tell if its my timing being off or if the iambic mode is doing something weird i dont expect. i was running around 15 wpm which felt comfortable back in the day but now my hand just doesnt cooperate. i keep squeezing both contacts at once by accident which makes the keyer go into that iambic alternating thing and it just throws off whatever i was trying to send. not sure if i should switch to mode A or mode B or just turn off iambic entirely and treat it like a single lever. anyone dealt with this coming back after a long break

same thing happened to me when i finally put up a proper vertical last spring. been a dipole guy my whole ham career and just assumed it was always gonna win. and it does win, a lot, but not for everything. i had a guy in japan come back to me on my first real cq on the vertical and i just kinda sat there for a second like wait did that actually just happen. i still keep both up and just switch depending on what im trying to do. dipole for anything domestic or if the bands are noisy, vertical when im chasing something far. works for me anyway

so ive been a general for about 3 years now and people keep telling me i should just go ahead and get my extra but honestly the math and theory stuff in the pool has me a little intimidated. like i passed general without too much trouble but some of the questions i've seen for extra are on a completely different level. filter design, transmission line theory, the amplifier stuff... its a lot. my main question i guess is, do you actually USE any of that knowledge day to day or is it just trivia you memorize to pass the test and then forget. i mostly do HF, some CW, occasional digital. not really building my own rigs or anything. is the extra class theory actually practical or do most people just grind the question pool and move on

so ive been running SSB for about two years now and i feel like my transmitted audio is just never quite right. people tell me im readable but that my audio sounds kind of thin or tinny, and one guy on 40m last week told me i sounded like i was talking through a cardboard tube which... great. my setup is an IC-7300 with the stock mic, heil PR-40 on order but havent gotten it yet. im running the mic gain somewhere around 50% and the RF power at like 80 watts. compression is on but i honestly dont know if ive set it correctly, i kind of just left it where it was from the factory. i know the 7300 has that parametric EQ built in and ive poked at it a few times but never really dialed it in. is that where most people focus their efforts or is it more about the physical mic placement, the compression settings, what? im starting to wonder if the stock mic is just that bad and if i should be borrowing someones audio setup to test before the heil shows up. also does anyone actually monitor their own transmitted audio and if so how, because thats another thing i feel like i should be doing but dont really know how to set up properly.

Don't forget about the bonus points for operating on emergency power and for having an ARRL official visit your station. Also consider setting up a simple 2m FM setup for local contacts - sometimes those are the most fun conversations of the whole weekend!

Four rules that affect amateur radio operators under Part 97 have been marked for deletion by the FCC, effective today. The deleted sections include §97.27 (duplicative license modification provision), §97.29 (obsolete paper license replacement procedure), §97.315(b)(2) (grandfathered pre-1978 HF amplifiers), and §97.521(b) with Appendix 2 (obsolete VEC regions). The FCC adopted a Report and Order in October 2025 to delete almost 400 obsolete rules pertaining to wireless services, with four deletions in Part 97 that govern Amateur Radio. What practical impact do these changes have on current amateur operations? Are there any compliance considerations we should be aware of?

both is a totally valid approach honestly. i use a pi to do the logic and parsing and then it talks to an arduino nano over I2C to handle the actual relay timing and switching. feels cleaner to me, keeps the timing-critical stuff on the microcontroller and the heavy lifting on the pi. bit of extra complexity but once its wired up you forget about it. one thing i'd watch out for with the 7300 and CI-V is that if you have the USB audio going at the same time for digital modes, sometimes the serial communication gets weird. might just be my setup but its something to be aware of if you plan to run FT8 or whatever while the automation is running.

just took mine like 6 weeks ago so this is fresh. the band plan stuff tripped me up more than the theory honestly, like knowing exactly which portions of which bands you get as a General vs Extra vs whatever. there are a few questions that are basically just memorization. the electrical theory i just kind of brute forced by doing practice tests over and over until i recognized the answers, didnt fully understand all of it but got through fine one thing -- once you pass get on HF as fast as you can even if your setup is rough. i literally strung a wire out my window the same weekend and made my first contact on 40m ssb and it was kind of a big deal for me personally. dont wait until you have the perfect antenna or rig because that day never comes

yeah i went through this exact thing last year, switched from flat top to inverted V on 80m and the only thing i really noticed was it was easier to put up lol. signal wise couldnt tell a difference and i was going back and forth checking with a buddy about 200 miles out. he said same either way. i think for most of us the antenna height matters way more than the shape of the dipole honestly

the WSJT-X to N1MM thing actually does work during contests like FD where digital counts, theres a mode in N1MM where it can accept the contacts from WSJT-X via the UDP listener, same basic idea as Log4OM does it. i set it up for field day last year and it was mostly fine though i had one weird stretch where contacts were duplicating and i couldnt figure out if it was a timing issue or what. ended up just manually logging the FT8 stuff in N1MM directly which defeated the purpose but whatever. for the merge question, same boat as you, i've never found a perfect solution. i looked at using cloudlog as a middle layer that everything feeds into but that felt like adding even more complexity. at some point you kind of just accept that ham radio logging software in general is kind of a patchwork situation and nothing talks to everything else perfectly.

so i finally got around to building a proper dipole instead of just using that crappy whip i had. picked up some 14 gauge stranded wire from home depot and cut it to roughly half wavelength for 40m, used the standard 468/f formula and ended up with about 66 feet total. center insulator is just a piece of pvc i drilled holes through and the coax goes down to my rig through about 50 feet of RG-8X. thing is im getting a pretty high SWR around 2.1:1 at the frequency i want to operate and i cant figure out if its the height (its only about 25 feet up right now, inverted-V configuration), the wire length being slightly off, or something with my feedpoint connection. i soldered the coax shield and center directly to the wire legs but maybe i did something wrong there. does the solder joint quality actually matter that much at HF? i feel like it shouldnt but who knows also should i even be worried about 2.1:1 if my tuner can handle it? just want to understand what the actual problem is before i start trimming wire

yeah i was in the same boat when i upgraded. honestly what helped me was just downloading the arrl operating manual and also theres a chart they publish every year showing the band allocations visually by license class. way easier than staring at the actual regulatory text. just double check the date on whatever chart you find because the allocations did change a while back and some old pdfs are still floating around out there