Radio Geek

The contest privileges alone justify upgrading. Most major contests use the HF bands heavily, and you can even become a VE to administer Tech exams once you're General class.

I had the exact same issue with my 80m dipole. To measure true antenna SWR, you need the analyzer right at the feedpoint or use very low-loss coax. My "good" 2:1 reading at the shack turned out to be 6:1 at the antenna due to corroded trap connections.

When you arrive, sign in with your name, address, and call sign if you have one. The test administrators review any identification and documents, then you pay your test fee. There is no set time limit, but the exam generally takes anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. Don't rush - you have plenty of time!

The HamStudy folks have already updated their site with the 2026 pool if you want to compare. All questions are available with full explanations, even the new ones. We haven't linked it from the front page yet since there's still six months before it takes effect, but it's ready when you are. Take a quick look and decide for yourself.

Germany on 10w SSB thats really cool, ive been thinking about QRP but always assumed i needed at least 100w to do anything useful on HF. maybe im wrong about that. does the built in battery last very long or do you pretty much always bring an external pack?

yeah i caught some of that on tuesday too, i was on my lunch break and just had the radio on in the background and heard a pile-up forming around 28.490 or so. managed to sneak in and work a CT1 station which was a new one for me on that band. honestly 10m is one of those bands that when its open its just magic, theres nothing quite like running low power and getting out that far.
on the firmware thing, i updated mine about a week ago and it went totally fine, took maybe 10 minutes and the radio came back up no problem. the waterfall does look slightly different but nothing dramatic. id say go for it, just make sure youre on a stable power supply and dont interrupt it obviously.

so ive been on FT8 for a couple years now and its fine, great for getting contacts when the band is rough, but i keep hearing people talk about JS8Call like its this whole different thing and i guess i dont fully understand what the actual use case is supposed to be. like FT8 is basically just exchange callsigns and signal reports and thats it right, you cant actually say anything. i get that JS8Call is more like... free text? but i tried it a few times and it felt really slow and honestly wasnt sure if the people i was hearing were even responding to me or just doing their own thing.
also while im at it — does anyone still actually use PSK31 regularly? i have fond memories of it from like 2012 or whenever i first got my general but every time i tune around 14.070 it feels pretty dead compared to what it used to be. RTTY still seems alive especially during contests but PSK feels like it just kind of faded out once FT8 showed up. curious if thats just my perception or if the mode actually died off.
running an IC-7300 into a dipole at about 35 feet if that matters, usually 40 or 20 meters for this kind of stuff.

I went through this evaluation last year and it's really not that complicated. The actual requirements are not nearly as onerous as they sound - most hams will not have difficulty meeting the requirements and are already in compliance with maximum permissible exposure levels. The ARRL website has some good calculators and tables that make the process pretty straightforward.

yeah i was in the same boat when i started. paper cards are fun but i only send them when someone sends me one first or if its a really notable contact, otherwise the postage adds up fast especially for dx. i think i spent like 12 bucks just sending cards to a handful of european stations and only got two back lol. LoTW is free after you get your certificate set up and once you get that part figured out its pretty painless. the certificate setup tripped me up at first too so if you havent done that part yet thats probably why confirmations seem low

Congrats on the General upgrade! I'd say stick with your assigned call for a few months first. New licensees can't get vanity calls as their first callsign anyway, but now that you have one, there's no rush. Get comfortable operating, build some QSL history, then decide if you want something more personal.

haha the spotting thing gets everyone at least once. i did the same thing on my second activation, sat there confused why nobody was coming back to me. now i set up a macro on my phone to post to the WWFF spotting page and pota.app at the same time before i even key up the first time.
44 contacts is the threshold for a valid activation so you're good there. once you start chasing references yourself you get a feel for how much hunters appreciate a good spot with frequency and mode listed. the wildlife refuge sounds like a great next one, definitely check if its also a POTA reference because a lot of them overlap and you can log for both programs simultaneously which the hunters really like. good luck with the next one

Tube amplifiers still have their place, especially for budget-conscious ops. A well-maintained 3CX800 or 4CX800 can provide reliable 1KW+ output at a fraction of SSPA cost. However, consider the cooling requirements and potential RFI issues. For EME work where you might be transmitting for hours during moonrise/moonset windows, thermal management becomes critical.

OM: Old man - an abbreviation really meaning friend (used for any male ham regardless of age). However xYL is technically not the correct term. The original term of YL , which is a CW (morse code) abbreviation, is the one that is technically the correct term to use. FB = "fine business" (means OK), TNX = thanks, ES = "and". These cover most casual QSOs.

So we ran a county-wide simulated emergency exercise this past Saturday and honestly it was a bit of a mess but in a good way I think? The whole scenario was a major flooding event cutting off the eastern part of the county and we had to establish comms between the EOC and three shelter locations using only our go-kits since we assumed no repeater infrastructure.
First thing that fell apart was net control. Our designated NC got stuck in traffic and nobody had really been briefed on who the backup was supposed to be, so there was like 15 minutes of people just kind of calling on the frequency and nobody really taking charge. Eventually Dave W9DTK stepped up and did a great job but that gap was painful to watch. We talked about it in the debrief and decided every drill from now on needs at least two people who are briefed and ready to be NC.
The other thing that surprised me was battery life. I thought my setup was solid — 20Ah LiFePO4 running a 50W mobile — but I had it cranked up for most of the morning passing traffic and by noon I was sweating it. In a real event that shelter location needs power for way longer than a few hours. anybody else run into this kind of thing in their exercises? Curious what solutions people have landed on.

Unfortunately, no exceptions exist to FCC rules for any operations - all FCC rules apply 365 days a year, though Field Day participants must also observe additional ARRL rules. The ID requirements are non-negotiable even during emergencies. However, you can streamline by having net control handle most of the talking and having check-ins simply give call sign, traffic count, and location efficiently.

SatPC32 ISS is absolutely rock-solid for linear transponder work. I've been using it for three years with my IC-9700 and G-5500DC setup. The Doppler correction is spot-on and CAT control is seamless once properly configured.

I've read about the difference between iambic mode A (completes current element when paddles released) vs mode B (sends additional opposite element when paddles released) but I'm struggling to understand when this really makes a practical difference.
For example, when sending 'C' (-.-.), in mode A you squeeze both paddles and release after the last dit, but in mode B you must release after the second dash. Are there specific letters or situations where one mode clearly works better? Most operators seem to prefer mode B - why is that?

When you interface N1MM+ to WSJT-X, a new instance of WSJT-X is created that is completely separate from your working "everyday" copy. This new instance is called "WSJT-X – ForEW1" and comes with all settings defaulted. You might need to copy your working WSJT-X configuration to the ForEW1 instance.

From 50 years of operating: Some words are 'harder' to say - I typically use 'sugar' instead of 'sierra'. That's just one of those foibles, and in most cases, not really a 'biggy'. The key is consistency and clarity, especially when conditions are marginal.

SatPC32 ISS is absolutely rock-solid for linear transponder work. I've been using it for three years with my IC-9700 and G-5500DC setup. The Doppler correction is spot-on and CAT control is seamless once properly configured.