Nancy White

was in the same boat not too long ago. what helped me was just picking one thing and sticking with it for a while — i focused on LoTW first since thats what counts for DXCC and honestly once you get the certificate setup done and your logging software talking to it its pretty painless. i use WSJT-X and it uploads automatically after each FT8 session which is nice.
the paper cards thing i actually really enjoy, theres something satisfying about getting one in the mail even if it doesnt count for much officially. i ordered some custom cards from a print shop and ive been mailing a few out here and there for memorable contacts. not going to mail one for every QSO obviously but for my first DX contact or first new entity i like having the physical card

welcome to the hobby. yeah first contacts are always a bit clunky, thats totally normal. Larry whoever he is probably remembered doing the same thing years ago. once you get comfortable on the repeater you might wanna look into getting your general class, opens up HF and thats where things get really interesting. working stations across the country or even dx with just a wire antenna is a whole different feeling than local vhf stuff. anyway good start, keep at it.

yeah the fan resistor mod I did mine probably 2 years ago now, its quieter for sure but honestly I kind of regret it a little just because now im always second guessing myself when im doing any extended digital ops. ended up just putting a small temp logger on the heatsink for a while to convince myself it was fine. its probably fine. but i dunno

yeah the 10m opening last week was something. i havent heard the band that alive since i was a teenager honestly and that was a long time ago. worked a guy in italy running barefoot on a vertical in my backyard, signal was like 59 plus. my neighbor came out to see what i was yelling about lol.
on the FT-710 thing i think that price has been slowly drifting down for a while, the 7300 is still the one most people seem to recommend for that price range but the 710 has the better filtering from what ive read. havent used one myself though so take that with some salt. if you can demo one at a hamfest before buying that would be the move.

so the short answer is no, nothing happens automatically, you gotta actually submit and pay the application fee through the ARRL's website. for DXCC if you have LoTW confirmations that's totally fine, you dont need paper cards at all — LoTW credits are actually preferred now and the whole process is way smoother than it used to be. back in the day you had to mail in cards and get them checked at a hamfest or whatever but now you just log into your ARRL account and it tallies your LoTW confirmed entities and you submit from there.
WAS and WAZ are definitely separate awards with their own rules, they just get talked about together because a lot of DXers chase all three. WAS is all 50 states confirmed, WAZ is all 40 CQ zones, and DXCC is 100 confirmed entities. each one has its own mixed/phone/CW/digital endorsement options too so yeah working Wyoming on SSB and then on FT8 can get you credit toward the different mode endorsements — they dont count as the same contact for endorsement purposes even though it's the same state.
honestly just make an ARRL account if you havent and look at your LoTW stats, it'll show you what you already have credited and you might be closer than you think

nice work getting it sorted. i went through something similar when i installed my 7100 and honestly the ground was the last thing i checked when it shouldve been the first lol. for the coax routing i just used spiral wrap loom for the section thats exposed inside and zip tied it loosely so theres a little slack near the door. not the prettiest but it hasnt rubbed through in two years so i'll take it

so the short answer is no, nothing happens automatically, you gotta actually submit and pay the application fee through the ARRL's website. for DXCC if you have LoTW confirmations that's totally fine, you dont need paper cards at all — LoTW credits are actually preferred now and the whole process is way smoother than it used to be. back in the day you had to mail in cards and get them checked at a hamfest or whatever but now you just log into your ARRL account and it tallies your LoTW confirmed entities and you submit from there.
WAS and WAZ are definitely separate awards with their own rules, they just get talked about together because a lot of DXers chase all three. WAS is all 50 states confirmed, WAZ is all 40 CQ zones, and DXCC is 100 confirmed entities. each one has its own mixed/phone/CW/digital endorsement options too so yeah working Wyoming on SSB and then on FT8 can get you credit toward the different mode endorsements — they dont count as the same contact for endorsement purposes even though it's the same state.
honestly just make an ARRL account if you havent and look at your LoTW stats, it'll show you what you already have credited and you might be closer than you think

so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (technician) and everyone keeps telling me i should check into a local net to get comfortable on the air but honestly i have no idea what to expect. like i know i tune to the frequency and wait but then what? do i just say my callsign when theres a pause? what if i mess up the phonetics or forget something? the net i found in the repeater directory is on tuesday nights at 7:30 local and the listing just says its a general rag chew net run by the county club. is that different from like a traffic net or an emergency net? ive been lurking on the frequency a few times but i havent had the nerve to actually transmit yet. also does it matter if my signal isnt super strong, i'm running 5 watts into a j-pole in the attic

so ive been sitting on doing the mars/cap mod on my FT-857D for like two years now, always kind of nervous about voiding warranty and whatever but the warranty is long gone at this point so last weekend i just went for it. pulled the radio apart, moved the little jumper thing, put it back together and honestly the hardest part was getting the case screws back in without stripping them because my screwdriver is garbage.
anyway it transmits outside the ham bands now which was the whole point since i do some MARS stuff occasionally and also wanted the flexibility. rx was already pretty wide on this radio so no change there. one thing i noticed though is that on some of the expanded freqs the ALC acts a little weird, like it hunts around a bit before settling. not sure if thats normal or if i did something slightly off. anyone else notice that after doing this mod, or is that just how it behaves outside its designed range