Contest Joe

From an EmComm perspective, AllStarLink runs on dedicated computers including Raspberry Pi and can be hosted at various locations. The redundancy options are excellent, and you can operate without internet using private networks if needed.

six weeks is plenty of time honestly, dont stress too much. the question pool for tech is only like 400 something questions and the actual test pulls 35 from that pool so if you just grind through hamstudy.org every day for a couple weeks you'll probably be fine. that site tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and focuses on those which is actually pretty useful. your coworker isnt totally wrong though — a lot of people do just memorize answers and pass fine. but if you actually want to enjoy the hobby and not be completely lost when someone talks about antenna feedlines or repeater offsets or whatever, understanding the why behind stuff does help. i'd say do both, use the question pool to drill answers but if something doesnt make sense look it up real quick. the electrical stuff like ohms law does show up and theres a few math questions but theyre not bad at all once you see the pattern. kb6nu also has a free study guide thats pretty good and its written more like a person talking than a textbook

the TCXO is 100% worth it if you do any digital modes at all, full stop. i was skeptical too until i started having drift issues on FT8 and realized my reference was just wandering around especially in the first 20-30 minutes after powerup. dropped in the TCXO and that whole problem basically went away. the 857 runs warm inside and the stock oscillator really does move around more than youd think. the speaker mod i could take or leave honestly. yeah the stock speaker is pretty mediocre but i mostly use headphones or an external speaker anyway so it never bugged me enough to bother. if youre using it portable and relying on the internal speaker a lot then maybe, but otherwise i wouldnt bother pulling the whole front panel apart again just for that. one thing i did that actually made a real difference on SSB was tweaking the TX EQ in the menu — took me forever to find the right combination but once i did people stopped complaining about my audio sounding boxy. some guys go nuts with external processors but honestly the internal options on the 857 are more capable than most people realize, they just bury everything in sub-menus.

so ive been licensed about 4 months now, got my general ticket in march and i've been lurking on a few local 2m nets and one HF net on 40m that my elmer recommended. i finally worked up the courage to check in last tuesday and i think i maybe screwed up the procedure a little? i said my callsign before the net control asked for check-ins, not sure if that was a big deal or if people noticed. nobody said anything but i felt kinda embarrassed. also im confused about when you're supposed to give your full callsign vs just the suffix. like sometimes i hear guys just say their last two or three letters and net control seems fine with it, but other times i hear people give the whole thing every single time. is there a rule about that or is it just whatever the net wants? also does anyone have tips for just generally not sounding like a complete newb on the air, not that theres anything wrong with being new, i just want to not accidentally step on anyone or do something rude without realizing it.

Some radios like the BaoFeng BF-F8HP get 20+ hours on high power with their large batteries. Worth considering if runtime is your priority, though the interface isn't as nice as your Kenwood.

hamstudy.org is honestly all you need at this point if youre already passing. just keep doing timed practice exams and when you miss something, read the explanation and move on. the actual exam pulls from that exact question pool so nothing should surprise you. for the frequency stuff, honestly dont try to memorize it logically, just memorize the answers. some of it doesnt really make intuitive sense until youve been on the air for a while anyway. the T1 section has a lot of rules questions that people mess up because they overthink it. just trust the answer that sounds most "official" and youll be fine most of the time. two weeks is plenty of time, you got this.

If you're into technical presentations, don't miss the lecture program. More than 110 lectures, exams, and workshops were attended by a diverse group of attendees, including IOTA enthusiasts, diploma program participants, educators, and tech fans. Plus the IARU meetings are fascinating if you're interested in the regulatory side of things.

the extra khz thing is kind of oversold in my opinion but where it really matters is CW segments and some of the less crowded phone freqs during contests when the general portions are a wall of noise. i upgraded last year mostly just to have it done and yeah the exam was tough in spots, the part about op-amp circuits and some of the oscilator questions got me but i passed first try. use ham study or whatever the flash card site is called, i did like 20-30 questions a day for a month. the theory actually does stick a little bit even if you dont fully understand it going in

I'm running an IC-7300 at 100W into a G5RV at 30 feet. With the new RF exposure rules that took effect in 2021, I'm confused about whether I need to perform an evaluation. The new rules don't change existing RF exposure limits but require stations to be evaluated against existing limits, unless exempted, with existing stations having until May 3, 2023. Looking at the power thresholds in 97.13(c)(1), it seems like I might be above the limits for some HF bands. Can someone walk me through the process? What exactly do I need to calculate? Key questions: How do I determine if my station qualifies for an exemption?If I need an evaluation, what's the step-by-step process?Are there online calculators that can help with the calculations?

yeah the third party traffic rules trip up a lot of new hams. so the short version is you cant use amateur radio to conduct actual business transactions, like taking orders, negotiating prices, that kind of thing. what your describing with the hamfest message is kind of a gray area honestly but most people would say just passing along "hey meet me at booth 12" is fine. where it gets iffy is if your actually helping someone make a purchase happen over the air. the FCC hasnt really drawn a super bright line there and most enforcement actions are about way more obvious stuff like using your license for a commercial enterprise. the key language in part 97 is about pecuniary interest, meaning you personally shouldnt be getting paid for the communication. your brother buying gear isnt paying you to relay a message so your probably fine but i wouldnt make a habit of brokering deals over 2m or whatever

so ive been running FT8 for about a year now and i enjoy the weak signal aspect of it but honestly it feels more like a logging exercise than actual operating sometimes. you know what i mean, you make the contact, log it, move on. theres no real back and forth. somebody mentioned JS8Call to me at the club meeting last month and i finally sat down and installed it last weekend. first impressions are pretty interesting. the whole store-and-forward mesh thing is kind of wild when you think about it, like your message can bounce around through other stations and eventually reach someone across the country even if you cant hear them directly. the SNR requirements are obviously worse than FT8 but not terrible, i was still making contacts with maybe -10 or -12 db signals without much trouble. using the IC-7300 into a G5RV so nothing fancy on my end. my question is mostly for people who actually use it regularly — does it get more active on certain bands or times of day? i was hanging around 40m JS8 calling frequency for like an hour saturday afternoon and only saw maybe 4 or 5 other stations. felt pretty quiet compared to what im used to on the FT8 segments. wondering if im just picking the wrong time or if the mode is kind of dying off. also curious if anyone here still runs PSK31 regularly because i kind of miss having that waterfall full of signals, felt more alive than what digital seems like now

so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing local 2m stuff with my HT, some APRS here and there. a buddy at my club keeps telling me to just go ahead and take the general exam already and i finally ordered the gordon west book like two weeks ago. been going through it but honestly some of the stuff about HF privileges is kind of confusing me. like i get that i get access to parts of the HF bands but i dont really understand which parts i can use on like 40m or 20m once i pass. also the question pool stuff about electrical principles is kind of rough, i never took physics or anything so the ohms law and reactance questions are tripping me up a bit. is that stuff actually going to matter when im operating or is it just exam stuff also how long did it take people to actually feel ready to take the exam, im not sure if im overthosing this or what

I had the exact same problem and what finally helped me was switching away from random letter practice and doing actual words and common phrases instead. Like abbreviations you hear all the time on air — 73, rst, qth, wx, all that stuff. once your brain recognizes them as chunks instead of individual letters it gets way faster. also just listening to real QSOs even when you can only copy maybe half of it, the context helps fill in gaps and thats a real skill too honestly.

yeah 12 contacts is definitely activated, you only need 4 for a valid activation so you did great. the antenna thing is a real thing though, i carry a couple of those cheap fiberglass poles now and it changed everything. doesn't weigh much and you stop fighting with branches. also for the battery in cold temps thats just lithium chemistry doing its thing, either keep the radio under your jacket between contacts or just bring a backup battery pack, i use a small lipo that fits in a shirt pocket basically

I was stuck there for months too! What finally worked was using LCWO.net with Farnsworth timing - 20WPM character speed and 5WPM effective speed. Also recommend checking out CW Academy when enrollment opens. The structured approach really helps. You're not alone in this struggle!

so i just passed my general last month and im already thinking about applying for a vanity call. my current sequential one is fine i guess but theres a 1x2 in my district that belonged to a silent key a few years back and ive had my eye on it for a while. i checked in the ULS and it shows as available. my question is how does the timing actually work? like i know you file through the FCC's site but ive heard people say theres a window you have to wait for and multiple applications get batched together or something. is that still how it works or did they change it at some point. also does it matter that im only a couple months licensed — is there a minimum time you have to hold your current call before applying for a vanity or can you just do it right away any help appreciated, i tried reading the FCC's own page about it and honestly it just confused me more

Just picked up my first paddle (Bencher BY-1) after using a straight key for two months. I'm having trouble with the spacing - sometimes my letters run together or I get extra dits/dahs. Is this normal for beginners, or am I missing something with the adjustment? My keyer is set to 15 WPM and I'm trying to practice basic letters first. Any suggestions welcome!

ive been using mag mounts for years and the trick is to clean both the mount and the car roof really well with alcohol first, then find the flattest spot possible. also check if your roof has any kind of coating or texture that might be causing issues. but honestly for highway driving you really should consider a permanent mount - way less stress

73 is "best regards" and yes, "best 73s" is redundant but commonly used anyway. CU is "see you," FB is "fine business" (meaning good/excellent), OM is "old man" (friend), and ES is "and." These came from telegraph days when every character saved time and money.

so ive been running FT8 for about two years now and honestly love the weak signal stuff, got into it when i was running a dipole in an apartment and it was the only thing that would actually make contacts. but lately i keep reading about JS8Call and how its supposed to be more like actual conversation-based digital rather than just exchange-grid-and-done. been thinking about giving it a shot but im not sure the band activity is there to make it worthwhile vs just staying on FT8 where theres always someone calling. also been messing with PSK31 on 20m late nights when the band is quiet and there's something i like about that mode even though the contacts are slower. feels more like actual radio somehow. anyway wondering if anyone has gone down the JS8Call rabbit hole and whether its worth setting up alongside WSJT-X or if its gonna be one of those things that sounds great on paper but nobody's actually using it on the air. for context im running a 100w rig into a fan dipole, nothing fancy, mostly 20 and 40m. decode rates on FT8 are fine, no complaints there.

so ive been trying to get more into DX chasing and someone at the club told me to start using cluster spotting networks but honestly i wasnt sure where to even begin. i ended up signing up for QRZ and i see there's a logbook and lookup stuff there which is great, but then someone else mentioned DXwatch and now im using both and kind of confused about whether they're showing me the same spots or different ones. like right now i have DXwatch open in one tab filtering for 20m and QRZ in another and sometimes the spots are the same and sometimes not. is there a reason to prefer one over the other or should i just keep both open. also i downloaded DX Toolkit on my phone and that pulls from a cluster too i think, not sure which one. maybe i'm overthinking this but i dont want to miss a good dx opportunity because i was looking at the wrong source

went through this exact thing about a year ago. took me like three tries to land the one i wanted because someone else kept beating me to it lol. what helped me was setting up alerts on one of those callsign tracking sites so i knew the exact day something was going to come available. also make sure your FCC registration info is all up to date before you even start or your application can get held up, i had a minor issue with my address not matching and it delayed everything by like a week which was annoying.

im in basically the same boat as you, got my tech call a while back and been thinking about going for a vanity too. one thing i heard is that certain 1x2 and 2x1 format calls are reserved for extra class licensees so if you're general you cant even apply for those. not sure if thats still accurate but worth checking before you get attached to a specific call

Just got my license and I'm hearing lots of Q codes on the air that I don't understand. I know QSO means contact and QTH is location, but there are so many more. Which Q codes should I prioritize learning first? I heard someone say QRL? before transmitting - is that important? Also, when I use Q codes in a question, do I need to add a question mark when speaking, or just in CW?

RTTY is also worth a look if you want something with a bit more personality than FT8 but still works reasonably well. its mostly contests these days but outside of contests you can find people ragchewing on RTTY, especially on 20 and 40. the decoding is not as forgiving as PSK31 but theres something satisfying about it, feels more old school. but yeah to your actual question about JS8Call — i think a lot of people leave it running in the background kind of passively so dont expect fast responses. sometimes i send a CQ and walk away for 20 minutes and come back to a reply. its a different pace than FT8 for sure