Susan Johnson

so ive been puttering around with this DC receiver for about three months now, kept setting it aside when work got busy but finally had a weekend to just sit down and get serious about it. its based loosely on the Norcal design but i swapped out some of the filter caps and used what i had in the junk box which was probably my first mistake honestly
anyway it receives, like actually receives signals, i can hear 40m SSB pretty clearly which was shocking. the problem is theres this weird hum that follows the audio everywhere, not 60hz exactly but close, and i cant figure out if its the power supply coupling in somehow or if its a grounding issue with the audio stage. ive got a single point ground on the board but maybe i did it wrong. also the image rejection is pretty bad but i knew that going in with a direct conversion design so im not too worried about that part
has anyone dealt with this kind of hum specifically in homebrew DC receivers? i wrapped the whole thing in copper tape on the inside of the enclosure and it helped maybe 20% but its still there. using a 12v wall wart right now, maybe thats the issue, should i just slap a 7812 regulator and some filter caps on it before the board

so ive had this radio for maybe three weeks now and figured id share some impressions since i spent like two months reading every thread i could find before buying it. came from an old FT-450D which served me well but the waterfall on that thing is basically useless compared to what icom did with the 7300.
first thing i noticed is the touchscreen is actually responsive, like i was expecting it to be laggy or whatever but its genuinely snappy. the real time spectrum scope is just... i dont know, its addictive. i find myself watching it more than actually operating sometimes which is probably a problem.
audio out of the box sounded a little harsh to me on SSB receive, spent some time in the menu tweaking the treble rolloff and the passband and its much better now. transmit audio reports have been really good, people keep asking what mic im using and its just the HM-219 that came in the box which surprised me.
only gripe so far is the fan kicks on pretty aggressively at 100w. not a dealbreaker indoors but if youre in a quiet room it notices. also the menu system is deep, like genuinely deep, i keep finding settings i didnt know existed.
anyway if anyones on the fence about this vs the 7610 or even waiting for something else, happy to answer questions. just my two cents from a fairly casual HF op who mainly does 40 and 20m SSB with some digital thrown in.

so this has been a frustrating few weeks. we had a pretty nasty storm roll through and i had everything unplugged or at least i thought i did, the coax was disconnected but apparently the power supply was still tied in and something came through the AC line i guess. the 7300 powers on, the display lights up and i can even get into the menus, but there's zero receive. like completely dead silent, no noise floor at all, nothing. transmit seems to work based on the power output meter moving when i key up but i honestly havent verified that with anything external yet.
ive been poking around and the first thing i checked was the preamp and attenuator settings, all normal. tried resetting to factory defaults, no change. the antenna connector looks fine physically. im starting to wonder if one of the frontend protection diodes got cooked and is now shorted across the rx path. anyone dealt with something like this on an icom or similar SDR-based rig? i dont have a full service manual yet but im trying to narrow it down before i decide whether to send it to a shop or try to fix it myself.

lol no youre not weird i do the same thing. theres something kind of relaxing about it honestly even when nothings happening. like just having the white noise of an open squelch is weirdly calming after a long day. that said i did catch a really nice contact with a station in Costa Rica last thursday around 9pm local so the band isnt totally useless

oh man i remember my first net check-in, i was sweating like it was a final exam haha. honestly you did fine — the fact that you even keyed up puts you ahead of most new hams who just listen for months and never actually participate.
so for the timing thing, most nets will have the net control say something like "all stations wishing to check in please call now" and thats your window. you want to wait just a tiny beat to make sure nobody else is already mid-transmission, then just give your callsign phonetically, your name, and location. short and clean. if two people key up at the same time net control will usually ask you both to try again.
tail-ending is generally fine and pretty common, it just means keying up right after another station finishes to add a quick comment or answer a question. it's not rude at all as long as you id yourself. the main thing that IS considered bad form is just kerchunking the repeater or keying up over someone who's already talking. after a few more nets it'll feel totally natural, i promise.

so I've been interested in ham radio for a while now mostly because my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it looked cool and he told me to just go get my license and join him on the air but I have no idea where to start. like do I need to take a class or can I just study on my own? I looked up the FCC stuff and it was a little overwhelming. is the technician exam hard? I don't have a background in electronics or anything like that, I barely remember anything from high school physics. any advice would be really appreciated, I just don't want to waste money signing up for a test and then fail it

ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i upgraded to general last month. i know i have more privileges now but honestly looking at the band plan chart is kinda confusing me more than it helps. like for 40 meters specifically i see different sections listed but i cant tell if those are hard limits or just like... suggestions? my elmer told me the ARRL band plan is different from the actual FCC allocations and now im even more lost. is there like a simple way to think about this because i dont want to key up somewhere im not supposed to be

Just passed my Tech exam last week and I've been listening to the Tuesday evening ARES net on our local repeater. I'd like to check in next week but I'm a bit confused about proper procedure. Do I need to wait for the NCS to ask for check-ins from my call area, or can I just jump in when they ask for any stations? Also, should I say anything more than my call sign and location? The NCS seems pretty formal and I don't want to mess up the flow.

one thing that tripped me up early on was that some of these get used kinda loosely on voice vs cw. like on phone people will just say "QRM" as a word rather than spelling it out, but on cw obviously its sent as the code. also QRP technically means reduce power but in the hobby it basically became shorthand for low power operation in general, like "im a QRP operator" doesnt mean theyre asking you to reduce power it just means they run low watts. context matters a lot with these

so i got my general back in 2014 and honestly just never bothered with CW since it wasnt required anymore. but ive been watching some videos lately and something about it just looks really satisfying, like there's guys making contacts all over the world with like 5 watts and a wire and i want in on that.
problem is i have zero idea where to start with the actual keying side of things. i borrowed a straight key from a buddy at the club and i've been practicing a bit but my wrist gets tired fast and i know everyone says to eventually move to paddles but i dont even understand how paddles work with a keyer vs just a straight key. is the keyer a separate box thing or is it built into the radio? my ic-7300 might already have one i guess? i honestly dont know what im doing here lol
also any tips on just learning to receive are welcome, i can copy maybe 5-6 characters and then my brain just turns off

Can someone explain the 60-meter band rules? I understand we have specific channels, but I'm getting conflicting information about where to set my dial frequency for different modes.
I want to try some PSK31 and maybe some phone, but I need to understand:

Exact channel center frequencies Where to set my radio for USB vs digital modes Power limitations and one signal per channel rule My rig is a Yaesu FT-991A and I want to make sure I'm compliant with the NTIA requirements.

Can someone explain the 60-meter band rules? I understand we have specific channels, but I'm getting conflicting information about where to set my dial frequency for different modes.
I want to try some PSK31 and maybe some phone, but I need to understand:

Exact channel center frequencies Where to set my radio for USB vs digital modes Power limitations and one signal per channel rule My rig is a Yaesu FT-991A and I want to make sure I'm compliant with the NTIA requirements.

I've seen this with CP210 bridge drivers on Windows. Even if Device Manager shows the port working, try uninstalling and reinstalling the Silicon Labs drivers. Sometimes Windows updates break the USB-serial bridge communication.