Dave Thompson

The hybrid forwarding is temperamental. I found that messages need specific addressing to trigger HF forwarding - local-to-local traffic stays local by design. Try sending a message to an internet email address, not another Winlink callsign. The system should then attempt HF forwarding after the timeout period.

ok so i've been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor is into it and he keeps telling me to just get my license already but honestly i dont even know where to begin. like do i just show up somewhere and take a test? do i have to take a class first? i looked at the FCC website and it was kind of confusing. also i heard theres different levels of license? technician and then something above that? i dont really know what the difference is or if i even need anything more than the basic one to start. im mostly just interested in being able to talk locally and maybe help out during emergencies someday. any advice would be appreciated, i feel like im missing something obvious here

welcome to the rabbit hole lol. i got into DXCC chasing about a year ago and it completely changed how i operate. one thing nobody told me at first — make sure your callsign is on LOTW before you do anything else, the process to get set up takes a little while and you want everything ready. also dont stress too much about cards from guys who wont do LOTW, you can still request bureau cards through the ARRL outgoing bureau which is pretty cheap, just slow. the rare ones are worth chasing though

i went through this exact thing last summer. ended up just putting up a cheap 20 foot fiberglass push up pole from dxengineering at one end and that gave me enough height to run a flat top at about 28 feet across the whole span. not quite 35 feet but close enough. difference on 40m was noticeable on dx, i was actually getting into JA on gray line which the inverted V only did occasionally. the other end of my dipole is close to my shed and i havent noticed any issues tbh

so ive been at this for about 8 months now and started from basically zero, did the whole koch method thing starting at 5wpm and honestly it went pretty smooth up until around 10-11wpm. felt like i was making real progress every couple weeks. but now im stuck somewhere around 13wpm and its been like 6 weeks of just... not improving. im still copying maybe 80% in a QSO but there's always a few characters that just fall apart on me, usually when the other op speeds up a little or has a slightly different fist than what im used to hearing on the practice recordings. my current routine is about 20-30 minutes a day on lcwo and then i try to get on 40m in the evenings and actually make contacts when the band cooperates. i know people say just do more contacts but i feel like im missing something methodologically. did anyone else hit a plateau around this speed and figure out what broke them through it? i've heard about bumping your target speed up to like 18-20 even if you're only catching half of it, is that actually worth doing or is it just frustrating yourself for no reason?

ok so i passed my general about two months ago and ive been mostly just listening but i want to start actually transmitting. i keep reading about band edges and band plans and im getting confused because some of it seems like rules and some of it seems like just... suggestions? like nobody actually enforces it? specifically on 40 meters i see people say dont operate below 7025 or whatever but then i also see people say the phone portion starts at 7125 for general class and other places say 7175 and i dont know which one is right. and whats the deal with the region 1 stuff showing up in my reading, does that even apply to me im in the US also someone told me to stay away from band edges because of frequency drift but my radio is pretty modern so is that still a thing i need to worry about

honestly as someone who's still pretty new to chasing DX this thread is helpful. i tried to work a few pileups last year and basically just gave up after like 20 minutes of getting nowhere. didnt really understand the split concept properly at first, kept transmitting on their frequency like an idiot until someone on the cluster told me to read the DX code of conduct lol. question though — does antenna make a big difference here or is it mostly technique? im running a modest station, G5RV at about 30 feet, 100 watts. i got through to a couple Caribbean stations which arent super rare but anything really DX i havent cracked yet. wondering if theres a point where gear just matters more than operating skill

honestly the memorization route works and a lot of people do it, nothing wrong with that. but I'll tell you what made it click for me — I just started reading the ARRL Extra Class License Manual alongside the question pool instead of just drilling flashcards. some of that advanced theory stuff, like the filter Q factor questions and the transmission line stuff, actually started making sense when I read the explanations. took me maybe 6 weeks of casual studying, maybe an hour a night when I felt like it. and yeah the privileges do matter more than you'd think. the Extra portions on 20 and 40 especially, thats where a lot of the DX hangs out and the contesting gets interesting. on a busy contest weekend the General portions of the bands are absolutely packed and the Extra sub-bands are comparably cleaner. so its not just symbolic, you actually feel the difference.

They crank up the microphone gain and speech processing, and end up over driving various stages resulting in distorted transmit audio due mainly to excessive IMD. The manual states to adjust until the ALC meter reading swings between 30 to 50% of the ALC scale. Check your ALC - that's usually the culprit.

yeah same thing happened to me when i first started checking into nets, felt totally lost. what helped me was actually downloading a copy of the ARRL net directory thing and reading a little about how NTS nets are structured, even if your local net isnt super formal it gives you the background so the terminology makes sense. the traffic question was confusing to me too for the longest time lol

Field Day absolutely counts and honestly its probably the best intro to contest operating there is. the fact that you already did it means you're more ready than you think. CQ WW is a different beast though, especially phone — the pileups can be intense and the rate when the band is hopping is just something else. SSB weekend is usually late October and CW is in November if that matters to you. with an attic wire you'll work stuff, just maybe not the multipliers that a beam on a tower would get. but thats fine, seriously nobody cares what your score is except you. i ran my first CQ WW with a dipole in a tree and worked like 40 countries, felt amazing at the time. now i have a little more antenna and my expectations are different but that first contest buzz is hard to beat. SOTA is kind of its own world and i wouldnt exactly call it contest-like, its more of an activation/chase thing with points. fun though, very different vibe. if you want actual contest practice before CQ WW try one of the state QSO parties, theyre lower key and you can actually get a feel for exchange formats without the chaos of a major.

yeah 30 sec is a lot, especially if there are other mobiles on the same digis. the channel isnt infinite. i usually just run 120 seconds when im mobile and honestly the track on aprs.fi still looks fine, you can clearly see my route. the people complaining on frequency are probably right even if the delivery was annoying lol

yeah the FT8 hollow feeling is real and i think a lot of people get burnt out on it for exactly that reason. i went through a phase where i was just grinding DXCC and then one day i realized i hadnt actually talked to anyone in like three months of operating. switched over to PSK31 for a while which is even older but theres still a decent community on 20m if you know where to look, around 14.070 give or take. slower than FT8 obviously but the conversations are real and some of those ops have been on PSK since like 2001 and they know everything. havent tried JS8Call much myself, maybe i should give it another shot. last time i tried it the band i was on was pretty dead but thats probably just timing.

Koch's approach is about as good as it gets, but what keeps people motivated is session logging which tracks time spent and progress. Used G4FON for the structure, then LCWO for the online convenience. Both got me there.

W2RS worked 37 stations with a single 3.2λ yagi and under 200W - your planned setup is definitely workable! Focus on moonrise/moonset windows and schedule with the big gun stations first. They'll help compensate for your smaller antenna gain.

I've been considering adding an external RTL-SDR panadapter setup to my IC-7300 to expand the waterfall view beyond the built-in 30kHz bandwidth. A panadapter allows you to see all of the radio stations currently transmitting across an entire band. When working HF, this is very useful as it allows you to quickly home in on CQ calls and other activity. The 7300's scope is decent but limited for contesting when I need to see wider band activity. Has anyone done the SDR and transceiver sharing antenna mod on this particular rig? I'm planning to use a DXE-RTR-2 for TX/RX switching to protect the dongle.

so i decided i finally want to get my technician license after years of just being interested in radio stuff. i downloaded some study guide pdf i found but honestly its kind of overwhelming and i dont know if im using the right materials or if there's like a better way to go about this. someone at a local club meeting mentioned the question pool but i dont really understand what that means exactly. is there like an official list of questions that could be on the actual test? and do all the questions come from that pool or can they throw in random stuff too. i feel like i should understand the theory but someone else told me i could just memorize my way through it which feels kind of wrong but also maybe practical? i have about 3 weeks before the exam session. just want to make sure im not wasting time on the wrong stuff

yeah that sounds pretty typical honestly, most activations are a lot of hurry up and wait especially for flooding or weather events that dont quite hit worst case scenario. the busy ones are when infrastructure actually fails and suddenly you're the only link between two sites and that's when all the training either clicks or it doesnt. the ICS stuff really does matter, i remember my first activation years ago before i'd done any of the online courses and i felt completely lost when the incident commander started talking about logistics section and ops section and i had no idea where radio fit into any of it. now i help teach the ARES intro training for our group and i always tell new members do the ICS courses before anything else, the antenna stuff you can learn on the fly but not knowing the command structure when you're actually deployed is a real problem. sounds like your EC ran a tight ship too which helps a lot. not every group has that, ive been to exercises with other counties where it was kind of chaos and nobody was really sure who was in charge of what. glad your first one went well

Been running contests remotely with my 6700 for two years now. The integration with logging software like DXLab is seamless - click on spots and the radio automatically sets frequency, mode, and split. Can't imagine going back to being tied to the shack physically.

Hi everyone! Recently upgraded from my trusty straight key to my first dual-lever paddle (Vibroplex Iambic Deluxe). The spacing feels off somehow - when I squeeze for letters like C or K, I get inconsistent timing. I've tried adjusting the contact gaps but still can't get that smooth feel I hear others talk about. Anyone have advice on proper paddle setup for a new iambic user? Running it with the built-in keyer on my IC-7300 at around 18 WPM. 73!

Been reading various sources about FT8's claimed sensitivity threshold of -21dB in 2500Hz bandwidth. The Signal ID Wiki and other sources consistently quote this figure, but I'm seeing real-world variations in my shack. Most successful contacts seem to happen between -5dB to -24dB, with signals below -20dB often completely inaudible but still decodable. Running an IC-7300 with SignaLink USB interface and wondering if my setup is limiting performance or if the -21dB spec represents ideal laboratory conditions. Anyone done actual SNR testing with calibrated signal generators? What's your real-world minimum decode threshold? Also curious about the bandwidth reference - the 2500Hz reference seems to be based on SSB receiver IF filter width, but actual FT8 bandwidth is much narrower at around 50Hz. Makes the SNR comparison somewhat artificial.

yeah i was in the exact same spot like 6 months ago, just lurking on nets and not sure when to talk. the thing that finally clicked for me was realizing net control basically manages everything so you dont really have to worry about stepping on anyone if you wait for the check-in window. i just said my callsign and honestly the net control repeated it back and confirmed me and it felt way less scary than i expected. just go for it next week

so ive been chasing 3Y0 and a few other rare ones for years and never managed to actually break through a serious pileup until last month when there was that VK0 operation. figured id share what worked because honestly i spent way too long doing it wrong. first thing that changed everything — i stopped calling on the DX's transmit frequency like an idiot. obvious i know but when you're excited you forget. the expedition was listening 5 up and i kept hearing guys call right on their freq, which obviously gets you nowhere and also annoys everyone. second thing was timing. i started really listening to the rhythm of how the DX operator was working the pileup. some guys work last two letters, some work by region, some just fish around. this particular op was clearly favoring stations that called slightly after the end of his transmission rather than right on top of it. once i figured that out i adjusted and got through on maybe the 4th or 5th try instead of the 40th. also ran my amp at about 800w rather than full legal limit — not because more power wouldnt help but because my antenna is a 3 el yagi at 45 feet and its actually pretty decent into the pacific from the midwest. throwing more power at a pileup when your signal is already solid just contributes to the noise floor for everyone else. curious what techniques other people use. split operating, partial calls, any of that stuff work for you guys?

yeah the tech HF privileges are a little scattered but once you see them laid out it makes more sense. basically as a tech you get CW privileges on a few HF bands, 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters i think, but the only place you can do phone (voice) is on 10 meters, specifically 28.300 to 28.500 MHz. thats it for voice on HF until you upgrade. the 200 watt thing is specifically for the HF tech phone and image segment on 10m, your other privileges arent limited the same way. honestly the easiest thing is just to pull up the actual ARRL band plan chart they have on their site, it breaks down privileges by license class visually and its way easier than reading the raw part 97 text. and dont stress too much about accidentally transmitting somewhere wrong, just double check before you key up and youll be fine

there's no FCC rule that says you must use phonetics every single time, at least not for US amateur operators. the requirement is just that your callsign is clearly identifiable at the end of a transmission and every 10 minutes during a contact. how you make it identifiable is kind of up to you. that said, phonetics exist for a reason — on a noisy band or when conditions are bad, B and D and E can all sound alike and phonetics clear that right up. on a quiet local repeater with good signals most people skip them or just do it out of habit. the guy who corrected you was probably just being old-school about it, which isnt necessarily wrong, just not legally required. when youre doing HF or making contacts with someone you dont know id say always use phonetics at least the first time so they copy your call correctly. becomes second nature pretty quick.