Jennifer Park

so I passed my technician exam back in March and got my sequential callsign assigned, which is fine, its a KD9 prefix and I dont mind it but its kind of long and I was looking into applying for a vanity call. I went through the ULS website and I think I submitted an application but honestly the whole thing is a bit confusing because it shows as pending and I cant tell if thats normal or if I did something wrong. from what I read theres like a filing window and then it goes to a lottery type thing if multiple people applied for the same call? or maybe I misread that. my main question is how long does this usually take and is there anything I need to do while its sitting there pending or do you just wait and hope for the best. also wondering if anyone knows whether it matters what region youre in or if you can apply for any available call regardless of where you live now

had a 7610 for about a year, sold it actually and went back to a 7300 plus pocketed the difference lol. for my operating style the dual watch just wasnt something i used that often and i found myself not noticing much difference day to day. the panadapter on both is good enough that i dont feel handicapped. if you ever get into SO2R type stuff or serious contesting its probably more relevant. but if youre mostly casual dx i honestly couldnt justify it when i sat down and thought about it. your mileage will vary obviously but thats my two cents

Why not just fix the control box? These old rotators are pretty reliable and parts are still available. I've seen too many homebrew automation projects that work great until they dont and then your stuck trying to debug code when all you want to do is turn the antenna but if your dead set on it the alliance should be easy enough to interface since its just dc motor control

I made this exact switch on my Jeep for Colorado operations. The NMO-27 works noticeably better on steep-angle repeater paths compared to my old 5/8λ. You'll lose some range on flat-terrain simplex, but repeater coverage improved significantly.

Check if you're running the latest N1MM+ build - there was a fix in version 1.0.11148 for digital mode integration issues. Also verify that your WSJT-X instance created by N1MM+ (the "ForEW1" version) has the same station configuration as your standalone WSJT-X, including your rover callsign format.

so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to buy as my first radio. ive been reading forums and watching youtube videos for like two weeks straight and honestly i feel more confused than when i started. everyone seems to have really strong opinions and half the threads end up in arguments about baofeng vs yaesu vs whatever else. my main thing is i want to hit our local repeaters on 2m and 440 and maybe eventually do some simplex when i go hiking. budget is somewhere around $100-150 but i could stretch a little if something is really worth it. im not looking to do anything fancy, just get on the air and start actually using this license i worked for. is the baofeng UV-5R genuinely fine for starting out or is the programming nightmare as bad as people say? ive also seen the yaesu ft-60r come up a lot but thats pushing my budget. just want something i can actually figure out without an engineering degree lol

so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts here and there, mostly on 40m and some 2m local stuff. i keep seeing references to LoTW and eQSL and honestly i still dont fully understand the difference or which one i should be bothering with. like i know LoTW is the ARRL thing and its for awards and stuff but setting it up seemed really complicated when i looked at it last time so i kind of put it off. a guy at my club meeting mentioned eQSL and said its easier but then someone else said it doesnt count for as many awards so now im even more confused. and then theres just mailing physical cards which seems like a lot of work but also kind of cool? i got one card in the mail last week from a station in germany and it was genuinely exciting to hold it, not gonna lie. anyway what do most people actually use day to day, do i need to sign up for all three or is there like a sensible approach here. using WSJT-X mostly if that matters, not sure if that changes anything

i was in the same boat when i upgraded. honestly just download the ARRL band plan chart and tape it next to your radio, that helped me way more than trying to read the actual FCC part 97 language. the FCC rules and the band plan arent the same thing but the ARRL chart kind of combines both in a way thats easier to read. the legal limits are what matter for not getting in trouble but the gentlemens agreement stuff about like CW at the bottom and digital modes in certain spots is just how things work in practice

not overkill at all man, this is exactly the kind of stuff that makes the hobby worth it. i dont do satellites myself but ive been wanting to automate my HF antenna switching for a while and keep putting it off. whats the rotctld setup like on the pi side, is that pretty straightforward to get running or did you have to compile anything from source

yeah 10m has been really good, i worked a ZL station last thursday afternoon on SSB which i definitely wasn't expecting. just called CQ on a whim and he came right back. the solar numbers have been solid, SFI was up around 180 something for a few days there which makes a huge difference obvsiously. on the icom thing, i saw the same speculation but i honestly think its just people hoping. they refreshed the IC-7300 line not that long ago so i doubt theres a whole new HF flagship coming so soon. could be wrong though, companies do weird things. Yaesu has been pretty quiet too which either means nothing is happening or something big is coming, hard to tell with them.

stranded vs solid really isnt gonna make a noticeable difference at 40m, like were talking maybe an inch or two of electrical length at most, your analyzer will sort that out when you trim. dont overthink it. the balun thing — honestly for just getting on the air and testing youll probably be fine without one especially with RG-8X and an inverted V. youll likely see some common mode current but at low power for testing it wont kill anything. that said if you already own one throw it on there, no reason not to. if the swr looks weird on the analyzer and you cant figure out why, that would be the first thing id add. 30 feet at the apex for an inverted V on 40 is decent. the low ends wont hurt you as much as people make it sound as long as theyre not like right next to a metal fence or something. run it, check it with the 269, trim as needed. you probably wont even have to trim much if your wire length is close.

yeah i go through that too, usually happens to me after a big contest or when the bands are just dead for a few weeks in a row. what snapped me out of it last time was signing up for a SOTA activation, having a date on the calendar where people are counting on you showing up kind of forces you to get back into it. worth a shot anyway

So ive been trying to get Winlink going for about two weeks now and im pretty close i think but cant get the RMS gateway connection to actually complete. Running Winlink Express on a windows 10 box, have a SignaLink USB hooked up to my IC-7300, and i can see the VHF gateway about 12 miles from me in the gateway list. Its showing good activity in the last few hours so its definitely up. When i try to connect via packet (144.990 around here) the session starts, i can see the AX.25 frames going out, radio is definitely transmitting because i can see the power output, but then it just times out after a few tries. Done the soundcard calibration in the Vara FM setup, levels look okay to me. Not sure if its a path issue or something with how i have the TNC configured in the software. The RMS gateway list shows the sysop callsign and all that so i know where im pointing. Anyone been through this before with a similar setup? Im starting to wonder if the issue is on my end or if maybe the gateway is having problems it just isnt reflecting in the activity timestamp.

2-3 weeks is plenty of time dont stress it. the pool has 426 questions but the actual exam is only 35 and you need 26 right to pass so the bar isnt super high. i'd say just do hamstudy every day for like 20-30 minutes and you'll be fine. the parts that trip people up are usually the band privileges stuff and some of the basic electronics questions about ohms law and that kind of thing but there are only a handful of those and once you see the pattern you'll get them. good luck, the test isnt as scary as it looks

Those VSWR readings on the trunk mount suggest poor ground plane coupling. You might try adding ground straps from the mount to the vehicle frame, or consider a different trunk mount style. NMO mounts work great when properly installed - the 3/4" hole isn't that big and can be easily patched when you sell the vehicle.

the telnet thing is totally valid for testing, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. if your messages flow correctly over telnet then you know the account setup and message handling side is working and you can focus on the RF/VARA issues separately. i spent two weeks thinking my messages were broken when really it was just my audio levels into VARA being way off — like clipping badly. check your IC-7300 USB audio output levels in windows, it should be set pretty conservatively, i run mine around 40-50% and let VARA control the power through the radio's CI-V. the gateway selection matters too, just because something is geographically close doesnt mean you have a good path to it on whatever band you're using. try sorting by MBO type and look at recent activity, some of those gateways havent been active in months even though they show up in the list. on the retry question — yeah Winlink will queue and you can set it to retry but honestly for emcomm work i wouldnt rely on that, just manually reconnect once you have a solid path. the queue behavior is fine for casual use but under deployment conditions you want to know your message actually went through.

I actually just use N1MM for everything including day to day, probably sounds weird but i got so used to the interface that it doesnt bother me anymore. its not pretty but i know where everything is. the 3830 scores integration alone keeps me on it honestly. that said a buddy of mine swears by Log4OM and he does link it up with WSJT-X without issues so it definitely works, i think he had to mess with the firewall settings on windows too, not just the port number. windows defender was blocking the UDP packets or something like that

nice work getting out there. im still working up the nerve to do my first one lol. question for you actually — did you have any trouble finding the exact boundary of the reference area when you were on site? thats one thing that worries me, like how do you know youre actually inside the reference and not just near it

yeah this is super common and honestly three months in and you're already self-critiquing your sending, that puts you ahead of a lot of people. the mushy sound is almost always a paddle tension/spacing issue first. the gap between the contacts should be really small, like paper-thin, and the spring tension should be light enough that a gentle squeeze closes it but firm enough that you're not accidentally triggering dits while moving around. a lot of used paddles come way out of adjustment and people just never bother. on the mode A vs B thing — dont stress it too much at your stage. mode A just means when you release both paddles at the same time it stops at the end of whatever element was already in progress, mode B finishes one more element. most people end up on mode B but honestly either works fine. just pick one and stick with it for a few weeks. the real thing that helped me when i was learning was slowing way down in practice, like embarrassingly slow, and only speeding up once the muscle memory was solid. LCWO.net has good drills if you havent found it yet.

so ive been using Log4OM for about two years now and honestly really like it for general logging, the QRZ integration works great and the statistics stuff is nice when im just doing casual operating. but every time contest season comes around i feel like im fighting the software a bit, it works but its not really built for the pace of a serious contest run i guess. been thinking about installing N1MM alongside it just for contests, mostly CW sprints and some SSB stuff, maybe the occasional FT8 contest when i get WSJT-X talking to whatever logging program im using. my question is does anyone actually run two logging programs and just import/export between them after the fact or is that a nightmare. i tried once with an ADIF export from N1MM into Log4OM and it kinda worked but there were some duplicate issues i had to clean up manually which was annoying. also not sure how people handle the WSJT-X side of things in contests, i know N1MM has that UDP integration but ive never actually set it up and the documentation is a bit dense. does it just work or is there a bunch of config to mess with

yeah the CTCSS thing trips up a lot of new hams, dont feel bad. basically the repeater wont respond to your signal unless you send the correct tone — its there to keep the machine from keying up on interference and stuff. repeaterbook should list the tone right on the page, usually shows up as something like 100.0 Hz or 127.3 Hz in the tone access field. if its blank or says carrier squelch then you might not need one at all, just try transmitting without a tone first. as for which entry is active — honestly just try each one. key up briefly and say something like your callsign and asking for a radio check. if you get the courtesy beep after you unkey, youre on the right machine. most repeaters have a distinctive beep or tail when someone lets go of the PTT. etiquette wise the main things are just listen before you transmit, leave a pause between your transmission and your response so others can break in, and when you first get on an ongoing conversation just wait for a break and say your call. nobody expects perfection from a new ham, most folks are pretty welcoming if you just make the effort.

ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now, just got my general last spring and i've been having a blast on HF. someone at my local club mentioned dx cluster spotting and i kind of nodded along like i knew what they were talking about but honestly i had no idea. went home and started poking around and now im more confused than before. like i found DXwatch and QRZ has a spot thing too and there's also stuff like DX Summit and i dont really understand if these are all pulling from the same data or if theyre separate networks. also i downloaded an app called DX Toolbox or something like that, is that any good? feels like theres a hundred different options and i dont know which ones people actually use day to day. mainly what im trying to figure out is how do you actually USE this stuff when youre sitting at the radio. do you just have it open on a laptop next to you or is there a way to get it feeding into your logging software or something. sorry if this is a super basic question, still figuring a lot of this out

Wider bandwidth sounds better, but limiting frequencies to those contributing to intelligibility improves impact - reducing response to 300-500Hz bottom and 2.7kHz top helps. Your 100-2700Hz is pretty wide for SSB work.

so ive been running a small remote station at my parents place about 60 miles out since last spring and the whole thing has been kind of a mess honestly. right now im using a combination of TeamViewer to control the logging software and a cheap IP power strip to reboot things when they lock up, which happens more than i'd like. the actual radio control is going through a homebrew serial-over-IP thing i cobbled together from a forum post i found years ago and i genuinely dont remember how it works anymore which is a problem. anyway a guy at my local club keeps pushing me toward RemoteHams and says their SDR remote stuff is actually pretty solid now for HF. ive looked at the website and it seems like they have a client that handles audio, CAT control, the whole thing in one package. but i cant tell from the docs whether it plays nice with WSJT-X or if you have to use their own logging interface. that would be a dealbreaker for me since most of what i do is FT8 and JS8Call these days. also curious if anyone has used their internet linking stuff for connecting to a remote receiver that isnt your own station — like using someone elses node or whatever they call it. i saw something in their docs about a network of shared receivers but couldnt figure out if thats still active or just abandoned vaporware at this point. my latency to the remote site is usually around 25-35ms which i figure should be fine for data modes but im not sure about SSB if i ever want to do that. the audio compression they use apparently matters a lot for voice quality based on some old threads i found but those posts were from like 2016 so who knows.

Although it is possible to use both CW (Morse) and Phone (SSB), I have always found CW to be far more effective. It is possible to gain many more contacts using QRP on CW than SSB. Have you considered learning CW? It's incredibly effective at QRP power levels.