Robert Chen

honestly the one time phonetics really matter and people dont think about it enough is when conditions are bad or you're working someone with a heavy accent. had a contact on 20m last winter and the guy kept saying a letter that sounded exactly like another letter to me, couldnt figure out if his suffix was DF or TV or what, and if he had just gone full phonetic from the start we wouldve saved like 5 minutes of back and forth. so i guess my take is dont overthink it on local VHF but on HF especially when the band is rough just use them, your signal report and callsign at minimum

ran almost exactly this comparison at my old QTH. had a 40m dipole at like 28 feet and put up a vertical with 16 radials and ran them side by side for a few months. on dx the vertical won more often than not, on regional stuff under like 500 miles the dipole was usually better especially for NVIS-ish paths. the vertical also had way more noise on receive which drove me nuts during contests. ended up keeping both and just switching depending on what i was doing

Ham Morse app is great - I set it to play QSOs during my shower, then check how much I copied when I get out. Many mobile CW apps available - put one on your phone and run it anytime you're alone in the car, or practice reading signs in Morse when walking. Much easier to learn now than years ago!

okay so i just got my technician license about two months ago and ive been making contacts on 2m mostly but starting to get into HF now and everyone keeps talking about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly its a bit overwhelming. like i know the basic idea is confirming a contact happened but i dont really get why there are so many different systems or which one i should bother with. i signed up for LoTW through the ARRL but the whole certificate thing took forever and i still havent actually uploaded anything. and then somebody at my local club said eQSL doesnt really count for DXCC which confused me even more. do people still actually mail physical cards? seems like a lot of effort but i also kind of like the idea of getting something in the mail. just not sure where to start or if im overthinking this

you actually did better than most first-timers, dont stress it. saying your call twice isnt a big deal at all, net controls hear that all the time especially if the frequency has any noise on it. most NCS operators appreciate it honestly because sometimes a single callsign just gets buried. the traffic thing is yeah, NTS -- National Traffic System. its a pretty old formalized way of passing messages from one part of the country to another, kind of a holdover from when that was more critical but people still do it and some nets are specifically traffic nets. the format is rigid on purpose so nothing gets garbled. you dont need to worry about it unless you want to get into it, plenty of nets dont do any traffic at all. as for jumping into the ragchew after, honestly just do it next time. key up when theres a pause and say your call, something like "W4XYZ also listening" or just toss your call in there. most guys on a local net are happy to have more people join in, thats kinda the whole point of the thing. the culture varies a bit by club and area but in my experience local 2m nets are pretty welcoming especially if youre new.

not dumb questions at all, this stuff confused me too when i went through it. so yes there is a fee now — the FCC started charging $35 for most license transactions including vanity applications a few years back, which was a bummer but its not the end of the world. you can pay through their online system when you submit. as for timing, a General can apply for vanity calls but you're limited to certain formats. the 1x2 and 2x1 calls are typically reserved for Extras, so with a General you're mostly looking at 1x3 or 2x2 formats unless you upgrade first. worth knowing before you get your heart set on a specific short call. and to your last question — if your vanity application doesn't go through for whatever reason you absolutely keep your current sequential call. it doesnt just disappear. the vanity process is sort of a separate thing layered on top, if that makes sense. the FCC processes applications in batches i believe so theres usually a waiting period of like 18 days before the call is actually granted, during which other people can also apply for the same call. if multiple people apply for the same one there's a priority system based on license class and relationship to the previous holder if its a recycled call.

so i passed my technician exam last thursday and honestly wasnt expecting to pass on the first try, studied for about 3 weeks using hamstudyorg and a couple youtube videos. got my callsign in the system like 4 days later which i heard used to take way longer so that was cool. anyway i borrowed a baofeng uv5r from my buddy who got me into this whole thing and managed to get into a local repeater last night. some guy came back to me and we talked for maybe 10 minutes about nothing in particular, i was so nervous i forgot to give my callsign at the end and had to key up again real quick. pretty sure i sounded like an idiot but he was really patient about it. just wanted to introduce myself i guess. im in the midwest if that matters, planning to get a proper radio eventually but for now the baofeng is doing the job

oh man this is timely, i literally just posted on another forum asking about 10m because ive had my tribander up for two years and barely used the 10m element lol. gonna have to spend some time up there this week if the flux stays up. what time of day were you hearing europe, was it morning or more like late afternoon your time?

yeah i had the same confusion when i started lol. honestly i just started using phonetics for everything and then dialing it back when it felt unnecessary, like ragchewing with someone on a clear repeater you dont really need to spell out your whole call every time. but for initial contact or if theres any static or anything i always go phonetic now just out of habit the sugar thing i still hear around here too, one of the old timers at our club uses completely different ones and honestly after a while you just kind of learn what he means

so i just joined my local ARES group about three months ago and i've been going to the monthly nets and did the introductory training but i just got a message that there's a potential activation next weekend for a county-wide flooding exercise and honestly im not sure what to expect. like i know the theory but actually showing up and doing it feels different. i have my technician and just upgraded to general last month so im still pretty green. the EC asked if i could staff a shelter position which sounds straightforward but i dont really know what that means in practice. do i just sit there with my HT and wait for someone to talk to me, or is there more setup involved? my go-bag has my vx-6r, a spare battery, some coax, and a mag mount but im not sure if thats enough or if i should bring more stuff. any advice from people who've done activations before would be really appreciated

This is a known issue with APRX message timing. Try configuring the APRSIS source with 'relay-type 3rd-party' and proper msg-path settings. The dupe suppression algorithm can be overly aggressive if viscous-delay parameters aren't tuned for your local network conditions.

oh man yes, happens to me every couple years. last time i went almost two months without touching anything. what got me back was stumbling onto a pileup on 17m while just casually spinning the dial and i couldnt help myself. sometimes you just gotta leave the rig on in the background with the volume low and let it pull you back in naturally, dont force it

the battery thing you mentioned — we had the exact same problem at our drill a couple years back. its one of those things that seems obvious but nobody thinks about until it fails. our EC now requires everyone to do a battery check and log it at the monthly meeting and honestly it helped a lot. still get the occasional person who forgets but its way better. the jargon issue is real too. we had an EC who was ex military and he'd slip into procedure speak constantly and the newer folks would just go quiet because they didnt want to ask what something meant on a live net. we eventually added a quick plain language reminder at the start of every activation or drill. just a one liner from net control that says something like hey we're using plain language today, no 10 codes, if something isnt clear just ask. sounds basic but it changed the feel of the whole thing. for your occasional operators question, i dont have a great answer. we struggle with that too. the people who show up once every few months are usually the ones who are least prepared when something real happens, but they're also volunteers so theres only so much you can push.

so i've been interested in ham radio for a while now, mostly because my neighbor has a big antenna setup and he showed me some stuff and i got hooked. anyway i decided i actually want to get my license but i have no idea where to start. i looked at the FCC website and it was kind of overwhelming honestly. do i need to memorize the whole question pool or is there a smarter way to study? and how hard is the actual test? i'm not great at technical stuff but i'm not terrible either, just average i guess. someone mentioned hamstudy.org to me but i wasnt sure if thats enough on its own or if i need a book too.

I've been running a 1.2KW SSPA on 432 for three years now with excellent reliability. The duty cycle advantages are huge for digital modes - no warm-up time, instant on/off, and much better spectral purity than most tube amps. Initial cost is higher but operational costs are lower, especially if you're doing serious contest weekends.

Just got my General license and want to explore CW, but I'm completely lost. Since CW is no longer required for licensing, I have zero experience, but I keep hearing about the advantages like better signal penetration and QRP effectiveness. What's the absolute best way to start from scratch? I've seen mentions of Koch method, Farnsworth timing, and various apps. Should I join a structured program like CW Academy (which is free) or Long Island CW Club? Or can I self-teach with apps first? Looking for: Best beginner learning method/resourceRealistic timeline to first QSOEquipment recommendations for practice

RF noise into microcontrollers is no joke. i tried something similar with a raspberry pi zero for a different project and the thing would just hang randomly when i was running more than like 20 watts on 20m. ended up having to put so many ferrites on it that it looked ridiculous but it worked. the pi was probably overkill for what i needed anyway. for your SWR sensing have you looked at the AD8307 log amp chip? lot of people use that for directional power meters and it gives you a nice clean log-scaled output that maps really well to dB which makes the math on the arduino side a lot easier than trying to calculate SWR from raw forward and reflected voltages. just a thought, might simplify your firmware a bit.

so ive been trying to learn morse code for about 4 months now and im stuck at 5wpm and it feels like a wall. i can copy maybe 70% at that speed but the moment anything speeds up even a little bit my brain just freezes and i start trying to count dits and dahs again which i know is wrong but i cant help it. ive been using the LCWO website and doing the Koch method but honestly some days i feel like im going backwards. i practice maybe 20-30 minutes a day which i thought would be enough. my goal is to get to 20wpm eventually, i keep reading about people who got there in a year or less and i dont understand how they did it. has anyone actually gone through this and gotten past it? what clicked for you? im not in a rush i just want to make sure im not wasting my time doing something wrong from the start

For QO-100 work, that 300ms latency will definitely be noticeable. Try adjusting the audio sample rates in the config files - sometimes dropping from 48kHz to 44.1kHz can help. The bandwidth claims are pretty accurate in my experience, especially compared to running something like SDR# over VNC.

Finally upgrading from my Technician and need to get comfortable with CW again after getting 5WPM decades ago. I keep hearing about the Koch method versus traditional slow-speed building. Those of you who made the jump from 5WPM to 20WPM - which approach actually worked? The G4FON software looks promising but I'm curious about real-world experiences. Also wondering about practice time - how many hours per week did it take you to build solid copy speed?

made almost exactly that switch about 18 months ago, went from a 7300 to a 7610 and yeah the dual receiver alone was worth it for me during sweepstakes. being able to monitor a second band without a second radio changes how you operate, at least if you're doing any kind of serious contesting. the roofing filter situation is also genuinely better in a crowded band, not dramatically better but enough that you notice it when things get really busy on 40 meters on a friday night. that said if you're doing a lot of casual operating and not pushing the radio hard during pile-ups and contest weekends i think the 7300 is honestly one of the best value radios ever made and the upgrade might feel underwhelming. really depends how much of your time is contest vs everything else. for me it was worth every penny but i was also doing a lot of state qso parties and stuff where having that second vfo with a real independent receiver mattered.

been doing ARES stuff for close to 15 years now and honestly the first activation nerves are completely normal, pretty much everyone goes through it. the thing that helped me most early on was remembering that your job is actually pretty simple — relay accurate information, do it clearly, log what you can, and stay out of the way of the served agency folks unless they need something from you. you're not there to solve their problems, you're there to move information when their normal comms break down or get overwhelmed. the part about the served agency rep not knowing ham radio is super common btw. just introduce yourself, tell them your name and that you're with ARES, and basically say something like 'if you need to get a message somewhere and your radios aren't working, come find me.' that's usually enough. they don't need to know about frequencies or anything like that, that's your problem not theirs. also keep your log even if it feels like nothing important is happening. you'll thank yourself later and your EC will definitely appreciate it. good luck this weekend, sounds like a solid group you've got

so i passed my technician exam last saturday and the VE team said my info gets submitted to the FCC and i should have a call within a week or so. that part i get. but then someone at the exam session mentioned something about vanity calls and sequential calls and i kind of nodded like i knew what they were talking about but i honestly have no idea. from what i can piece together, the FCC just assigns you a call automatically first and then later you can apply for a specific one you want? but i dont really understand the format either like why some calls are shorter than others or what the numbers mean. mine will probably start with K or W i assume since im in the midwest. anyway if someone could explain how this whole thing works in plain english id really appreciate it, the FCC website makes my head spin

honestly i do this more than i actually transmit lol. my wife thinks im weird for just sitting there with headphones on not saying anything but its relaxing to me. 40 and 75 meters late night especially when the band is long and you start hearing stuff from way out

so ive had my old TS-590SG for about four years now and it's been a solid workhorse, no complaints really, but i kept reading about the 7300 and watching those waterfall videos and eventually just ordered one last month. been running it for about three weeks now. first thing — the real time spectrum scope is genuinely useful and not just a gimmick like i thought it might be. i can see propagation changes happening in real time and it's actually changed how i operate a bit, like i'll notice activity opening up on 17m before i'd have even thought to check. that part lived up to the hype. the thing that surprised me though is the touch screen is just... fine. not great. it's responsive enough but i keep accidentally changing things when i rest my hand near the front panel. might just need to adjust my habits. the menu system is also deeper than i expected, took me a good weekend of fiddling to get my audio levels and NR settings where i wanted them. mic audio apparently sounds really good on the other end which is nice, people have been commenting on it on 40m SSB. overall happy with it but wanted to share some honest impressions since most reviews i read felt a bit like they were written to sell the thing. anyone else running one of these and found settings they really like?