Thomas Wilson

yeah what he said about the band edge is real, i learned that one the hard way early on. was operating SSB and had my dial sitting right at the bottom of my phone allocation and someone pointed out my lower sideband was stomping on the digital guys below. you have to think about where your actual transmitted signal is, not just where the dial says, and with LSB on 40m your signal goes down from the carrier frequency so you want to be at least a few kHz above whatever the lower limit of your segment is.
also just worth mentioning the 40m band plan varies by region too, like ITU region 1 (europe etc) has slightly different allocations so if you start working DX you might notice guys operating in places that seem weird to you. totally normal just different rules in different parts of the world.

so ive been running SSB on 40m mostly, some 20m, for about two years now and i keep getting reports that my audio is muddy or bassy or just kinda hard to copy. Im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which from what i understand should be a pretty solid combo. I've got the mic gain set around 50% and the RF power at about 80 watts into a dipole at 35 feet.
the thing is i hear other guys on the band who sound absolutely crisp and punchy and i have no idea what theyre doing differently. ive messed with the bass and treble in the radio's menu a bit but honestly i dont really know what im doing in there. someone told me to cut the bass and boost the mids but that felt wrong to me. is there a good starting point for the audio settings on the 7300 specifically or just SSB in general? also wondering if mic positioning matters as much as people say because i see some guys with the mic practically touching their lips and others who hold it a foot away

honestly i was in the same boat like six months ago. what helped me was just keeping a little notepad next to the radio and writing down anything i didnt recognize and looking it up after. you also start to figure them out from context pretty quick. like if someone says QRM on the frequency you can usually tell from the conversation that somethings causing interferance. the one that confused me for a while was QRX, which means stand by or wait a moment, people dont use that one as much but it shows up. oh and 55 means good luck, see that sometimes in contesting. most of the older abbreviations that arent technically Q codes are just CW shorthand that carried over to voice, stuff like OM which is old man basically just means male operator, YL is young lady for any female operator regardless of age, XYL is wife. its a whole little language honestly

so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general) and ive been lurking on the local 2m repeater net on Sunday nights but never actually checked in. i guess i was nervous about messing up the format or saying something wrong. last week i finally did it and the net control was super patient with me and honestly it was not a big deal at all.
now im wondering if i should branch out and try some of the HF nets too. i've heard about things like the 75 meter morning nets and some of the ARRL nets but i dont really know where to find schedules or how different they are from a basic repeater net. is there like one place where all the net schedules are listed? also what about special event stations, ive seen people talking about working them but i have no idea how you even find out when they're happening or what frequency they'll be on

so ive been at this for about 8 months now and honestly the first few months felt great, went from barely recognizing the letters to copying pretty solid at 5wpm and then 8wpm. but somewhere around 10-12wpm things just kind of... stalled. like i can still copy if the letters come slow enough but the moment it speeds up even a little bit my brain just locks up and i start trying to count dits and dahs again which i know is totally the wrong approach.
ive been using the Koch method on and off but i got impatient and jumped ahead too fast i think. someone at my local club told me i need to just listen to a lot of high speed code even if i cant copy it, kind of like immersion? not sure if thats actually true or just one of those things people say. also using LCWO and doing about 20 minutes a day, sometimes more on weekends. is that enough? should i be doing more sessions but shorter? really not sure what the right approach is here and its a little discouraging when i see guys on the air rattling off 25wpm like its nothing.
any advice from people who have actually been through this plateau would be really appreciated. de KB3MXQ

10m is weird like that, it can go from completely dead to absolutely insane in like 20 minutes. the thing most people dont realize starting out is you gotta be watching the right indicators AND be in the right place at the right time, which sounds obvious but its harder than it sounds. your best bet is to keep an eye on the DX cluster for 10m spots — when you start seeing a bunch of spots popping up for 28 MHz you know somethings happening. also check the solar wind data not just the SFI, a high flux number doesnt automatically mean 10m is open, the K-index matters a lot too, if its elevated you can have great flux but crappy conditions because of geomagnetic disturbance.
from ohio youre actually in a pretty decent spot for transatlantic openings, usually mid morning to early afternoon your local time is worth watching, like 9am to 1pm or so for Europe. South America can open up later in the day. just park on 28.400 or so and call CQ or listen, and honestly check DXmaps.com, it shows realtime 10m spots on a map and its really satisfying to watch when a big opening is happening.

ok so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and everyone seems to be using these shorthand codes constantly and i can only figure out some of them from context. like i get that QSL means something like acknowledged or confirmed but then theres QRM and QRN and QSB and honestly i have no idea what half of them mean. is there like a standard list somewhere or did people just kind of make these up over time
also heard someone say 73 at the end of a contact and i assumed that was just like a goodbye type thing, is that right? and whats 88 mean i heard that too but only a couple times
sorry if this is a dumb question just trying to understand whats going on before i actually get on the air myself

DXWatch has been solid for me during the recent DXpeditions. It provides modern web-based service with real-time spot filtering and customizable views. The watchlist feature is great once you create an account. I think the occasional glitches are worth it for the better interface.