Steven Patel

the timeout issue on VHF is almost always either a tone level mismatch or the gateway is just down/busy — a lot of the RMS gateways around here are volunteer-run so they go offline without warning. try checking the gateway's last heard time on winlink.org before connecting, if it hasnt been heard in more than a few hours its probably down. for the VARA FM thing, make sure your drive level in the VARA settings isnt too hot. a lot of people crank it thinking more is better but it actually causes the modem to reject the connection on the other end. somewhere around 50-60% drive is usually a good starting point and then you tune from there by watching the waterfall. also double check your PTT delay, the Signalink has that little trim pot and if the radio isnt fully keyed up before the tones start going out youll get a garbage handshake every time. as for the store and forward question — yes it queues at the CMS (the central server, not the RMS) and the recipient doesnt have to be on at the same time. when they connect next time their client pulls down waiting messages. if youre sending to a regular email address it forwards pretty much immediately once the CMS receives it from the RMS gateway. the RMS is just the radio-to-internet bridge, the real routing happens at the CMS infrastructure on the backend.

the plateau you're describing around 8-9wpm is super common and theres actually a name for it sometimes, the "code plateau" and it happens because your brain is still sounding out dits and dahs individually instead of hearing the whole character as one sound. the Farnsworth thing your club buddy mentioned is real and it works, but you gotta be consistent with it, like doing it for 20 minutes every single day beats an hour on the weekend every time. what clicked for me was honestly just listening to actual on-air QSOs even when i couldnt copy much. something about hearing real signals with real operators doing real exchanges made my brain start recognizing common words and abbreviations almost automatically. 73, CQ, UR, RST... you hear those enough and they just become units, not individual letters. took me maybe 6 months of daily practice to get comfortable around 15wpm and another few months after that to feel solid at 20. dont rush it, the speed comes when it comes

oh man i had the same exact confusion when i started lol. one thing that helped me was just keeping a little cheat sheet next to the radio for the first few months. QRZ still trips me up sometimes when a pile up is going crazy and everyone is calling at once. also dont forget OM means old man which sounds rude but its just how guys refer to each other, and YL is young lady which again just tradition. and 55 means good luck which you dont hear super often but it does pop up. also de just means from in morse so like W1ABC de K5XYZ just means K5XYZ calling W1ABC basically

so ive been messing around with remote station stuff for about 6 months now and im at that point where i have to decide whether to just commit to RemoteHams or keep trying to glue together my own solution with a raspberry pi, some port forwarding, and whatever else i can throw at it my current setup is a ft-991a at the home QTH connected through a basic VPN, works okay for SSB but the audio latency is all over the place and forget about CW, its basically unusable past maybe 20wpm because of the delay. i saw someone at the club using RemoteHams with their SDR setup and it looked really smooth, like noticeably smoother than what i have going on the SDR remote side of it is what actually interests me more though — the idea of being able to tune around with a wideband SDR from anywhere, use it as a panadapter remotely, that kind of thing. does anyone have real world experience with RemoteHams using the SDR interface specifically? and how does it handle when your internet connection at the remote end isnt great, like say youre on hotel wifi or a phone hotspot also curious if anyone has tried linking this stuff into any VOIP or internet linking setups, like i know some guys run echolink nodes and wires-x and i wonder if theres any crossover there or if thats just a totally different world

so i passed my technician exam on the 14th and been spending the past week just listening around on my baofeng trying to figure out what the heck is going on lol. finally worked up the nerve to key up on the local repeater yesterday afternoon and a guy came back to me right away, we talked for maybe 10 minutes about nothing in particular, he was just really welcoming and patient with me when i forgot my callsign mid-transmission which was embarrassing. anyway just wanted to say hi to everyone here, ive been lurking this forum for like 2 months while studying and you all helped me more than you know. now i gotta figure out what to do next i guess, everyones telling me to get a better radio but honestly the baofeng seems fine for now while im still figuring things out

Also remember you must give the exact prefix, numeral, and suffix for each call sign - general requests like 'any call with my initials' will be dismissed. The FCC wants specific calls, not wish lists!

this is really helpful actually, im fairly new and pileups still kind of intimidate me honestly. i tried calling a VK9 a few weeks ago and just gave up after like 20 minutes because i had no idea what i was doing wrong. wasnt even sure if my signal was getting out at all or if i was just in the wrong part of the split window the whole time. is there a way to tell if youre even close to where the DX is listening or do you just have to kind of guess and move around?

so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and every time i get on HF especially on CW or even just listening to SSB nets there are all these abbreviations flying around and i only know like 3 of them. QSL i get, QTH i figured out, and QRM i heard someone complain about once and looked it up. but then someone said something about QSB and QRN and QRP and honestly it just goes on forever. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just kind of pick these up over time? also whats the difference between 73 and 88 because i thought 73 was just goodbye but someone used 88 and i didnt want to ask on air and sound dumb

yeah what he said. i checked into my first net like three months ago and literally just said my callsign wrong and net control just asked me to repeat it, no big deal at all. everyone on nets is pretty used to new people coming in. the special event stuff is seperate usually from the net itself but sometimes they announce frequencies and times during the net so its a good way to find out about them. good luck tuesday

not a dumb question at all, this trips up a lot of new generals. so the short version is the FCC allocation is the legal limit — that's the actual law. the ARRL band plan is more of a gentlemans agreement about where different modes tend to hang out within that allocation, it isnt enforceable but most people follow it to keep things organized. the band edge thing is important though and you're right to think about it. when you tune your radio to say 7.125 on USB, your carrier is at 7.125 but your actual voice is going up in frequency from there, so your signal could easily extend up to 7.127 or 7.128 depending on your audio. the rule is your whole signal has to stay within the allocation, not just your dial frequency. so on the lower phone edge of 40m you'd want some breathing room, probably stay at 7.128 or above to be safe. same idea applies at the top of any band, you dont want your signal spilling outside the allocation. honestly just hang around for a bit and listen to where people are actually operating before you jump in, that'll give you a better feel for it than any chart will

yeah the EFHW is way quicker once you get used to it, especially if you pre-wind it on a winder card thing. i ditched the linked dipole after my second activation, just too fiddly when youre cold or tired. the 49:1 unun and some wire is basically all you need. only downside is you gotta get the far end up somehow but usually a tree works fine. 7 contacts isnt bad for a first go honestly, and at least you know what to fix now. the cold fingers fumbling thing is real, i started keeping a pair of thin gloves just for setup now even in not that cold weather

ok so i just got my technician license about 3 weeks ago and ive been trying to get on the local FM repeater but nobody seems to hear me. the repeater itself is coming in loud and clear on my baofeng, i can hear other people talking on it just fine. but whenever i key up nobody responds and honestly im not even sure if im making it onto the repeater at all. i looked up the repeater on repeaterbook and it says it needs a 100.0 Hz tone. i programmed that into my radio as the transmit tone but still nothing. do i need to also set a receive tone or is that a separate thing? and also is there some kind of protocol for getting on a repeater for the first time, like do you just say your callsign and wait or is there something else you're supposed to do been reading a lot but honestly some of this stuff just doesnt click until you actually try it i guess

so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now, like a couple years honestly, but every time i try to look into it i get overwhelmed by all the info out there and dont know where to start. my neighbor is a ham and he keeps telling me to just take the test but i dont even know what the test covers or how hard it is or anything really i guess my main question is what did you guys use to study and how long did it take you. i work full time so i dont have a ton of time to dedicate to it but im not in a huge rush either. also is the technician test the one i should be going for first or is there something easier i should do before that sorry if this is a really basic question, i looked around the forum a bit and couldnt find a thread that really answered this for me

so ive been running a diamond x50 on my roof for maybe three years now and it works fine for hitting the local 2m and 70cm repeaters but theres one machine about 45 miles out that i can barely scratch. maybe 5-7 watts from the shack depending on what rig i grab, usually the 857 or my old FT-2900 just for 2m. a buddy of mine keeps telling me to just put up a yagi but honestly i dont want to deal with pointing it every time i want to use a different repeater, like yeah i know i could mount it on a rotator but thats a whole project and the wife already has opinions about the x50 being up there. was thinking maybe a longer collinear would get me there without the drama, like a comet gp-9 or something with more gain. but then i read someone saying collinears past a certain gain start having takeoff angle issues at closer distances which i sort of half understand. anybody actually done this comparison on a real install, not just theory? wondering if more dbi on a vertical is actually going to help or if im chasing something that wont matter at 45 miles over hilly terrain

First off, good on you for being willing to show up — honestly that's more than half the battle. A lot of people join ARES and then vanish when things get real. What you'll usually find at the EOC is that there's already a net control or an ARES liaison who's coordinating everything. You check in with them, they'll log your callsign and what equipment you have, and then they'll assign you somewhere. If it's your first time they might put you on a quieter assignment like message handling or just monitoring a secondary frequency while the more experienced folks work the primary traffic. That's actually fine — pay attention to what's happening around you and you'll learn a ton just from watching. For gear, besides the HT and batteries I'd say bring something to write on (actual paper, spiral notebook, whatever), snacks and water for at least several hours because you might be there a while, and maybe a portable charger for your phone. Some folks bring a handheld scanner too just to monitor other agencies but that's not essential starting out. Oh and dress comfortably in layers — EOCs can be weirdly cold or weirdly hot depending on the building. You're not going to be in the way as long as you stay off the radio until someone tells you to key up. Just be calm, follow instructions, and ask questions if you're genuinely confused about something. Good luck with the activation, hope it stays mild.

so i finally got off my butt and did a proper WWFF activation at a state wildlife management area about 45 minutes from my house. been meaning to do it for like two years and just kept putting it off. anyway i threw the KX2 in a backpack with my linked dipole and hiked about a mile in to a nice flat spot near a creek and set up against a big oak tree, had the antenna strung between two branches which worked surprisingly well. managed 47 QSOs over about two hours, mostly 40m with a few on 20m toward the end. logged it all with HAMRS which i know some people have issues with but it worked fine for me. uploaded to ADIF and submitted to the WWFF database through their portal and i think it went through okay, got a confirmation email eventually. couple things im not sure about though — do i need to be in a specific part of the reference area or is anywhere within the boundary okay? like i didnt go to the actual designated trail or anything, just found a good spot inside the area boundaries. and also does the 44 QSO minimum apply per band or total? i read the rules like three times and got confused. the website could honestly be clearer about this. anyone done a bunch of these that can help?

yeah the SA612 is good but getting harder to find. i ended up using a couple 2N2222s in a gilbert cell mixer on my last build and it worked ok. not as good as the IC but cheaper and you can actually buy the parts lol. main thing is keep that local oscillator stable or youll be chasing the signal all over the place

i just passed mine last month actually. the theory stuff looked scary going in but a lot of it you can get through with hamstudy just drilling questions. i wont pretend i fully understand every single thing about filter design but i understood enough to pass and picked up more than i expected along the way. the band privileges do matter if you ever get into any kind of serious operating, even just chasing DX casually, those extra segments on 80 and 40 make a difference when the band is crowded

So this has been bugging me for a couple weeks now. My position beacons are showing up fine on aprs.fi, people can see me moving around when I'm mobile, all that works great. But whenever I try to send an APRS message to another station — like an actual text message through the network — it just disappears. The other guy never gets it, and I never get an ack back. I'm running a TM-D710G with the built in TNC, connected to a mag mount on the truck. The RF path shows WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 and I can see my packets getting digi'd and hitting the IS through a local igate. So the path is definitely working for position reports. But messages just vanish. I've tried sending to a couple different guys who are definitely on the air and active, checked their beacons on the map, they're right there. Nothing goes through. Is there something specific I need to configure differently for messaging vs just beaconing? I feel like I'm missing something obvious but I cant figure out what it is.

oh man yeah totally felt the same way, i literally sat with my HT for three days before i finally just keyed up on a local net and said my callsign. the thing is nobody is going to judge you, most people on the repeater are just happy to hear a new voice. find out if your local club has a weekly net and just check in, thats probably the easiest first QSO you can make because the net control is literally expecting people to call in. also dont worry too much about the baofeng audio, mine sounded fine on the repeater. just make sure your CTCSS tone is set right or you wont even get into the repeater and then youll wonder why nobody responds lol

ok so ive been licensed about 14 months now (general) and i keep hearing about CQ WW being this massive deal and i finally decided im just gonna jump in and try it this october. ive done a few small contests, the state QSO party and one ARRL VHF thing but nothing on this scale. from what i understand CQ WW SSB is at the end of october and CQ WW CW is in november, i'm planning to do the SSB one first since my cw is still pretty rough. my setup is nothing fancy, ic-7300 into a g5rv up about 30 feet so its not ideal but ive worked some dx with it so maybe itll be ok. what i dont really get is the zone multiplier thing, like i understand countries but the zones confuse me a bit. also is it worth submitting a log even if my score is gonna be terrible? i feel kinda embarrassed doing that but someone told me i should anyway. also totally unrelated but is anyone thinking about ARRL Field Day planning yet, i know its months away but our club is already arguing about the location lol

Working on upgrading my emergency communications kit and I'm torn between sticking with my trusty 35Ah AGM battery or making the jump to LiFePO4. My concern is runtime - I need at least 8 hours continuous operation with my IC-7300 at 75% duty cycle (mix of voice and digital modes). The weight savings of LiFePO4 is attractive for portability, but I'm worried about actual usable capacity under load. Has anyone done side-by-side runtime comparisons with similar Ah ratings? Specifically interested in real-world Field Day or EMCOMM deployment experiences.