Brian Taylor

I was in the exact same spot about two years ago and I just went with the UV-5R because I didnt want to spend a lot on something I might not stick with. Honestly no regrets for getting started, hit all the local repeaters just fine, programmed it with CHIRP which made it way less painful than trying to do it from the keypad. Eventually got a used FT-60 and yeah the difference in audio quality is pretty noticeable but the baofeng did its job while I was figuring everything out. If APRS is a goal look into the Kenwood TH-D74 but thats a whole different price range, like way out of the $150 bracket. For now just get something and get on the air, thats the main thing.

yeah that's almost certainly the manual position override. on the D710 there's a setting buried in the APRS menu where you can toggle between GPS and manual position input, and if it got switched to manual at some point it'll just keep transmitting whatever coordinates you typed in originally. go into the APRS setup and look for something like position input method or GPS vs manual — it's not super obvious where it sits in the menu. once you flip it back to GPS it should start pulling the actual position from the receiver. happens more than you'd think, especially if someone was demoing the radio indoors and keyed in a position manually.

welcome to the hobby, dont stress too much about this. the short version is that LoTW is run by the ARRL and is the most trusted for award credit — things like DXCC and WAS pretty much require it. eQSL is a seperate system, some people use it some dont, and a lot of the big awards dont accept it but its fine for casual confirming. paper cards are still very much a thing and honestly there's something really nice about getting a card in the mail from some DX station, but they're not strictly required unless you're chasing awards that specifically need them. for TQSL, the setup does look intimidating but once you get your certificate loaded and your station location set up it becomes pretty routine. the arrl has a walkthrough on their site that actually isnt bad. i'd say just get LoTW going first since thats the one that matters most for awards, then worry about eQSL and paper cards later once you figure out what kind of operating interests you.

so ive been messing around with an RTL-SDR v3 for about a year now, mostly listening to HF with the direct sampling hack and running SDR# and sometimes GQRX on my linux box. its been fine honestly, got me into the whole SDR rabbit hole but lately ive been noticing the noise floor is pretty rough especially on 40m and below, and the dynamic range issues are really obvious when theres a strong broadcast station nearby wiping out everything around it. been looking at the SDRplay RSP1B as a step up, the specs look good on paper — 14-bit ADC, better front end filtering, and SDRuno seems pretty capable. but im also wondering if its worth just saving a bit more and going HackRF even though i know the HackRF has its own tradeoffs with the 8-bit ADC. mostly want it for receive on HF/VHF, dont really need to transmit. anybody actually made this jump from RTL-SDR to SDRplay and noticed a real difference day to day? not looking for lab results just real world impressions from people actually using it

the preamp placement thing the other guy mentioned is the most important thing tbh, a lot of people underestimate how much coax loss kills you on receive when youre talking about signals this weak. even a few tenths of a dB of noise figure degradation from having the LNA at the wrong end of a run of LMR-400 matters more than it would on basically any other mode. also worth mentioning that elevation capability matters a lot more for EME than people think going in — a fixed horizontal yagi might work for some limited windows but youre really leaving contacts on the table if the moon isnt conveniently placed. even a cheap TV elevation rotor can work if you gerry-rig it carefully enough, ive seen people make it work with some creative solutions.

yeah did mine about a year ago, late 2020 unit. the jumper is still in the same spot near the PA section, you have to pull the top cover and its pretty obvious once you know what youre looking for. there was a thread on eham with pictures that was way more helpful than the youtube stuff honestly one thing i'll say is just be careful around that area of the board because theres some smd stuff nearby that you dont want to accidentally brush with a screwdriver. used some kapton tape to cover adjacent components before i went in. worked perfectly after, no issues with normal ham operation and the MARS stuff checked out fine too. firmware version shouldnt matter, its a hardware jumper not software controlled

yeah i went through basically the same thing last year. one thing that got me was the ALC on the IC-7300 - vara really wants you to run it with no ALC movement at all, like set your output power lower than you think you need to. i was running 100w and the ALC was pumping all over the place and every session failed. dropped it to like 40w and kept an eye on the ALC meter and suddenly it started working. the 7300 and SignaLink combo is pretty common so theres probably someone local whos got it dialed in if you have a club nearby

so i finally stopped procrastinating and just built a simple 40m dipole out of some 14 awg stranded wire i had laying around in the garage. used a piece of pvc pipe as the center insulator and drilled a hole through it for the SO-239. nothing fancy. got it up about 25 feet in an inverted V configuration tied off to my chimney on one end and a tree on the other. swr came out around 1.4:1 at 7.150 which i was pretty happy with honestly. trimmed a little off each leg and got it down to like 1.2:1. my question is about the feedpoint connection itself. i just soldered the braid of the coax to one leg and center conductor to the other. no balun. ive been reading conflicting stuff about whether you actually need one for a simple dipole like this or if its overkill for casual use. rf seems fine and im getting decent reports on 40m ssb but im wondering if im missing something or if the feedline is radiating and im just not noticing it. also not sure if i should have used something heavier gauge for the elements, the 14awg feels kind of light but it was what i had

drill the roof. i know it sounds scary but if you do it right with a proper NMO mount and a good waterproof seal its really not a big deal and youll never look back. ive had lip mounts on two different vehicles and both times i eventually got intermittent ground issues that showed up as slightly elevated SWR that would change when i hit a bump. not terrible but annoying. on UHF especially you really want that solid ground connection, the wavelength is short enough that ground plane quality actually matters more than people think. just get a good chassis punch, measure twice, use some self-etching primer on the bare metal edge and a quality mount like a Larsen or Maxrad and seal around it with some silicone. ive had the same hole in my truck roof for 11 years with zero rust or leaks. the NR770HB is a good antenna too, just get it properly mounted and itll work great.

so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about CW and how its this whole other world and i kind of want to try it but i genuinely have no idea where to begin. like do i just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or is there a better way? i tried printing out one of those alphabet charts and staring at it but that doesnt seem to be how people actually learn it. someone at my club mentioned the Koch method but i dont really understand how that works either. is there an app or website that walks you through it step by step or do i need to find a real person to help me. also how long does it take to get to like 5 wpm because thats what people say you need for HF stuff right, or is that not even a thing anymore since they dropped the requirement

The 4 contacts can absolutely all be on the same band and mode, no requirement to spread them across bands. 40m SSB on a weekend morning you'll have chasers lined up, honestly getting 4 won't be your problem, stopping at 4 might be. Post your alert with a realistic time window and spot yourself as soon as you make contact, that'll bring the pile in. On the antenna, ditch the AX1 for 40m if you can carry the wire. Even a simple end fed half wave with a 9:1 unun thrown over a branch is going to crush the AX1 on that band. I use a linked dipole myself, takes maybe 5 extra minutes to set up and the difference is night and day. Have a great activation, W6/NC-445 is a nice one I think someone activated it back in the spring.

yeah the 7300 at 100w is gonna eat you alive over 8 hours if youre doing any real SSB work. i did a similar thing at a RACES exercise two summers ago with a comparable radio and a 50ah AGM and i was sweating by hour 5. LiFePO4 is better but 40ah is still tight depending on your duty cycle. rough rule of thumb im using now — figure about 20-22 amps at 100w transmit on SSB, maybe 2-3 amps receive. if your exercise has you talking a lot figure maybe 25-30% TX duty cycle over the whole thing and do the math from there. for me that works out to somewhere around 35-45ah for 8 hours which puts you right on the edge. i'd personally either bring a second battery or turn power down to 50w and see how that affects your signal reports — honestly on 40m most of the time nobody notices the difference in a local net situation. on the antenna thing, chain link is annoying but not a dealbreaker. i've run a vertical in worse RF environments and still made contacts. if you can get 20-30 feet of separation from the fencing youll be ok for NVIS 40m work. the two mast dipole idea is better if you can swing it, even a simple inverted V off a 25ft mast in the clear would outperform the vertical there probably.

honestly the General exam is very doable, dont psych yourself out looking at the full pool all at once. when i upgraded i just used HamStudy dot org every spare minute i had for about three weeks and passed no problem. the electrical theory does feel overwhelming at first but a lot of those questions are the same concept just worded differently so once you get the underlying idea the answers start to feel obvious. as for the band access question, General gives you a really solid chunk of HF. youll have phone privileges on 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters which honestly is where most of the action is anyway. 20m especially is incredibly active. i went probably eight months as a General before i even thought about going for Extra because i was having too much fun just working stations and learning the bands. the Extra portions that are restricted are real but theyre not so crowded that youll feel locked out of anything meaningful as a new HF op. just get the General and start playing around with the bands, youll learn way more from actually operating than from any exam prep

yeah i felt totally lost my first contest lol, i just kinda tuned around and called a few stations and got maybe 12 contacts and thought i was terrible at it. turns out that's pretty normal when you're starting. the logging software helps a lot btw — N1MM is free and once you set it up for a specific contest it basically tells you what exchange to send so you're not guessing. theres also a contest called the ARRL 10m contest coming up later in the year thats really easy for newer folks when the band cooperates.

so ive had my 7300 for about three years now and it was always a solid radio but i kept reading about the TCXO upgrade and the various filter mods people do and finally just decided to go for it over the winter. pulled the covers off and installed the SC-7300 TCXO option board first which wasnt too bad, just a few connectors and some careful work around the main board. the frequency stability improvement is real and not just placebo, i was skeptical but doing some weak signal work on 40m at night you can really tell the difference when you're not constantly nudging the dial. after that i went down a bit of a rabbit hole honestly. did the internal fan mod where you swap the stock fan for a quieter noctua-style unit and rewire it to run at lower voltage most of the time. runs so much cooler temp-wise in the shack now and i dont have to turn up the monitor speakers every time i key up. also did the barefoot audio mod that's been floating around the groups.io for a while, just a couple resistors on the TX audio path and it really does open up the transmitted audio a bit, my buddy in michigan said i sounded noticeably better before i even told him i changed anything. anyone else gone down this road with their 7300 or other radios? curious what mods people actually found worthwhile vs the ones that were more hype than anything