Jeff Parker

i keep hearing people say QRT on the air and i think i know what it means but not 100% sure. is it like signing off or something? also whats the difference between that and 73

I keep meaning to go to one of these but something always comes up. let me know what the swap tables are like if you go, specifically curious if anyone ever sells antenna tuners at these things or if its mostly handhelds and random junk

I passed General last month after being a Tech for 2 years. Honestly, the antenna and propagation sections were tougher than I expected. Understanding skywave, sporadic-E, and skip zones was key. Don't neglect the electronics theory - those questions can trip you up if you're not solid on basic circuits.

yeah the doppler thing is really what gets people first time out. AO-73 moves fast enough that if you're not correcting at least every 15-20 seconds near the horizon you're going to drift out of the passband pretty easily. the pass center is where you get a little breather. for the inverting transponder question — AO-73 uses LSB on the uplink and USB on the downlink, so if you tune your downlink up in frequency, you tune your uplink down. that's the inversion. once it clicks in your head it makes sense but yeah it trips everyone up at first. easiest way to remember: if you hear your signal going higher pitch when you tune down, you're going the wrong way. hearing yourself is the gold standard for knowing you're in. if you can get even a single speaker or earbud monitoring the SDR downlink while you operate the 817, that feedback loop is huge. some guys preprogram a series of doppler-corrected frequencies into the 817's memory channels before the pass so they can just step through them instead of continuously tuning. clunky but works okay for a casual setup. full duplex is really the answer but i get that it takes more hands and gear than you had going.

i left mine pretty close to stock for the first month tbh, only thing i really changed early on was the AGC timing and the NR level because the defaults felt a bit aggressive to me on 40m. but i know some guys who went deep on the parametric EQ for their mic audio and apparently you can get it sounding really good if you put the time in. havent bothered yet myself

I've been running RemoteHams RCForb client with my Flex-6600 for about six months, but lately I'm experiencing significant audio delay (3-4 seconds) and occasional dropouts during SSB operations. Internet connection is solid at 100/20 Mbps with 18ms ping to the server. The delay seems worse on 20m during band openings. Anyone else seeing similar issues with recent versions? Running version 4.2.1 server software on a dedicated Windows 10 machine with CAT control via USB. Audio interface is using the built-in FlexRadio SmartSDR audio streams.

yeah the MARS mod is pretty standard stuff at this point. just make sure you documented what you did somewhere because ive seen guys send radios in for warranty work and forget to mention it and that gets awkward. the audio rabbit hole on the 7300 is real though, fair warning. i went from menu tweaks to reading about the electret mic element in the HM-219 and ended up swapping it out for a different capsule which was probably overkill. did it sound better? maybe a little. was it worth the saturday i spent on it? debatable. if you do go that route the SM-30 desk mic makes a bigger difference than anything you'll do to the HM-219 just saying.

I'm looking to upgrade from my basic Morse trainer app to something more serious for building speed from 12WPM to 20WPM. For Methodical Learning: The G4FON Koch Method Trainer and Just Learn Morse Code provide excellent resources for those who prefer a methodical, step-by-step approach to learning CW. For Flexibility: Morse Code Ninja and LCWO offer customizable lessons and a range of practice options Has anyone compared G4FON Koch trainer with LCWO or the newer Morse Code Ninja? I need something that can simulate contest conditions with QSB and QRM. Also interested in any mobile apps that don't suck - seems like most are pretty basic.

so ive been fighting with this for a couple weeks now and im kind of at my wit's end. running a TM-D710G with the internal TNC, path set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 and i can see my beacon transmitting on the radio (the little TX light blinks, audio comes out the speaker briefly) but nothing ever shows up on aprs.fi for my callsign. i know theres at least two digipeaters within 30 miles of me because i can see their beacons on the waterfall when i monitor 144.390. ive tried adjusting the beacon rate, tried changing the symbol, tried connecting to a local IGate directly using APRS-IS through aprsdroid on my phone just to confirm my callsign formatting is right. that all works fine. so the RF side is clearly the issue. tx power is set to 5w, antenna is a 5/8 wave mag mount on the roof of my car, swr checked out okay when i tested it a couple months ago. one thing i noticed is that when i put the radio in monitor mode i hear a lot of traffic but my own packets dont seem to be getting digi'd. could this be a timing issue with the TNC? or maybe the path is just not getting picked up? not sure where to go from here honestly.

yeah I went through the same thing when I first got on HF. what helped me was realizing that nobody is gonna get mad at you for using phonetics even when you don't need to, but people will definitely ask for a repeat if you dont use them when you should have. so just err on the side of spelling things out until it becomes second nature also kind of unrelated but i noticed you mentioned 40m -- watch out for the evening hours when the band gets crowded, that's exactly when you really want to be clear with your call or you'll just get walked over

so i've been trying to study for my technician exam for about three weeks now and honestly its kind of overwhelming. i bought the ARRL handbook thing but its like 900 pages and i cant tell if im supposed to read all of it or just parts. a friend told me to just memorize the question pool but that feels like cheating somehow? i dont know. mostly im confused about the electrical stuff, like i get the basic ohms law but when it gets into calculating stuff with antennas and impedance i get kind of lost. is that stuff even on the tech exam a lot or should i focus more on the operating rules and frequencies and stuff like that. any advice from people who actually just did this recently would be really helpful

yeah i had basically the same headache for a while. what i ended up doing was making Log4OM the master log and setting WSJT-X to log directly to it via the UDP port — Log4OM handles that pretty well once you get the settings right, took me maybe 20 minutes to figure out the port config but after that it just works. FT8 contacts show up automatically, no manual imports. for contests i still fire up N1MM because honestly nothing touches it for that, but when the contest is done i export the ADIF from N1MM and import into Log4OM. ive been doing this for about a year and a half and havent had any real dupe issues, Log4OM seems to flag them during import. the timestamps have been fine too as long as your PC clock is synced which it should be anyway if youre running WSJT-X. the one thing i will say is dont try to run WSJT-X and N1MM at the same time pointing at the same UDP port, learned that the hard way during a contest weekend when i forgot to close Log4OM and everything got weird

so ive been chasing 3Y0 type rare ones for a while now and honestly breaking pileups used to just feel like screaming into the void. last weekend there was a decent pileup on a ZL9 and i actually got through after maybe 20 minutes which for me is kind of a record worth talking about. few things i noticed that seemed to help. first i stopped transmitting on the DX's frequency completely, obvious i know but i kept watching the cluster and half the people calling were just parking right on him. i was listening to where he was actually coming back to and trying to find a bit of dead air just above his listening window rather than right in the middle of the pack. also timed my calls so i was finishing just as the previous QSO was wrapping up. not sure if thats actually a real technique or i just got lucky but it felt deliberate. running about 400w into a 4el yagi so not exactly a pistol station but not a big gun either. the DX was working split obviously, up 5 to 10. anyone else have actual techniques that work consistently? not looking for the obvious stuff like listen before transmit, more interested in the timing and frequency placement side of things. also curious if anyone has opinions on whether a single op running barefoot can realistically break a serious pileup or if its just a numbers game at that point.

yeah the first activation is always kind of a baptism by fire no matter how much training you do beforehand. the nets and the tabletops only get you so far. i remember my first one was a flooding event back in like 2011 and i was stationed at the EOC and had absolutely no idea where to plug in my HT antenna or who i was supposed to be reporting to for the first 20 minutes. just kind of stood there looking useful. it really does get easier, mostly because you start to understand how your specific group operates and you learn the personalities involved. the shadow frequency thing — that varies a lot by group by the way, some ECs use that term differently so dont feel bad for asking. asking is always better than guessing wrong and passing bad traffic. honestly the guys who never ask questions are the ones who cause problems during activations. keep showing up, keep doing the nets, maybe volunteer to be a net control on a training night if your EC lets newer folks do that. that hands-on stuff builds confidence faster than anything.

honestly the best thing i ever did for my SSB audio was just ask a buddy to give me an honest report on 40m during the day when conditions were mediocre. not a signal report, like an actual audio quality report. most people wont tell you unless you ask directly and even then they sugarcoat it the EQ stuff is real but i think mic placement and gain staging matters way more before you start reaching for that. also worth checking if you have any RF getting into the audio chain because that can sound like all kinds of weird stuff and you'd never guess thats the cause

Don't forget DE (from/this is), CQ (calling any station), and SK (end of contact). Also 88 for "love and kisses" when signing with YLs. The telegraph operators developed these to speed up transmission, and we've inherited this efficient shorthand.

Antenna location makes all the difference - it's the metal mass directly under the antenna that counts, not what's alongside. Increasing the antenna height may also increase distance, so mount your antenna as high as possible. I moved from trunk to roof NMO and gained about 10-15 miles on weak repeaters.

is this the one over by the fairgrounds? first hamfest since i got my tech last spring so honestly dont even know what to expect, mostly just want to look around and maybe find a cheap HT or something to practice with

Start with the essential ones: QRL (frequency in use?), QRZ (who's calling?), QSY (change frequency), and QRT (stop transmitting). QRL? is very important - always ask if a frequency is in use before calling CQ. For voice, you don't need to say "question mark" - your tone of voice makes it clear it's a question.

im pretty much in the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and still figuring all this out. one thing i stumbled on that nobody told me was that QRZ's logbook will actually flag when a station you spot is a new DXCC entity for you which is kinda cool if you're working toward awards or whatever. not sure if that helps with your workflow question exactly but i thought it was neat when i found it. the integration between logging software and live cluster data is something i keep meaning to figure out properly, i think some of the paid loggers like DXKeeper do it automatically but havent gotten there yet myself.

dont feel bad about the low numbers on your first try, happens to everyone! 6 contacts is still a valid activation. couple things that might help - try to get your antenna higher if possible, even 20-30 feet makes a huge difference. also timing matters alot, weekends during contests can actually hurt you because everyone is focused on the contest. check the pota website for when your park gets spotted, sometimes it takes a while for hunters to find you

so our ARES group has a county-level exercise coming up in about 3 weeks and im trying to finalize the power setup for the portable station. we're running an IC-7300 as the primary HF rig plus a couple VHF portables for local nets, and the question thats been going back and forth in our group is whether to bring a generator or just rely on a battery bank with solar backup. last time we did one of these i ran a 100ah AGM with a 100w panel and it was fine for like 6 hours but we ended up running the radio way more than expected once things picked up and i had to throttle down the 7300 to like 50w to stretch the charge. the exercise this time is supposed to go 18 hours which is a different beast entirely. the generator option would be a harbor freight 2200w inverter genny, one of the guys has one. clean enough power supposedly for radio use but i've heard mixed things and i dont really want to deal with RFI if it starts bleeding into the receive on 40 or 80m. anyone actually used one of those with an HF rig or should i just stack more batteries and maybe add another panel. also trying to keep things portable since we're setting up in a parking lot but might have to hump gear a short distance to the actual operating position. antenna wise we're probably going with a linked dipole up on a 31ft jackite and maybe a vertical as a backup. nothing exotic just want reliable.

yeah unfortunately 44 is the threshold so those 38 contacts wont count as a valid activation for the WWFF database, but dont let that discourage you at all. everyone has a partial activation at some point, weather especially has a way of ruining plans. the good news is the contacts themselves still count for the hunters who logged them, so youre not wasting peoples time or anything. for spotting, wwff.cc has its own self-spotting system built in and theres also a cluster specifically for WWFF. a lot of hunters watch the POTA spots too since theres so much overlap between the two programs, a lot of references are in both. i usually post to both when im out just to maximize the pile. next time you go back to that same reference the 44 should be pretty easy if conditions are decent and you get spotted early, the hunters really do show up once they see a new spot come through.

so ive been trying to figure out if its worth the drive this year, last time i went i picked up a decent HF rig for way less than i expected but also spent like 3 hours just walking around in the heat and didnt find half the stuff i was looking for. thinking about going with a buddy from the club but hes on the fence too. anyone here planning on going or know if theres anything good lined up this time around

welcome. i just got my general last month so im not far ahead of you. my first qso was a disaster, i forgot to give my callsign at the end and the guy had to ask me twice. we all start somewhere i guess