Ham Mountain

that SWR curve sounds completely normal for a 40m inverted V honestly. the lower apex angle and the legs drooping a bit actually broadens the bandwidth compared to a flat dipole, which is why you're seeing such a wide 2:1 window. nothing wrong with that at all, you didn't mess anything up. 58-62 ohms at the feedpoint for an inverted V checks out too, flat dipole in free space is theoretically 73 ohms but real-world inverted V with that apex height will pull it down toward 50, so coax is a pretty good match without even needing a balun in some cases. the choke balun you wound is fine for keeping common mode off the coax shield, definitely keep it, but the reason your SWR looks so good isnt because something is wrong its just because thats how dipoles behave. the end fed wire with a 9:1 unun is always going to be fussier because youre working against a bad impedance transformation and any little thing changes things. a resonant dipole fed with coax is just a more forgiving system. go operate it, youll probably like it.

so ive been messing with APRS for a few weeks now and i finally got my Mobilinkd TNC paired with my baofeng on 144.390 and packets are actually hitting aprs.fi which is great. but the position it shows is like 40 miles from where i actually am. im feeding it GPS coordinates from my phone via the bluetooth connection and the app shows the right coords, so im not sure where the breakdown is happening. running APRSdroid on android, the GPS lock looks solid, i can see it pulling lat/lon that matches where i am. but on the map online my icon keeps showing up somewhere way out in the boonies. tried deleting my callsign from the site and re-beaconing but same thing every time. anyone run into this before or have an idea what im doing wrong

The stuff people always forget is the small stuff honestly. Extra fuses, a good multi-tool, a headlamp (not just a flashlight, headlamp so your hands are free), a notepad and like 3 pens because pens always go missing, and some kind of logging sheet if you're going to be doing anything formal. Oh and a copy of your license printed out, sounds dumb but some served agency folks actually ask. For antenna the Wolf River Coils setup has worked pretty well for a buddy of mine doing ARES stuff, he can get on 40m in maybe 8 minutes once he has a spot picked. I personally use a linked dipole cut for 40/20 and just toss it in a tree with a throw line, not the fanciest but it works every time which is kind of the whole point. The buddistick is fine but fiddly when you're stressed out. Biggest thing I'd say though is actually go out and deploy the whole kit in your backyard once or twice before you need it. You will find every gap that way, guaranteed.

i was in the same boat about a year ago and ended up getting the UV-5R just to have something in my hand while i figured stuff out. it worked fine for hitting the local 2m repeater but programming it without CHIRP was honestly miserable. once i loaded CHIRP on my laptop and imported the repeater data it got way easier. ended up upgrading to a Yaesu about 6 months later anyway so maybe just think about how much you want to spend twice lol. also APRS on a baofeng is doable but its kind of a hack situation, you'd need a phone or a TNC to do it properly. if APRS is a real goal might be worth looking at the FT3DR or something with built in GPS but that jumps the price up a lot

so ive been at this for about 4 months now and im stuck somewhere around 10-11wpm and it feels like the wall is real. started with the basics back in the spring, got through the alphabet pretty quick with some app called Morse Mania, and then jumped onto cwops stuff and some of the LCWO lessons. got comfortable enough at 5wpm that i passed my general (not that you need it anymore but still wanted it for my own satisfaction), now im trying to push up toward 20 because that seems to be where you can actually have a real QSO without it feeling like torture. my main question is how long did it realistically take people to get to 20wpm where you felt comfortable just jumping into a pile or ragchewing on 40m. i keep reading people say stuff like "copy what you hear dont write it down" and im trying but my brain just freezes when i miss a character and then i miss the next 3 while i panic about the first one. does that get better on its own or is there something specific that helped break through it also what speed do you set your practice tone at, ive been doing 15wpm character speed with 10wpm effective (farnsworth) and wondering if i should just rip off the bandaid and go full 15 effective

Stock Yaesu rotor computer interface runs about $600 without cables, and Green Herron is similar price. Decided to try the K3NG Arduino solution instead. Using Arduino UNO R3 ($30) with Seeed Relay Shield ($20), plus proto board and MOSFET - total cost around $68. With Ham Radio Deluxe 5.0, the rotor turns smoothly and stops within +/- 1.0 degrees of target - exactly what I wanted for my setup. Had to adjust data rate to 9600bps for HRD compatibility since it doesn't support the default 115200bps, but now I can double-click anywhere on the planet and have automatic rotor pointing. Anyone else made the switch from commercial controllers? The K3NG firmware emulates Yaesu GS-232A/B and Easycom protocols and can easily interface with commercial rotator control units or serve as complete replacement.