QRP Master

As a new Tech, you have full privileges on VHF/UHF bands but limited HF access. For example, on 60 meters you must transmit exactly on the channel center frequency, which means setting your carrier 1.5 kHz lower. The key is understanding that FCC Part 97 sets the legal boundaries, while band plans organize activities within those boundaries for minimum interference.

so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to buy first. ive been looking around and there's just so much stuff out there it's kind of hard to know where to start. everyone in my local club seems to have different opinions and now im more confused than before lol
some people are saying just grab a baofeng uv-5r to learn on, others are saying thats a waste of time and i should save up for something like a yaesu ft-65 or maybe the vx-6r which looks really nice but also costs way more. i dont really know what features actually matter vs what's just nice to have. like do i actually need dual band right away? and what about the programming software, i heard some radios are way easier to program than others which seems important
mostly i'll be using it to check into the local repeater and maybe bring it hiking. any thoughts appreciated, i dont have a huge budget, probably around 50-75 bucks to start

not required by the FCC or anything, its just a convention that most operators use because those specific words were chosen to be distinct from each other even with bad audio or interference. like november and november both start the same but the point is they dont sound like other letters when you're copying through static. that said you'll hear plenty of old timers who use their own phonetics out of habit and nobody really cares on a local repeater. on HF especially contest ops sometimes use non-standard ones that just punch through better, heard guys say lima as london or something like that. just learn the standard ones first so you dont confuse people, then do whatever once you get a feel for whats working

so ive been messing around with an arduino uno for a few weeks now trying to get it to handle my antenna switching automatically based on what band the radio is on. right now i have a yaesu ft-991a and it puts out band data on the accessory port so thats at least something to work with. the idea is to read that band data and then fire the appropriate relay to switch between my wire antennas out back.
ive got the relay board wired up and the arduino reads the band voltage fine, i tested it with a multimeter and it all checks out. but the switching itself is kind of glitchy — like sometimes it switches twice real fast or hesitates before it does anything. i think its a debounce issue or maybe im not filtering the input properly but honestly im not 100% sure. the code is pretty basic right now, just a bunch of if statements checking the analog voltage.
anyone tackled something like this before? wondering if i should ditch the uno and move to a pi or if thats overkill for something this simple. also not sure if the relay board im using is rated for the coax switching side of things, its one of those cheap 8 channel ones off amazon.

yeah i had almost the exact same issue with an NE602 build a while back, turned out my bypass caps were too far from the supply pins. also worth checking if your audio stage is picking up RF from the oscillator, if the LM386 input lead is too long it acts like an antenna basically. i ended up having to shield the VFO section with a little tin can just to clean things up. not pretty but it worked lol

dont know about the 9700 specifically but with my setup i find manual tuning works better than trying to get the computer to do everything. i just start a few khz low on the uplink when the sat comes up and tune by ear until i hear myself in the downlink. takes practice but once you get the feel for it its actually pretty easy. gpredict is good for knowing when to start listening but i wouldnt trust it for exact frequencies

yeah 44 QSOs is the minimum for a valid activation, you nailed it. and honestly 47 on a first activation with a wire in a tree is pretty solid. i remember my first one was kind of a mess, took me almost 4 hours to get to 44 because i didnt really know how to work a pileup and kept letting the frequency go quiet for too long.
for logging in the field i switched to just using a clipboard with pre-printed log sheets and a decent pen, sounds old school but its faster for me than fumbling with a phone app when signals are coming in fast. some people swear by HAMRS or Fast Log Entry but you have to have the park reference loaded ahead of time like you said. what i do now is download the wwff reference kml file every few weeks so i have the current list, and before any activation i just make sure the reference is already in whatever app im using. saves the scramble later.
the EU contacts on 17m from a wire in a tree is the real story here though, 17m can be magic sometimes especially in the afternoon when the greyline is doing interesting things. good stuff, keep activating

The standard convention is to listen on USB downlink while transmitting LSB uplink. You've got the frequencies right - 435.140 LSB up gives you 145.950 USB down. Just remember to tune the uplink while transmitting to keep your downlink signal steady!

one thing nobody mentioned to me when i first started with Winlink was that the RMS gateway list in the program isnt always showing you current status, like a gateway can show up green and be basically unreachable at that moment for various reasons. i started cross-referencing with the Winlink.org map online before i connect and that helped a lot honestly. you can see last activity timestamps and get a better sense of which nodes are actually active versus just listed.
also if you havent already, try Telnet mode just to verify your account and message handling is working end to end before you blame the RF path. if Telnet works fine then you know its definitely something in the VARA or audio chain and not a Winlink account configuration issue.

so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and just want to hear what people are actually using day to day. currently got a mag mount diamond NR770H stuck on the roof of my truck which honestly works fine but im kind of done with the cable routing situation and the fact that i always forget to take it off before pulling into the garage. happened twice already and somehow the antenna survived but the cable is looking rough.
thinking about doing a proper NMO hole in the roof or maybe a lip mount on the trunk edge. the truck is a 2019 F150 so the roof is pretty accessible. im in a situation where i use this mostly for local repeater stuff on 2m and occasionally hitting the 70cm machines when i drive through the next county over. nothing exotic, no satellite, just reliable everyday use.
the NMO option seems cleaner electrically but im not sure my wife is going to love a hole in the roof of a vehicle we still owe money on lol. lip mounts i know have some compromises but ive heard they work pretty well if you mount them in the right spot. anyone gone from mag to NMO and noticed an actual difference on VHF, or is this more of a cable management and permanence thing than an RF thing