James Holloway

not weird at all. thats kind of how i learned what the bands actually do, just sitting and listening for weeks before i even tried to transmit anything

i went through the exact same thing like 8 months ago lol. ended up just getting the Baofeng to start because i didnt want to spend a lot on something i might not stick with, and honestly for just banging around on the local 2m repeater it does the job fine. the menu system is kind of a pain but you figure it out.
that said now that i actually use it regularly i kind of wish i had spent a bit more upfront because i can tell the audio isn't as clean as my buddy's Yaesu. still works though. i think the main thing is just get something and get on the air, you can always upgrade later once you know what you actually want out of it

Classic TS-590 issue - the 25amp fuse holders and other connectors on the power cable oxidize over time and can cause significant power loss, causing the rig to reduce power output. Remove power cable, inspect, wipe all connectors clean, pull out and clean fuse contacts, or simply reseat the fuses - also inspect Johnson power pole connectors.

the latency thing is real but honestly it depends way more on your hotel's upload than anything else. i ran RCForb for about two years controling my 7610 remotely and SSB is totally workable as long as both ends have decent connections. the trick is you kind of have to unlearn the habit of jumping in right when a pause happens — you need to wait just a beat longer than normal or youll step on people constantly. takes maybe a session or two to get used to it.
the RemoteHams SDR remote side is interesting but i mostly used it for accessing other peoples WebSDR-style setups when i just wanted to listen around and see what was happening on a band i couldnt work from wherever i was. the actual remote control of your own rig is the more useful part imo. one thing i will say — get the audio codec settings dialed in before you leave home. there's nothing worse than being in a hotel at midnight trying to figure out why your mic audio sounds like a tin can over the remote link. opus at a reasonable bitrate worked best for me, YMMV with your specific setup

welcome to the addiction, haha. ok so honestly for your first time just do search and pounce the whole weekend, dont even try to run a frequency. tune across the band, find someone calling CQ contest, give them your call, and when they send you the exchange just reply back with 59 and your zone. for CQ WW your zone is CQ zone not ITU zone, and if youre in the US most of us are in zone 3, 4, or 5 depending where you are — there's a map on the CQ WW website that takes like two seconds to look up.
running a frequency is great when youre getting a lot of rate but as a new station you'll spend most of your time fighting QRM and losing the frequency anyway so dont stress about it. just work as many unique callsigns and zones as you can and have fun. the zones are actually the fun part because you start recognizing prefixes and figuring out where people are from. JA is Japan, UA9 is Siberia, stuff like that. log everything even if you think you got the call wrong, you can sort it out later.

so i've been running a little handheld clipped to my visor for like the past 8 months since i got my technician and honestly it worked fine but i always knew i wanted a proper mobile setup. finally pulled the trigger on a Yaesu FT-7900R and spent last saturday getting it all sorted out in my truck.
the head unit is mounted on a RAM mount on the dash which i'm pretty happy with, ran the cable through the firewall which was honestly the most annoying part of the whole thing, took me like an hour just to find a decent grommet spot. power goes straight to the battery with an inline fuse which i know is the right way to do it but crimping those ring terminals in the engine bay was not fun.
antenna is a Tram 1185 on a mag mount for now, eventually want to do a proper lip mount or maybe NMO through the roof but not ready to drill holes yet. and i gotta say the difference between this and the HT is just night and day, i can hit repeaters i could barely scratch before and the audio is so much clearer. anyway if anyones about to do a similar install and has questions feel free to ask, i made plenty of mistakes so i can at least warn you what not to do lol

had almost the exact same thing happen when i first set mine up, turned out to be a grounding issue between the SignaLink and the radio chassis making the audio path noisy in a way that only showed up on certain signal levels. probably not your problem but worth checking if you havent already. the closer gateways might just be running tighter tolerances or different Vara configs too, some sysops really dial their setups in.

so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and im starting to work more contacts and people keep asking me if im on LoTW or eQSL and i honestly dont even fully understand the difference between all of them. i know QSL cards are the physical cards you mail or send through a bureau but then theres LoTW which is the ARRL thing and then eQSL which seems like its separate and some people act like its not as legit? idk
basically im trying to figure out if i need to sign up for all three or if one is good enough. im not chasing any awards right now just trying to be a good operator and confirm contacts properly. also the LoTW setup looked really complicated with the certificates and stuff, is it actually hard to get going or am i overthinking it

yeah the mars cap mod is pretty standard stuff, i did mine years ago on a 897D which is basically the same guts. the diode thing takes like two seconds once you actually find the right spot on the board, the hard part is just not getting nervous and slipping with the iron near other components.
one thing i'll throw out there — if you're doing emcomm work and want to actually be useful on non-ham freqs, make sure you understand what your region's ARES/RACES protocols actually say about it because in some areas they're pretty strict about documented authorization even in a declared emergency. your EC should know but ive seen some confusion on this at exercises. anyway not trying to be the fun police just something to keep in mind before you start calling on 151 MHz at a drill and somebody asks questions

totally understand the overwhelm, been there myself not too long ago. honestly for your use case i'd say dont overthink the baofeng debate too much — the UV-5R works fine for what you're describing, hits repeaters no problem, and if you drop it or something weird happens you're not out a ton of money. the menus ARE annoying at first but once you program it with CHIRP it becomes pretty much set and forget.
that said, if you can stretch to around $90-100 the Yaesu FT-60 your club guy mentioned is genuinely a step up in terms of receive quality and the build just feels more solid in your hand. i had a UV-5R for my first year and then got an FT-60 and the difference in how it picks up weaker signals on the input is noticeable. for SOTA down the road that matters more than you'd think. either way get CHIRP set up before you do anything else, programming these things by hand through the keypad will make you want to throw it across the room