Lisa Wang

you're not wrong about the link antenna's job — if its a dedicated point to point path then a yagi just makes sense, full stop. a collinear on a link site is kind of doing the worst of both worlds, you get some gain but its all going out horizontally in directions you dont need and youre picking up noise from those same directions too. a 6 element on 2m is going to give you somewhere around 10dBd depending on the design and boom length, which is a massive improvement over a GP-9 on a path that's already marginal. the guy worried about mobiles hitting the link antenna is confused about how the system works, like you said. mobiles work the repeater, the repeater works the link, thats the whole point. unless you have some weird hybrid setup where people are supposed to hit the link directly which would be strange. one thing id think about is polarization — if your main repeater is running vertical you want your link yagis to match on both ends, seems obvious but ive seen people mix it up and wonder why they're losing 20db. also worth doing a proper path calc in something like Radio Mobile before climbing anything, might find you dont even need the yagi and the real problem is feedline or a corroded connector somewhere on that old comet.

yeah that pending status can take a little bit just be patient it'll go through. I had one sit for like 3 days once before it processed but it showed up fine eventually. nice work getting it done though, i keep saying im going to do my first activation and keep chickening out honestly

i was in almost the exact same spot last year lol. ended up going with a Wouxun KG-UV9D and honestly im pretty happy with it, its sort of a middle ground — better build than the baofeng, way more memory channels than i'll ever need, and it does some extra bands too which i dont use yet but maybe someday. cost me around 70 bucks on sale i think. one thing nobody told me that i wish they had — budget some money for a better antenna too. the rubber duck antennas that come stock with basically any HT are kinda mediocre and a decent aftermarket one made a noticeable difference for me hitting a repeater thats on the edge of my range. something to keep in mind whatever you end up buying

Nets were honestly what got me comfortable actually talking on the radio so good call trying to find some. I do a few different ones depending on the week. Theres a pretty laid back one on 20m that i check into maybe twice a week, usually around 7pm local, net control is super chill and doesnt mind if you fumble a bit. One thing that helped me was just listening for a few sessions before checking in. you get a feel for the format and what to say and then when you actually check in its not so scary. most nets just want your callsign and maybe your name and location, nothing crazy. Cant really give you specific frequencies without knowing where you are geographically because it matters a lot for which nets you can actually hit reliably. But if you post your general area im sure someone here can point you to something local or regional on HF that would work well for you.

6 contacts is plenty, activation is valid as long as you get 4. i did my first one last spring and was shaking so bad trying to log in my phone i dropped it in the mud. stuff always goes sideways out there, thats kind of the whole point i think. linked dipole is a solid choice for SOTA btw, dont let anyone tell you otherwise

so i've been wanting to get into LEO satellite operation for a while now and last weekend i finally had a good pass over my QTH so i figured i'd just go for it. been reading about it for months but never actually pulled the trigger until now. i set up my FT-818 on the downlink and used my old HT for the uplink, had my phone running Heavens-Above for tracking since i dont have anything automated yet. the pass was about 12 minutes which sounds like plenty of time but honestly it went by so fast i barely figured out what i was hearing before it was gone. i could hear signals on the downlink pretty clearly, definitely voices and some CW mixed in, but my uplink was clearly not getting through or at least i didnt hear myself in the passband. my question is about doppler correction — i was manually tuning to compensate but im not sure i was doing it right. do you correct on the uplink frequency, the downlink, or both? i've seen conflicting info. also is 2.5w on the uplink enough or do i need more power? the antenna situation is just a handheld yagi i was pointing by hand which probably explains alot

RemoteHams really does shine if youre moving the station around or dont have consistent access to do maintenance. the RCForb client side is pretty polished compared to rolling your own, and the SDR remote stuff integrates well if youre using an SDR that plays nice with it. i ran a K3 remotely through it for about 8 months and the latency was genuinely acceptable even on my somewhat sketchy uplink at the remote site. that said if youre already deep into SDR-Console and your current setup mostly works, the learning curve to move everything over might not be worth it unless you have a specific reason. the internet linking piece is more for guys who want to tie into repeater systems and EchoLink type stuff, which is kind of a different use case than pure remote HF operation. one thing i would say is the watchdog and auto-restart stuff in RemoteHams is better than most DIY setups ive seen, that alone might be worth it for your situation with the unreliable Pi.

nice work on the S2S contacts those are always fun to log. i'm still chasing for now and havent activated yet but i've been reading everything i can about it. one thing i noticed is that a lot of activators post an alert on SOTAwatch the day before so chasers know to listen for them, might be worth doing that next time so you get even more in the log. some of the regular chasers set up alerts on their phone for specific summits or bands

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, W4T/SU-001, and man i was not prepared for how much i'd be fighting the wind up there. had my kx2 and a homebrew EFHW strung up between two trees but one of the trees was way closer than i expected and the angle was terrible. spent probably 45 minutes just getting the antenna sorted out before i even turned the radio on. ended up making 4 contacts which i know is the minimum so it counts, but two of them were S2S with guys who were also activating so that was kinda cool. my signal reports were not great, 57 59 mostly, which i think was the antenna situation. anyway just wanted to share since ive been talking about doing this forever and finally did it

so ive been doing FM sats for a while now, worked SO-50 and a bunch of passes on the ISS during special events and felt pretty comfortable with that whole thing. but ive been wanting to try one of the linear transponder birds for ages and finally had a clear enough pass yesterday to give AO-73 a real shot. got my yaesu FT-818 set up on the uplink and a separate VX-8DR just for monitoring the downlink while i twisted the dial, which by the way is way harder than it sounds because you're basically fighting the doppler the whole pass and trying not to trample on other guys at the same time. i could hear signals pretty clearly on the downlink passband but my own signal i only caught once or twice and im not even sure it was me. the tracking software i was using was gpredict and it worked fine for az/el and the doppler prediction, but i noticed the frequency offsets it was calculating seemed slightly off compared to what i was actually hearing. like i had to shift maybe a couple hundred hz more than it wanted me to. could be my reference oscillator being slightly off i guess, or maybe the satellite itself has drifted a bit? anyone else notice this with AO-73 specifically or is this just normal and you kind of calibrate by ear as you go

yeah Field Day is where i got hooked too, different kind of contest obviously but theres something about being out in a field with a generator and a bunch of antennas that just gets you. my club does a big setup every year and even the non-contesters in the group end up glued to the radio by sunday morning. whats your logging software situation? if youre just using paper or something basic now might be a good time to look at N1MM before sweepstakes. took me an embarrassingly long time to start using it properly but once it clicks it makes everything smoother, the dupe checking alone is worth it

so I've been wanting to get my tech license for a while now and I finally decided to just do it. bought a study guide off amazon but honestly its kind of overwhelming? like there's so much stuff in there about electrical theory and regulations and I don't know what to actually focus on or if I should just try to memorize the whole question pool. a guy at the local radio club told me to just use hamstudy.org and grind the questions until I pass but I dont know if I'll actually understand anything that way. I want to actually learn the material not just pass a test. is there a better way to approach this? also how long did it take most of you to feel ready

so ive been a General for about three years now and i keep putting off the Extra exam because honestly the math side of things intimidates me a bit. like i passed the General fine but i remember seeing some of the Extra practice questions and there was stuff about transmission line calculations and filter design that just looked like a whole different world compared to what i was used to. my main question i guess is how much of the actual advanced theory do you really need to understand vs just memorizing the question pool. i know some people just grind the pool and pass but i feel like if im gonna bother at all i want to actually understand what im doing. is there a good resource that explains the theory behind the harder stuff without being a textbook from 1987 also does the Extra actually open up anything useful operating wise or is it mostly just the extra HF spectrum on the low end of the bands

Congrats on passing the exam. Okay so the UV-5R thing — it'll work, it gets the job done, but the receiver is pretty mediocre and the programming software is a bit of a headache. Not saying avoid it forever but as your main radio it might frustrate you more than it should when you're still learning. Honestly for your budget I'd look hard at the Yaesu FT-65 or the BF-F8HP if you really want to stay Baofeng but want something slightly better than the base UV-5R. The FT-65 is usually around $60-70 and the build quality just feels more solid. But if you can stretch to like $150-170, the Yaesu FT-70DR is dual band and has the C4FM digital capability which you might not use right away but its nice to have as the local repeater scene shifts more toward digital. For APRS you can actually use a cheap HT plus something like an APRSDroid setup on your phone with a cable — works surprisingly well and way cheaper than getting a radio with built-in APRS. The TH-D74 has APRS but that's like $500+ and probably overkill for where you're starting. Get on the air first, figure out what you actually use, then upgrade from a position of knowing what you want.

honest answer -- it took me about 18 months to feel truly comfortable at 20wpm but i wasnt being very systematic about it. the plateau you're hitting around 10-12 is super common, thats where most people stall out because the easy gains from learning characters are done and now it's just about building the neural pathways through repetition which takes time and feels like nothing is happening for weeks. the thing that actually unstuck me was forcing myself onto the air even when i felt not ready. the W1AW code practice transmissions are great for this -- they send at multiple speeds and you can just listen without any pressure. but honestly getting on a slow speed net even if you're copying at 60% is way more useful than drills because real QSO rhythm is different from random characters. also try listening to stuff slightly above your comfort zone, like if you can copy 10wpm start listening to 13 or 14 and dont worry about getting everything. your brain will start catching up over time. 20-30 min a day is actually fine if it's consistent, don't let anyone tell you you need 2 hours. consistency beats duration every time with CW.