HF Hunter

I helped install a BTech UV25X2 recently - open as a barn door, either they're still working though old stock or they don't care. Depends on where your radio comes from and when it was manufactured. Sometimes you get lucky with older firmware.

so i finally passed my technician exam after studying for like 3 weeks and honestly i was terrified to key up for the first time. my uncle is W5 something and he lent me his old Yaesu FT-60 handheld and just told me to find a local repeater and go for it. i sat there for probably 20 minutes just listening before i finally worked up the nerve to say my callsign and ask if the frequency was in use
some guy came back to me right away, a retired teacher from like 40 miles away, and we talked for maybe 10 minutes about how i got into the hobby and he gave me a bunch of advice about getting an HF rig eventually. it was honestly way less scary than i thought it would be. anyway just wanted to share because ive been lurking here for months and everyone seemed really welcoming so figured id finally post

so ive been messing around with an arduino mega for the past few weeks trying to get it to handle antenna switching and also trigger my logging software when i key up. the antenna switching part works fine, got a bunch of relays on a board i etched myself and the arduino just reads the band data from my 7300 via CI-V and switches accordingly. that part was honestly easier than i expected.
the logging integration is where im losing my mind a little. im running N1MM and i know it puts out UDP packets but parsing those on the mega is kind of a pain because the string handling on these things is just not great. im wondering if anyone has bridged this with a Pi instead — like put the Pi in the middle to do the heavy lifting on parsing and just send simple commands down to the arduino for the relay control. seems like overkill but maybe thats just how it has to be done
also my relay board is getting warm which is probably fine but wanted to mention it in case someone tells me thats actually not fine

omg yes 10m has been crazy i made my first ever dx contact last week on that band, got a guy in Argentina and i was literally just using a vertical in my backyard. i've only had my general for like 4 months so this whole thing is kind of blowing my mind. my elmer told me 10 was basically a wasteland for years so i feel pretty lucky to have gotten licensed now i guess

yeah what he said about ssb and the edge is important, took me forever to understand that the dial frequency isnt where all your signal energy is. on USB you're transmitting above the carrier so 7.300 on the dial means youre already tickling the edge or past it. i usually dont go above like 7.297 or so just to give myself room. also just be aware 40m is a shared band so below 7.200 you'll run into foreign broadcast stations at night, not much you can do about it but dont be surprised

just getting into this myself so take this for what its worth but one thing someone told me at a club meeting that stuck with me — make sure whatever you put in the kit you actually know how to use without looking anything up. like i had this fancy logging software i thought id bring and then realized i barely knew how to set it up on a good day let alone under pressure. ended up just practicing with paper logs first which felt old fashioned but at least i know ill be able to do it
also the cable thing is real, i boughta bunch of those velcro cable ties and they helped a lot more than i expected

the N1MM keying config matters a lot more than people think for SO2R. make sure your focus follows PTT is set correctly otherwise you get that weird half-second lag where the software doesnt know which radio is active and you get the wrong audio in your ear at the wrong moment. drove me nuts for two contests before i figured that out.
also if you arent using headphone audio switching so each radio goes to a different ear that alone will help massively. running mono audio on SO2R is kind of brutal for your brain because you cant spatially separate what youre hearing

honestly you probably are overthinking it a little but thats fine, we all do it. here's my take after running both setups over the years — at 35 feet an inverted V on 40m is not a bad antenna at all. yeah the takeoff angle is higher than a vertical but for 40m that actually works pretty well for regional contacts and even decent dx once the band opens up. the practical difference between a low vertical and a low inverted V is often smaller than the theory makes it sound, especially if your radial system isnt great.
and thats the thing about the vertical — the radials really do matter a lot. a quarter wave vertical with only 8 or 10 short radials can actually perform worse than your inverted V depending on soil conditions. 16 is a reasonable starting point but theyre most effective if theyre close to a quarter wave long themselves. if you dont have room for decent radials the dipole is probably the safer bet to just get on the air and start making contacts.
if i were in your situation id just throw up the inverted V first, its cheap and fast, and see how it plays. you can always add a vertical later and do a real world comparison. all the modeling in the world doesnt beat actually listening to the difference from your own location.

been getting back into hf after like 10 years and wow things have changed. everyone keeps talking about these digital qsl systems but im confused which one is better. i see lotw and eqsl mentioned all the time but cant figure out if i need both or just one. my buddy says eqsl is easier but another guy at the club swears by lotw for dxcc credit. what do most of you actually use day to day

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about CQ WW and Field Day and SOTA and honestly it all kind of blurs together for me. like i know Field Day is a big deal, my local club did one and i showed up for a few hours but mostly just watched because i didnt really know what i was doing. and then someone mentioned CQ WW is coming up and said i should try it but i dont even know if my station is good enough or if theres like a minimum skill level you need.
im running a Kenwood TS-590SG into a 40m dipole in my attic which i know isnt ideal but its what i got. would i just be embarrassing myself trying to jump into something like CQ WW or is it actually okay for newer folks to just get on and try? also whats the difference between the SSB and CW weekends, do i need to be able to copy CW to participate in the CW one or can i just listen around
also SOTA looks really fun but thats a whole different thing right, not really a contest per se more like an award program? anyway if anyone has advice on which of these i should actually try first id appreciate it

The Whiterook MK series keys are the most under-rated portable keys! I've had mine for 25 years, just toss it in the backpack with no cover, and it's been great for SOTA and overseas travel. Very reasonable at $30-$53.