Anthony Davis

This is making me want to try WWFF, i've done a few POTA activations but didnt realize WWFF was kind of a separate thing with its own references. Are the parks the same or is there overlap? Like can you count a QSO for both programs at once?

had a 991A for about 18 months before i upgraded and it served me well. only thing i'd say is check when it was manufactured because the earlier ones had some known issues with the finals that Yaesu quietly revised. not saying it's a dealbreaker just worth asking the seller if it was ever serviced or if he knows the production batch. you can usually tell from the serial number range, theres info on eham about it. also the 991A menus are kind of a pain compared to the 7300 touchscreen, took me forever to remember where everything was. minor thing but after a while it gets annoying when youre trying to change something mid-QSO.

oh man welcome to the rabbit hole haha. CQ WW is honestly one of those things where you can go as deep or as shallow as you want. plenty of people just jump on for a few hours, work whatever sounds good, and call it a day. you dont have to be in some serious single-op category grinding for 48 hours straight. just get on, listen for stations calling CQ contest, give them your zone number when they ask for it, and log the contact. thats really all there is to the basics. for software i'd say just download N1MM+ before the weekend, there are tons of youtube tutorials and it handles all the dupe checking and multiplier tracking automatically which makes life way easier. pen and paper works technically but youll lose track of stuff fast when the bands are busy. also check out 3830scores.com after the weekend to see how everyone did, its kind of addicting reading other peoples writeups

oh and dont forget to check if there are any other activators on the same summit that day through the alerts page, not that it matters much for your activation but its kinda fun to know. also the EFHW should work great, i used a similar setup on a few W6 summits and 40m is usually the money band in the morning before it closes up. good luck

so ive been on HF for about two years now and i keep getting reports that my audio is kind of muddy or 'bassy' and honestly i cant tell because it sounds fine to me on the monitor. running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which should theoretically be a pretty solid combo but something isnt clicking. i messed around with the TX bandwidth settings and the bass/treble in the menu but i feel like im just turning knobs without really understanding what im doing. a guy on 40m last week told me to cut below 300hz and boost around 2-2.5k and it made a noticeable difference but i dont fully get the why behind it. is it just about fitting the audio into the SSB passband better or is there more to it than that also should i be using ALC at all or is that something to avoid on voice. i know for digital modes its a whole different thing but for phone i genuinely dont know what the 'right' approach is with ALC and mic gain. feels like every time i read about it i get a conflicting answer

I was nervous about my first net check-in too! If you need to ask a question or comment, just say 'Comment' and the NCS will acknowledge you for follow-up remarks. Everyone was very patient when I fumbled through my first few times. You'll do fine!

Had similar issue on my 2M yagi. Turned out to be water intrusion in the feed assembly. Use dielectric grease on all connections and check that seals are intact. Also measure DC resistance across the driven element in both orientations - should be identical.

the balun debate will go on forever honestly, for a simple backyard 40m dipole i wouldn't lose sleep over it. if your feedline is running perpendicular to the antenna for a decent length you might not even notice any common mode issues in practice. that said a simple 1:1 current balun made from a few turns of coax through a mix 31 toroid isn't hard or expensive to make and just removes the variable. i made mine in about 20 minutes and i stop wondering about it. the solid 14 gauge copper will work fine electrically, it's actually got lower resistance than a lot of the thinner stuff people use. the issue is exactly what you said, it's stiff and doesn't hang as nice, and if the wind gets it moving around a lot over months or years it can work harden and eventually crack at stress points like where you attach to an insulator. for a temporary setup or if you're going to support it well it's completely fine. if you want it to last a few years with no fuss, some #14 or #16 stranded THHN from the hardware store is cheap and works great.

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and yeah its great for working new entities and all that but honestly it feels like a slot machine more than amateur radio sometimes. you click a call, exchange signal reports, 73, done. i get why people like it but im starting to want something with a little more... substance i guess. somebody at my club mentioned JS8Call and i looked into it a bit, seems like its built on the same weak signal stuff as FT8 but you can actually type messages back and forth? ran it for a few evenings on 40m and did get a couple short QSOs but i found myself waiting forever between responses and sometimes the other station just drops off mid conversation which is frustrating. i guess my question is whether thats just normal for JS8Call or if im doing something wrong with timing. also curious if PSK31 is even worth bothering with anymore for ragchewing, i used to use it back in the day and it was pretty decent but havent touched it in years. feels like the waterfalls on 14.070 are a lot more empty than they used to be.

so ive been putting this off for like two years because i was nervous about opening up the radio but finally just did it last weekend. pulled the mars/cap mod on my FT-857D so i can cover the extended TX range and also went ahead and did the collins filter swap while i had everything apart. took me about 3 hours which is embarrassing because honestly its not that complicated once you get the covers off. the filter swap made a way bigger difference than i expected on SSB receive, the stock filter is honestly pretty mediocre and i dont know why yaesu still ships these with it. also redid the mic gain and processor settings after because the defaults seem kinda off after the mod, not sure if thats just coincidence or if i bumped something. anyway if anyones been on the fence about doing this, at least the filter part, its worth it. just take your time with the connectors on the display assembly because those ribbon cables are not happy when you force them

the waterfall thing is real, i had the same reaction when i got mine. dismissed it as a toy feature for a long time and then realized i was using it basically every single QSO to check for QRM before transmitting. the 7300 kinda changed how i operate without me really noticing it happening. on the receiver comparison — i think what youre picking up on is real. the 590 has a slightly different front end topology and some guys who do careful comparisons say it holds up better in very dense band conditions. but for most operating the 7300 is totally fine and the SDR based architecture gives you things the older design just cant do. tradeoffs everywhere. what antenna you running it into? im curious how the built in ATU is handling things for you, mine sometimes needs a little coaxing on 60m with my doublet.

motorboating in that kind of circuit is almost always a power supply decoupling problem, usually between stages sharing a rail. the LM386 fix you did was right instinct but if your IF amp stages are pulling from the same line without good isolation between them youll get that feedback path through the supply. try putting a small resistor — like 47 to 100 ohms — in series with the supply to each IF stage and then bypass each one locally to ground with like a 100uf in parallel with a 0.1uf ceramic. belts and suspenders approach but it usually kills it. also the MPF102 preamp can be a noise contributor if its biased too hot, worth checking the drain current, i usually run those around 2-3ma for receive applications. the sensitivity question is harder to answer without knowing more about your IF strip gain. two stages with ceramic filters can have quite a bit of insertion loss depending on which filters you grabbed, some of the cheap ones are surprisingly lossy. what part numbers are on them if you can read it?

honestly i spent way too long being weird about this when i first started. just use phonetics whenever theres any doubt and dont stress about it. the NATO ones are worth memorizing properly tho because if you ever do any emcomm stuff or get into HF DX pileups you really dont want to be the guy saying something non-standard in a busy net, people will just not understand you and move on

I've been researching CW learning methods and I'm getting confused by all the different approaches. There's the Farnsworth method (spacing between letters) and Koch method (character learning order), plus various other systems. I keep seeing advice about staying in the "learning zone" where you're missing 30-50% of characters for optimal learning. But I also see recommendations for starting with just 2 characters at full speed until 90% proficiency, then adding more. Questions: Which method has the best success rate for complete beginners?Should character speed always be higher than overall WPM?Any scientific studies comparing these approaches?

so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general class) and i keep hearing people talk about CQ WW and field day and SOTA and honestly i have no idea where to start. like i know what these are in theory but i dont know which one is actually fun for a newer person or if i'd just be frustrated the whole time trying to figure it out while everyone else is zooming along. i have a pretty basic setup, ic-7300 with a wire dipole in the attic which i know isnt ideal but its what i got in a HOA situation. mostly been doing casual SSB and a little FT8 but ive never actually operated in a contest context. the exchange stuff confuses me a bit — like do i need to have everything memorized before i start or can i just kind of look it up as i go also is there a difference in terms of difficulty between like CQ WW vs ARRL field day for beginners? any thoughts appreciated, i dont want to make a fool of myself on the air

this is something i struggle with bad. i mostly do digital modes now because i got so frustrated with pileups lol but even on FT8 working a rare entity during a DXpedition is its own kind of chaos — the log fill rate goes nuts and if your signal isnt getting decoded consistently youre just spinning your wheels. one thing i read somewhere was about working split even on FT8 which i hadnt really thought about before, like choosing a less congested TX frequency in the DX's listening window. makes sense in theory. havent fully figured out the timing thing on digital the same way you described for CW though, its a bit more mechanical with the 15 second slots. anyway good write up, gives me stuff to think about for when i do try SSB or CW pileups more seriously.

yeah check the fan is actually spinning and not just starting to seize up, had a completely unrelated radio do something like this and the fan was the culprit. even if the shack is cool the rig itself can get hot if air isnt moving through it properly.

your antenna situation is honestly fine for getting started with QRP, dont overthink it. a 40m dipole at 25 feet is not ideal but its real and it works. ive made plenty of contacts with worse. the thing about QRP is yeah you need a decent antenna but decent doesnt mean perfect, it just means resonant and not lossy. if your dipole is working on 100w it'll work on 5w, you'll just need to be a little more patient and maybe pick your times better — early morning 40m is usually pretty good for stateside stuff. for the QCX Mini build specifically, take your time with the toroids. winding those little cores is the fiddly part and its easy to lose count. some people put a tiny dot of nail polish to mark where they start. also the alignment procedure at the end is important, dont skip it or rush it, thats what gets you the efficiency out of the PA stage. there are some good build videos on youtube, Hans does walkthroughs and the community around those kits is really helpful if you get stuck.

not sure if this applies but i once chased a similar issue on a different radio for like two weeks and it ended up being a cracked solder joint on one of the switching diodes that selects the band filter. super tiny crack, looked fine visually until i hit it with good lighting and magnification. might be worth a close look at the band switching section if you havent already, especially if the radio's seen any thermal cycling or been dropped at some point. those hairline cracks are annoying to find but easy to fix once you see them.

yeah im planning on going, my buddy from the repeater club mentioned the swap meet portion is gonna be bigger this year cause they moved to the fairgrounds instead of the VFW hall. should be way more table space. I always end up spending more than i should on coax and connectors i dont need but hey thats half the fun right

so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just been doing 2m/70cm stuff with my handheld and a j-pole on the roof. its been fun but honestly i feel like im hitting a wall with what i can do locally and some guys at the club keep talking about HF and making contacts across the country and even overseas and it sounds really cool. anyway i started looking into the general exam and i have a few questions. first off how hard is it compared to the tech exam? i remember the tech exam being not terrible but there was a lot of stuff about regulations that tripped me up. also whats the best way to study, like is hamstudy.org still the go-to thing people use or is there something better now? and how long did it take you guys to feel ready? im not trying to rush it but also dont want to spend 6 months studying for something if i dont have to. also one more thing - once i actually pass do i need to wait for my license to update in the FCC database before i can use HF or can i do it right away? i feel like i read something about that but cant remember what the rules actually are.

oh man don't stress about it, nets are literally the friendliest thing in ham radio, like that's basically their whole purpose. most of them work like this — the net control will announce the net is open and ask for check-ins, and you just wait for a pause and then say your callsign phonetically. something like "Whiskey 5 X-Ray Yankee Zulu, checking in" and thats really it. net control will acknowledge you, maybe ask if you have traffic or just welcome you, and then you're in the log. some nets have a little more structure where they go around and let everyone say a sentence or two, but honestly even if you fumble your phonetics nobody cares, we all did it at some point. just listen to the first few check-ins before you do yours and you'll pick up the format real fast. the special event station is kinda different — those are usually set up for a specific purpose and they're more like a contact you make, not really a check-in situation, but they're super fun to work if you get the chance. they sometimes hand out certificates or QSL cards too which is a nice bonus when youre just starting out.