Michelle Lewis

the notepad file made me smile, i did the same thing my first Field Day lol. Definitely get N1MM or even just use the web-based log at the end if you dont want to deal with software during the actual operating, though real time dupe checking is really nice once you try it once.
honestly SOTA and contesting scratch different itches for me. contesting is this kind of almost frantic energy especially when the bands are good and youre just running stations one after another, whereas SOTA is more about the whole experience of getting out there and making a contact from a hilltop with like 5 watts. both are great. Field Day in june is probably the most beginner friendly contest environment if you havent tried that one yet, most clubs set up a multi-op station and you can just sit down and operate for a bit without any pressure.

yeah what he said. i was confused about this too when i started. one thing i'll add is that in contests basically everyone just blasts through their callsign fast without phonetics unless asked to repeat, but in like EMCOMM or public service situations they're pretty strict about using the standard NATO ones because you might be talking to someone who isnt a ham and they need to write stuff down accurately. i did a served agency exercise last year and the net control actually corrected someone on the air for using non-standard phonetics which i thought was kinda harsh but i get why in that context. for everyday casual stuff on 40m dont stress it too much

yeah i get what your saying. i only got my general like 2 years ago so i dont have the same history but even in that short time the nets ive tried to join have thinned out. found a local 2m net that meets tuesday nights and thats honestly the most actual human conversation ive had on the air in months. tried 40m a few times and it just felt like shouting into a room where everyone has headphones on

so ive been sitting on this for a while but last weekend i finally cracked open the 857d and did the transmit mod to open it up past the ham bands. not that i actually needed it for anything specific, more just wanted the option and i was already in there messing with the squelch pot which had gotten scratchy as hell over the years.
while i had it open i also did the ref oscillator mod with a TCXO replacement, grabbed a cheap-ish one off ebay that supposedly drops the frequency error down to under 0.5ppm. haven't done a proper calibration against a GPS disciplined source yet so i cant really say how much difference it made but the display reading seems more stable on 10m compared to before. probably placebo but who knows.
also replaced the stock electrolytic caps near the final amp section since a couple looked a little puffy to me. radio is like 15 years old at this point so figured it couldnt hurt. anyone else done any of these mods or have opinions on whether the TCXO thing is actually worth the trouble? i feel like for HF its probably overkill but on 2m/70cm it might actually matter

yeah dont memorize the patterns as dots and dashes, thats the thing everyone says and its true. youll hit a wall around 8-10 wpm and never get past it because your brain is counting instead of hearing. the whole idea is to hear each letter as a sound, like how you recognize a word in english without spelling it out in your head.
koch method is probably the most structured way to go and LC (learn CW online) at lcwo.net is free and does it pretty well. you start with just two characters, get comfortable recognizing them at a fast character speed even if the words come slow, then add one character at a time. takes a while before you have the full alphabet but when it clicks it really does click differently than the dots-and-dashes approach. i think i was maybe three or four months in before i felt like i could copy something on air, badly, but still. just set aside like 15 minutes a day and be consistent, thats honestly more important than any specific method

congrats on the first kit build, that feeling never really goes away honestly. i've been doing QRP for probably 15 years and i still get a kick out of working DX with 5 watts or less, theres just something satisfying about the efficiency of it all. your end fed setup sounds solid for 40m too.
if you do go portable definitely look into POTA or SOTA depending on your area. POTA especially is really beginner friendly and the chasers are usually pretty patient with weaker signals. i run a small lithium pack with mine and can get several hours of operating time no problem at QRP levels since the current draw is so low. just dont forget a good pair of headphones, copy gets a lot easier when you can really focus on the signal.

so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, summit was only a 2 point peak but figured id start easy. threw the KX2 in a pack with a 40m EFHW and just hiked up there. took maybe 45 minutes to the top and honestly the setup was way faster than i expected, had the antenna strung up between two trees and was on the air in like 10 minutes.
managed 12 contacts which i think is enough to count? i was on 40m the whole time and most contacts were pretty quick, everybody seemed to know the drill with SOTA which helped a lot. one guy actually spotted me on SOTAwatch which i didnt even know was happening, suddenly had a small pileup which was fun but also kind of stressful.
anyway my question is about power, i was running 5w and it felt fine but should i bother bringing a bigger battery for 10w on future activations or is 5w basically the standard for this kind of thing

so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just do local repeaters and some APRS stuff but i keep hearing people talk about HF and honestly it sounds pretty cool. a guy at my club last month was working some DX on 20 meters and i just stood there like an idiot not really knowing what was going on lol
anyway i started looking at the General exam pool and it seems like a LOT. like way more than the tech exam felt. theres stuff in there about propagation and operating practices and some electrical theory that i honestly dont remember from the tech exam at all. im not dumb but i also havent done math since high school so some of the formula stuff is making me nervous
is it actually as hard as it looks or does it kind of click once you get into it? i downloaded the ARRL study guide pdf from somewhere but havent really cracked it open yet. just wondering if anyone went through this recently and what helped them most