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.

so ive had this gap titan vertical up for about three years now and honestly im just tired of fighting it. the thing needs a really good ground system to perform well and my yard situation just doesnt allow for a proper radial field, i've got maybe 8 radials buried under the lawn and i know thats not enough but the wife would kill me if i dug up more of the garden. performance on 40 and 80 has always felt mediocre at best, like im always 2-3 S units down compared to what guys in the pileup are hearing from other stations in my general area. anyway im thinking about just pulling it down and throwing up a simple wire dipole for 40m, maybe sloped or inverted vee since i only have one decent support which is a big oak tree at about 45 feet. i know a proper dipole will smoke the vertical on receive at least, but im wondering about the radiation angle difference for DX. with only one support im probably doing an inverted vee and i've read the angle opens up a bit compared to a flat top dipole which hurts you on DX. how much does that actually matter in the real world, like is it noticeable or just a theoretical concern that doesnt really play out on the air. also thought about a fan dipole to cover multiple bands but ive never built one and not sure if the interactions between the elements cause problems or if its pretty forgiving. anyone running one of those off a single feedpoint with good results

okay so i passed my tech exam back in april and have just been lurking and reading ever since, borrowing a friends old baofeng at club meetings which honestly has been fine but i want my own radio now. problem is every time i go down a rabbit hole online i end up more confused than when i started. like i thought i had settled on a yaesu ft-65 because someone at the club recommended it and the price seemed reasonable, but then someone else said i should just get a baofeng uv-5r to start and save money, and then a third person said spend a little more and get something with a better receiver like the alinco dj-vx50 or whatever its called. and now ive been reading about the kenwood th-d75a which is way out of my budget but sounds incredible. mostly i just want something for local repeaters and maybe some simplex stuff at events. i do want dual band at minimum. dont really need aprs right now but maybe someday? not sure if i should future-proof or just get something cheap and upgrade later. what would you guys actually do if you were starting over

so ive been checking in on 40m most evenings this week and its just... nothing. maybe a few ssb guys chatting around 7.200 but the usual crowd that hangs around 7.250 seems to have evaporated. not sure if its propagation or people just moving to other bands or what. i know solar flux has been doing weird stuff lately but this feels different. maybe everyones on ft8 now and i just refuse to accept it lol. anyway just curious if anyone else is noticing the same thing or if its just my local area being weird

yeah the band plan trips people up all the time dont feel bad. the FCC frequency allocations for each license class are in part 97.301 and 97.305 if you want to look them up directly but honestly the easiest thing is just to download the ARRL band plan chart and stick it on the wall near your rig. 14.200 is fine for general on 20m, whoever told you to check your privileges was either wrong or maybe thought you were doing something else, hard to say without knowing the full situation. on the encryption thing, the rule is in 97.113 and basically you cant use codes or ciphers to obscure the meaning of your transmissions. the auxiliary link thing is a narrow exception that applies to certain automated control situations, its not really something that affects most normal operating. if youre just doing voice or digital modes like FT8 or JS8Call youre fine, those arent encrypted even though they look like gibberish to the ear.

so ive been doing single op for years and finally got a second radio set up for SO2R. running an IC-7300 on the main and a borrowed FT-991A on the second. interlock is handled with a basic MK2R+ and the antennas are at least 90 degrees offset so the isolation is decent enough that im not blowing up my front ends, most of the time anyway. the problem i ran into during the last CQ WW is that my rate actually DROPPED compared to SO1R. which i know sounds ridiculous but i think im spending too much mental energy managing the second radio and not enough just cranking through QSOs on the run frequency. i watched some of the SO2R guys in the contesting videos and they make it look completely seamless but in practice i keep missing my own CQs or fumbling the exchange because im half listening to something on radio 2 while trying to talk on radio 1. is this just something that takes dozens of contests to get comfortable with or am i missing some fundamental setup thing that makes it click. also curious how people handle the audio mixing — right now i have the two radios panned hard left and right in my headphones and i find it more distracting than helpful. wondering if mono mixing both to center is actually better for some people or if i just need to train my brain to separate them

welcome to the club haha. i remember my first activation was way less dramatic than i expected which was kind of a relief honestly. i think a lot of new people psych themselves out thinking its going to be chaos and high pressure but most of the time its pretty calm and methodical if your group has done the training right. the traffic handling thing you mentioned is spot on. i used to think the formal message format stuff was kind of overkill for local stuff but when youre tired and its loud and someone needs a headcount passed accurately, having that muscle memory for structured message handling is genuinely useful. our group drills it pretty regularly on the Thursday night net and i used to skip those but not anymore.

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about chasing DXCC, working all states, WAZ and i honestly have no idea how any of it fits together or even where to start. like are these all separate things you track separately? do you have to pay for all of them? i worked a station in Japan last week and got super excited but i dont even know if i logged it right or what i need to do to actually get credit for it toward anything. also someone mentioned LoTW and QSL cards and i got even more confused. do you need both? my elmer kind of glossed over this part and i feel like im missing something obvious that everyone else just knows. sorry if this is a dumb question

so ive been messing with Winlink Express for the past couple weeks and i think i mostly have it figured out but the gateway selection stuff is still tripping me up. like i get the basic concept — you connect to an RMS gateway, it relays your message through the Winlink system, eventually lands in the recipients inbox. fine. but when i pull up the RMS list in the client it shows me like 30 stations sorted by distance and i have no idea which ones are actually good to connect to vs just showing up on the list because they exist somewhere. my setup right now is a Signalink USB into a Yaesu FT-991A, running Vara HF as my modem. ive gotten a few connections to work on 20m but sometimes it just times out after like 4 or 5 attempts and i dont know if thats a propagation thing or if the gateway is just dead. is there a way to tell if a gateway is actually active before you try connecting? the last heard timestamp in the system doesnt always seem reliable to me, had one show a recent timestamp and it just wouldnt connect at all. also the message handling side — when i send a message to a regular email address does it just go, or is there a delay? asking because im trying to figure out if this is viable for our ARES group to use for actual traffic handling during an exercise next month and i want to know what to actually expect instead of finding out the hard way during the drill.

so ive been on HF for about two years now and SSB is still kind of frustrating me in terms of how I sound on the other end. I run an IC-7300 which supposedly has decent audio right out of the box but ive had a few guys tell me im either too bassy or kind of muffled sounding. I do use the stock mic which is probably part of it but before I go buy something new I wanted to figure out if its a settings thing first. I know there's the TX monitor feature on the 7300 so I've been listening to myself a bit and honestly it doesn't sound terrible to me but I also don't really know what I'm listening for. like what does good SSB audio actually sound like vs just okay audio. someone on the air told me to roll off the low end and boost around 2k or something but I didn't really get the full explanation before the band shifted and I lost him. also does mic gain matter as much as people say it does or is ALC the thing I should actually be watching. I see the ALC jumping around a lot when I talk and I'm not sure if thats normal or a problem. any thoughts appreciated, been bugging me for a while

the 990 is a beast but its also a boat anchor, thing weighs like 30 lbs i think? my buddy has one and the DSP and filtering is legitimately impressive especially on 40m when its a warzone at night but you kind of have to commit desk real estate to it. also the UI is very kenwood circa 2013 which takes some getting used to after the 7300 touchscreen stuff. not saying dont get it, just depends what your shack looks like and how much you care about ergonomics vs raw rx performance. personally id probably go 7610 in your situation just for the continuity with icom and you already know how to drive it.