Radio Geek

yeah that symptom pattern — tx working but rx completely dead — is pretty classic for a blown front end. on most modern rigs there's a PIN diode or a set of schottky protection diodes right at the antenna port that are supposed to clamp transients, but a big enough surge just sacrifices them and sometimes takes out the first LNA stage too. the 7300 uses a fairly integrated RF front end so if the LNA MMIC got hit you might be looking at a board-level component that's not easy to source or rework without proper gear. i'd start by checking continuity and resistance at the antenna port to ground on both center and shield with the radio off and unplugged, just to see if anything obvious is shorted. also worth pulling the top cover and looking for any visible burn marks near the antenna input circuitry. icom's service centers can sometimes just swap the RF unit board but that's not cheap. if you're handy with SMD work and can get the service manual it might be worth a shot yourself, but honestly for a 7300 the repair cost vs. just getting it serviced professionally is probably worth thinking about.

i was in the same boat about a year ago honestly. what finally made it click for me was realizing they kind of serve different communities. LoTW is the serious award chaser system, eQSL is more casual and has some neat digital card designs people actually put effort into, and paper cards are just... kind of a tradition that a lot of operators genuinely enjoy. i have a whole box of cards i've gotten from people all over the world and i like flipping through them. dont stress too much about having all three perfect right away. get LoTW sorted, maybe sign up for eQSL too since its free and easy, and if someone sends you a paper card just enjoy it. you can always send cards through the bureau which is way cheaper than direct mail if you eventually want to do that side of things too.

so i've been working on a direct conversion receiver for 40m for the past few months, mostly following the Minima design but i kind of went off-script on the audio stage because i had some TL072s laying around instead of the specified opamps. got the whole thing assembled last weekend and it actually receives signals which honestly surprised me a bit. the problem is there's this low frequency hum in the audio that gets worse when i touch the enclosure, and also i'm getting some weird heterodyne-type squealing when i tune near the bottom of the band. the BFO is running around 7.0 MHz and i built it on ugly-style construction on a piece of copper clad. my shielding is basically just a cookie tin i found in the kitchen which is maybe not ideal. anybody dealt with this kind of thing before? im wondering if the hum is a grounding issue or if its RF getting into the audio stage somehow. the VFO is built on a separate board about 3 inches away from the audio section, no shielding between them. should i be worried about that or is 3 inches fine for this kind of build

i went down this rabbit hole last year and ended up switching to a Raspberry Pi instead of arduino just because i wanted to add a web interface so i could control it remotely too. ended up way more complicated than i planned lol but it does work. if you just need local automation the arduino approach is totally fine and probably more reliable honestly since theres no linux to hang on you. one thing to think about — do you want manual override? i added a physical rotary switch that can bypass the whole arduino thing in case something goes sideways during a contest or whatever. saved me a few times when i was updating firmware at a bad moment

so ive been running ft8 for about a year now and yeah its great for contacts and filling in the map but honestly after a while it starts to feel like youre just clicking a button and watching a computer talk to another computer. not much operating skill involved if im being honest with myself. someone at the club last month mentioned js8call and said its basically ft8 but you can actually type messages back and forth, relay stuff through other stations, even do some basic messaging over hf without internet. that actually sounds interesting to me. my setup is pretty modest, ic-7300 into a trapped vertical, so im not running a kilowatt or anything, but ft8 contacts usually arent a problem even at 50 watts. my question is kind of twofold i guess — is js8call actually used enough that youd find other stations to talk to on a random weeknight, and is the weak signal performance close enough to ft8 that id still get through when band conditions are marginal? i know its a wider bandwidth mode so im assuming the sensitivity isnt quite the same but i dont really know the numbers off the top of my head. also still have a soft spot for psk31 but man that waterfall is a ghost town compared to what it used to be. feels like everyone just migrated to ft8 and never looked back.

honestly the Extra exam isnt as bad as people make it sound. i stressed about it for months and then just sat down with the ARRL Extra manual and hm601 practice tests for about 6 weeks and passed first try. the theory sections are dense but most of it starts clicking once you see the same concepts come up over and over in the practice questions. the smith chart stuff yeah its weird but there are only like a handful of questions that actually show up on the pool so dont overthink it. as for whether its worth it, the privileges on 75 and 40 are real. the extra portion of 40 meters especially is noticeably less crowded on weekday mornings if youre into rag chewing or working DX. i also just liked knowing i had gone as far as you can go with the license, kind of felt like finishing something. but if youre happy with what youre doing now nobody is going to take that away from you by not upgrading.

yeah the fan thing is real, mine started getting audible around the 3 year mark. i swapped it out for a noctua 40mm and its basically silent now. you do have to do a little adapter work because the connector isnt the same and the voltage curve is slightly different but nothing crazy. theres a thread on eham somewhere with the exact part numbers. the hardest part honestly was just getting the case back together without scratching anything, i always seem to do that. also on the MARS mod — totally agree its less scary than it looks. i did mine about 18 months ago. just make sure youre doing the right revision of the mod for your serial number range because there were a couple different board layouts and the pad locations moved. the older threads dont always make that clear and i had a moment of confusion before i found the right documentation.

ok so i just got my technician license last month and ive been reading through part 97 trying to figure out what the rules actually are and honestly its kind of a mess to read through. like i get the basic idea but some of it is really confusing. my main question is about what counts as prohibited transmissions — i know you cant do music and you cant broadcast to the general public but what exactly counts as broadcasting? like if im just talking to a friend on 2 meters and someone else happens to hear it, is that broadcasting? and also ive seen people say you cant transmit obscene language but who decides whats obscene, is there like a list somewhere or is it just whatever the FCC feels like that day. also someone at my club meeting said something about third party traffic and how you have to be careful with that and now im paranoid about literally everything i say on the radio. sorry if this is a dumb question im just trying to not accidentally break any rules

yeah the menu system on icom stuff does take some getting used to. been running mine for like 8 months and still occasionally find something ive never touched. the manual is actually worth reading though which i know sounds obvious but i never read manuals and it saved me a few times with this one.

Six months into building a 7 MHz SSB transceiver from scratch using mostly through-hole components. Finally got the receiver section working reliably - using single conversion superhet design with 9 MHz IF and mechanical filter. Transmitter uses balanced modulator approach with MC1496 generating DSB, followed by crystal filter for sideband selection. Getting about 25W output with IRF840 in the final stage, class AB configuration. ALC circuit keeps things clean and prevents overdrive. Next challenge is integrating the synthesized VFO - building Si5351-based design that covers 7.000-7.300 with 1Hz resolution. Planning to use Arduino for band/mode switching and frequency display. Construction is modular approach with separate boards for each function connected via short coax jumpers. Keeps RF stages isolated and makes troubleshooting much easier.

If the other operator is having trouble picking my callsign out of the noise, it sometimes helps to switch phonetic alphabets. Sometimes one or the other sound just happens to get through better or is more recognizable by the other radio operator (especially if English is not their primary language).

Still learning digital modes myself, but noticed WSJT software suite including JT65 is widely used for its ability to decode extremely weak signals. Would love to hear more real-world comparisons between these modes from experienced EME operators.

Start with the ARRL RF worksheets A and B - Worksheet B is now a necessary step under the new rules. For your dipole setup, check OET Supplement B Bulletin 65 which has numerous tables for different antenna types and bands. Most likely your 100W/dipole combination will pass easily.