Kiwi Operator

so i've been running a FT-7900R in my truck for about 3 weeks now and the install was kind of a mess at first — i had the power leads running too close to the ignition wires and was getting all kinds of garbage. finally rerouted everything direct to the battery with a fuse holder close to the battery like everyone says to do and that helped a ton. antenna is a Tram 1185 on a mag mount on the roof, coax goes through the door jamb.
but now im getting this kind of pulsing noise on receive, sort of rhythmic, speeds up when i rev the engine. i think its alternator whine? ive read about those little ferrite filters and also something about a ground loop but honestly im not 100% sure what the actual fix is here. radio works fine, i can hit the local repeater no problem, its just annoying. anyone dealt with this before or know what to actually try first before i start buying random stuff

yeah the ctcss thing got me too my first few tries, wasnt in my notes and spent like two passes wondering why nobody could hear me. also 28 degrees isnt bad at all i've had good contacts on lower passes than that depending on where the footprint lands. just gotta be ready and have gpredict open on your phone or something so you can see roughly where youre pointing

congrats on the first activation, 11 QSOs on your first time out is solid especially if you were dealing with nerves and a pileup on top of it. on the activation zone question, honestly for most summits it really isnt something to stress over too much. if you're clearly on or very near the summit you're fine. the 25 meter vertical rule is more there to stop people from setting up at the trailhead and claiming the summit, it comes up more on these broad ridgeline summits where someone might try to activate from like half a mile away horizontally. if you hiked to the top youre good.
for managing pileups, one thing that helped me a lot early on was just slowing down and taking control of the frequency instead of letting the pile run you. say who youre listening for, like say last two letters or just say QRZ SOTA and make them wait a second. also logging on paper first and transferring later saves a lot of brain cycles when youre out there, i used to try to do everything on my phone and it was a mess. the SOTA Spotter app is great but sometimes the self-spot takes a second depending on cell coverage so its worth texting an alert the day before so the chasers already know youre coming

yeah the ctcss thing got me too my first few tries, wasnt in my notes and spent like two passes wondering why nobody could hear me. also 28 degrees isnt bad at all i've had good contacts on lower passes than that depending on where the footprint lands. just gotta be ready and have gpredict open on your phone or something so you can see roughly where youre pointing

yeah totally normal i think. i go through phases like that especially in winter. sometimes i'll just park on a frequency and do something else around the shack, half paying attention. its actually how i got more comfortable with CW before i felt confident enough to answer calls. there's something kind of meditative about it honestly

honest answer is it varies a lot but the advice about learning by sound is solid, dont make the mistake of memorizing dit dah patterns because then youre translating in your head instead of just hearing the letter and thats a real pain to unlearn later. i did that when i first started and had to basically restart
koch method worked well for me personally, theres a free program called lcwo.net that implements it and you can just work through it at your own pace. the idea is you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20 wpm, and only add more letters once you can copy those reliably. sounds weird to start fast but it trains your ear properly from the beginning. i was making actual contacts probably around the 8 month mark but i was only practicing maybe 15 minutes a day so mileage varies. there's also the chirpster app and jscwlib stuff if you want something on your phone. just be consistent, that matters way more than how long each session is

so ive been a tech for about a year and a half and i keep reading about how cw is this whole other level of operating and i kind of want to try it but i have no idea where to begin. like do i just start memorizing letters one at a time? i downloaded a couple apps but they all seem different and i dont know which approach is actually worth the time. someone mentioned something called the koch method to me at a club meeting but the guy kind of wandered off before explaining what it actually is. is there like a standard way people learn this or is it just whatever works for you. also i have no idea what speed i should be practicing at, ive heard both really slow and then something about how you should learn at full speed from the start which sounds insane to me but what do i know

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now (general) and keep hearing people talk about CW and how great it is and i kind of want to learn but i have no idea where to start. like do people still use those paper charts or is there an app or something. i tried just looking at the dots and dashes on a chart and it made zero sense to me, felt like trying to memorize a random list of letters and numbers with no connection to anything
also how long does this realistically take, i dont want to commit to something that takes years before you can even have a basic qso. someone at the club mentioned the Koch method but i couldnt really follow what they were explaining. is that better than just trying to memorize it off a chart? sorry if this is a dumb question

yeah im planning to go, went last two years and always find something worth buying even if its just some connectors and coax. the swap meet tables early saturday morning are the best, gotta get there before 7 if you want the good stuff cause the dealers pick through everything first. if your club does a carpool that sounds like a good deal, parking is always a mess