Bob Martinez

I did the internal mod on mine, specifically the one where you adjust the mic bias resistor to better match a dynamic element, was using an SM-30 desk mic and the impedance matching was a bit off. Made a noticeable difference to me at least. That said I already had another 7300 as a backup so I wasnt sweating if I bricked it. Probably wouldnt have done it on my only radio.

dude same thing happened to me on my first activation lol, i spotted myself and then just stared at the radio for like 10 seconds because i didnt expect anyone to actually call. got flustered and gave my callsign wrong twice in a row. the hunter on the other end was really cool about it though.
which state forest was K-4562? im always looking for parks in driving distance to hunt from home, sometimes i can work activators from my attic antenna setup if theyre not too far out.

so ive been using an RTL-SDR v3 with the direct sampling mod for a while now and honestly for the price its been great, picked up a ton of stuff on HF that surprised me. but im starting to feel like im hitting the ceiling on it, especially on the lower bands where the noise floor just seems higher than what people show in their screenshots on reddit and here.
been looking at the SDRplay RSP1B which i can get for around $130 and wondering if anyone has actually done a side by side or switched from the dongle world to something like that. the dynamic range specs look way better on paper but i know specs on paper dont always translate to real world results especially with a mediocre antenna which is what i have right now (just an end fed about 30ft up in a compromised location).
also curious if SDRuno is as clunky as it looks or if i just need to spend more time with it. im coming from SDR# and gqrx mostly. not opposed to learning new software but if its a pain id rather just keep using the rtl and save the money toward a better antenna first.

dont stress too much about the summit reference stuff, you dont register beforehand or anything like that. the reference already exists in the database — someone else set it up years ago most likely. you just activate it, log your contacts, and then submit them on the SOTA database website afterward. pretty straightforward once you do it once.
the self spotting on sotawatch is honestly worth figuring out before you go up though. if you have cell service up there you can spot yourself which basically tells all the chasers youre on the air and they come running. i usually do it right after i make my first contact just so i know the radio is actually working. if no cell then you can ask someone on the air to spot you or just work simplex and hope people are scanning. the ft-818 will do you fine, 5 watts is plenty especially on 40 in the morning. good luck up there

so ive been putting this off for like two years because i was worried about voiding the warranty but the warranty expired ages ago so i finally just did the MARS/CAP mod on my FT-857D last weekend. for anyone who doesnt know what im talking about it basically involves removing a diode on the main board that restricts the TX range, lets you transmit outside the normal ham bands which is useful if youre actually enrolled in MARS or CAP or whatever.
anyway the mod itself wasnt that bad, tiny soldering work but nothing crazy if youve done board-level stuff before. i used a magnifying headset and a fine tip iron, took maybe 20 minutes including the time i spent second-guessing myself. the rig came back up fine, all my normal ham freqs work exactly the same, havent noticed any difference in performance on 40m or 20m which is mostly what i use.
what i did NOT expect was how much better the RX feels on some of the lower freqs, like 160m and the AM broadcast band. not sure if thats placebo or if the mod somehow affected something but it does seem a bit more lively down there. probably imagining it. has anyone else done this and noticed anything weird after, good or bad? also thinking about doing the TX power mod next but ive heard mixed things about longetivity so might skip it.

so ive had my tech license for about 8 months now and honestly i use it mostly for 2m and some packet stuff but i keep hearing people talk about HF and it sounds like thats where most of the interesting stuff is happening. been lurking on 40m with my buddies HT just to get a feel for it and yeah i think i want in on that
my question is how different is the general exam from tech, like is it a whole different level of studying or is it more of the same kind of questions just more of them. i looked at a practice test on one of the sites and some of it went over my head pretty quick, the propagation stuff and the operating procedures for HF seemed like a lot. also i dont really understand all the privileges, like which bands do i actually get access to and is there a good chart or something that explains it without being super confusing
any tips from people who went through this recently would be helpful, thanks

I had almost the exact same problem when I started and honestly the paddle adjustment made a huge difference for me. I didn't realize how much the contact spacing affects things until someone at a club meeting actually looked at my paddle and said the gap was way too tight. worth checking that before you blame your technique entirely

so ive been chasing this one for about two weeks now and im starting to lose my mind a little. my IC-7300 is only putting out maybe 30-35 watts on 20m when its set to 100w. it does this across most of the HF bands, slightly worse on 10m where i might get 20w if im lucky. 40m seems a bit better but still not right.
before anyone asks — yes i checked the power output menu, yes ALC looks normal, i already reseated all the connectors i can get to without full disassembly, antenna is fine (ran it on a dummy load and same issue), and the finals arent running obviously hot. the radio was working perfectly fine like six weeks ago and i didnt change anything i can think of. just turned it on one day and noticed the output was way down. no smoke, no weird smells, nothing obvious.
thinking it might be one of the driver transistors or maybe a biasing issue but i really dont want to just start swapping parts blind. anyone been down this road with one of these?

ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and im starting to get into chasing awards and i keep seeing people mention LoTW, eQSL, and then obviously the traditional paper cards and im just not sure what the actual difference is in terms of which ones count for what. like i know ARRL uses LoTW for DXCC and stuff but does eQSL count for anything official? and do i still need to send paper cards or is that just a nice-to-do thing at this point
my logging software is log4om and i think it can upload to both but i havent actually done it yet because i wanted to understand what i was getting into first. also is there like a cost involved with any of these? i dont mind paying if its worth it but i want to know upfront. sorry if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure out the whole confirmation ecosystem i guess

okay so the baofeng vs yaesu debate has been going on forever and honestly both sides have a point. i started with a UV-5R and it got the job done for hitting the local 2m repeater but the receiver really does pick up a lot of garbage, like youll hear all kinds of intermod in busy RF environments. that said for $25 if you brick it figuring out chirp programming its not the end of the world.
the FT-65 is genuinely a step up though. the menu system is way more sensible and the audio is clearer, both transmit and receive. if your ARES group does any actual deployed operations they might have opinions about what radios they want members running, worth asking them before you spend anything. some groups are pretty particular about it. i know ours strongly prefers radios that can do NOAA weather channels natively because we do a lot of served agency stuff.
if budget allows id honestly say stretch to the FT-65 or even look at a used VX-6R if you can find one in decent shape. waterproofing matters more than people think when youre standing in the rain at a public service event wondering why you didnt spend the extra forty bucks.

I went two years ago and it was great for finding older gear but last year felt kinda thin on the tables. hopefully more vendors show up this time. also if you're driving far just double check the date because I definitely showed up a week early once at a different hamfest and felt like a complete idiot standing in an empty parking lot

So i finally did my first activation last weekend, been chasing for about 6 months and kept telling myself id get out and do one. Picked a relatively easy summit near me, W7W/LC-123 or something like that, only like 800 points prominence but figured start small you know.
Got up there no problem, weather was decent although it clouded over faster than i expected. Had my FT-818 and a homebrew EFHW that i just kinda tossed into a tree at the top. Got the four contacts i needed but it was sketchy for a while, only had two chasers respond at first and i was there for almost 40 minutes on 20m calling CQ SOTA before i got lucky with a couple more. Should have probably spotted myself sooner honestly, i kept thinking i could just work someone off a cold call and that... doesnt really work apparently.
Anyway logged it, submitted the points, and now im totally hooked. Already looking at a harder summit nearby. Does anyone have tips for working more contacts per activation, like is there a trick to getting a good pileup going or do you just need to be on the right band at the right time?

congrats on passing the exam first of all. okay so for what you're describing — local repeaters and simplex with a buddy — honestly almost any dual band HT will do the job technically. the baofeng will work, full stop. i started on one and it got me on the air and that's what mattered at the time.
that said, the thing nobody tells you upfront is that the frustration with the really cheap ones usually isnt the RF performance, its everything around it. the menus are confusing, the programming software is a headache, the audio can be pretty rough, and some of them have transmit issues that can cause you problems on repeaters. not saying dont buy one, just saying know what you're getting into.
if you can stretch to something like the yaesu ft-65 or even a used vx-6r you'll probably appreciate it more six months from now. better audio, more intuitive to use, better build. but if budget is genuinely tight right now just get the baofeng, get on the air, and upgrade later when you know what you actually want. that's a totally valid path too.

im kind of a newcomer to ARES stuff, just joined a few months ago, but we had a tabletop exercise at our club meeting last month and even that was really eye opening for me. we never actually keyed up but just talking through who does what and in what order made it obvious there were like three people who all thought they were supposed to be net control. nobody had actually written down who had primary vs backup roles.
I asked about getting involved in a real field exercise and somebody mentioned the county does one in the spring so i'm hoping to observe at least even if im not ready to take on a real assignment yet. reading your post makes me think i should probably work on simplex operating before then and maybe actually study the ICS stuff rather than just skimming it.