Rick Anderson

yeah i did something pretty close to this about a year ago. ended up running SDR-Console server on the same machine as the RCForb server and honestly it was fine, they dont really fight over audio because the RSP series doesnt use a traditional audio device — its all USB native so there's no conflict there. the bandwidth is the bigger problem like you said, especially if you're streaming 24bit audio for the main rig AND trying to push a decent chunk of spectrum for the panadapter. what i ended up doing was dropping the SDR stream resolution way down when i was actively transmitting, only really need the panadapter for monitoring so you dont need full resolution all the time. SDR-Console lets you set a pretty narrow bandwidth for the network stream so i just keep it at like 200kHz wide centered on whatever band im on, that dropped the bandwidth load considerably. VPN latency thing is real but if you use wireguard instead of openvpn its pretty minimal, i added maybe 20ms which wasnt worth losing sleep over for SSB work.

so ive been at this for about 4 months now and im completely stuck. i can copy at around 5wpm if the sending is clean and i have time to think about each letter but the moment anyone sends faster than that my brain just kind of locks up and i miss everything. i know people say dont count dits and dahs and just learn the sounds but honestly that advice only gets me so far. im using the lcwo website mostly and ive done the koch method lessons up to about 12 characters but i keep going back and practicing the earlier ones because the later ones feel impossible. not sure if thats a mistake or not. also tried listening to some actual qsos on 40m and i cant copy basically anything, everyone sounds so fast to me even the guys who are probably going like 12-13wpm. did any of you hit a wall like this and actually get through it? how long did it take to get to 20wpm where you can actually have a real conversation? feel like im missing something obvious

so ive been trying to work some DX the past couple weeks and the bands just feel... off? like 20m which is usually my go-to for europe in the evenings has been mostly dead or just barely there, and then out of nowhere last thursday i heard a ZL station coming in like he was down the street. confused the heck out of me because i wasnt even trying for the pacific, just had the rig on while eating dinner. i check pskreporter and DXwatch pretty regularly but im still not great at reading the solar flux index numbers and knowing what they actually mean for propagation. i know higher is generally better but like... how high does it need to be before 10m or 12m start doing anything interesting? we had a few days last month where the SFI was up around 180 and i totally missed whatever opening happened because i was at work. feels like im always a step behind. anyone have tips for actually predicting when a good opening is coming instead of just stumbling into it by accident

I switched from N1MM+ to Log4OM for daily ops last year and couldn't be happier. The WSJT-X integration is solid once properly configured, and the automatic callbook lookups are fantastic. Yes, there are occasional delays with large databases, but the trade-off for the modern UI and built-in tools is worth it for non-contest use.

wait 10m has been open?? i havent even turned the radio on in like two weeks, been swamped with work stuff. this is exactly why i need to set up some kind of alert. does anyone use a cluster or an app for that kind of thing or do you just kind of check in regularly? im still pretty new to HF so i never know when to bother listening vs when its just dead air

so ive been chasing 3Y0 for a while now and obviously the real thing hasnt happened but there was a pretty decent pileup last week on a VP8 that had me stumped for like an hour and a half before i finally got through, and it got me thinking about what actually works vs what we all think works what ended up doing it for me was just... waiting. i know that sounds dumb but i noticed the DX station had a pattern, he was working split and moving his listening window up about 1-2 kHz after every 4 or 5 contacts. once i spotted the pattern i just parked about 3 up from where everyone else was hammering and waited for him to swing my way. called once, maybe twice, got him on the second try before that i was doing what most people do which is just throwing my call into the middle of the pile every 30 seconds and getting nowhere. i run an IC-7300 into a hex beam at about 35 feet so nothing exotic, 100 watts. conditions to that path were decent, not great. i think most of the time its just about reading the operator not cranking more power or anything like that curious if anyone else has had luck with specific techniques, i feel like theres a lot of mythology around this stuff (timing your call to hit right at the end of his transmission, using partial calls, etc) and id love to hear what people have actually found to work vs what sounds good in theory

For what it's worth, I still prefer just bookmarking DXWatch.com on my phone browser. DXWatch provides a modern web-based service with real-time spot filtering and customizable views. Sometimes the simple approach works best, and you get all the latest features without waiting for app updates.

yeah 10m has been doing exactly this for the past month or so, youre not imagining it. the issue is the solar flux number alone doesnt tell the full story — you also need to be watching the k and a indices pretty closely. when k goes above 3 or 4 even a decent sfi can get wrecked by geomagnetic disturbance. what probably happened on those dead days was a CME or something messing with the ionosphere even though the base flux looked okay. the DXMaps site and prop.kc2g.com are both really good for real time stuff. honestly the best thing ive found is just getting on the band and listening for a few minutes in the morning around 0800-1000 local, that tends to be when the F2 layer is starting to build. if you hear anything beyond 1000 miles its usually worth sticking around. the openings can be really short sometimes, like 20-30 minutes and then its gone, so you kinda have to be ready to jump on it.

i passed mine like 3 months ago and just used hamstudy the whole time, never even bought a book. did like 10-15 minutes on my lunch break for maybe 3 weeks and passed with only 2 wrong. the RF safety section tripped me up a little because its kind of tedious but there arent that many questions from it. dont overthink it honestly

so ive had my Technician for about 8 months now and mostly been doing 2m/70cm stuff with my HT and a slim jim i hung out the window. its fine but i keep hearing people talk about HF and working DX and honestly it sounds like a lot more fun than repeater ragchews. no offense to anyone lol anyway im starting to look at the General exam and honestly the question pool looks kind of intimidating. theres a lot of stuff about propagation and operating procedures and some electrical theory that i dont fully remember from the tech exam. like the part about reactance and impedance i remember being confused by that the first time around too. is it actually harder or does it just look worse than it is? and how long did people study before feeling ready also i guess my bigger question is once i actually have the General what can i realistically do on HF without spending a ton of money, i dont have a big antenna setup or anything

I'm a General looking at upgrading to Extra and trying to understand if the additional band privileges are worth the study time. Amateur Extra Class privileges include all frequencies and modes on the HF bands, but what does this mean in practice? I know Extra Class licensees are authorized to operate on all frequencies allocated to the Amateur Service. 80, 40, 20, and 15 meters have segments exclusively for Amateur Extra operators. Key questions: Are the Extra-only segments actually less crowded during contests?How much difference does it make for DX work?Worth it for someone primarily interested in digital modes?