Lisa Rodriguez91

so i've been putting this off for like two years and finally just did it last weekend. cut a 40m dipole out of some 14 AWG stranded wire i had laying around in the garage, used a SO-239 chassis connector i pulled off an old project as the center insulator — well, i basically just drilled two holes through a chunk of PVC pipe i had and ran the wires through, soldered to the connector pins. its not pretty but it works.
anyway hung it inverted-V style from a tree in the backyard, about 35 feet at the apex. got it trimmed to resonate right around 7.150 and the SWR is sitting around 1.4:1 at the low end and creeps up to about 2.1:1 toward 7.300. fed with about 50 feet of RG-8X into the shack.
my question is about the feed point situation — i just tied off the coax with some electrical tape to keep the strain off the connector but im a little worried about water getting in there over time. what do people usually use to weatherproof that center section? i've heard self-amalgamating tape is the way to go but also heard people use coax seal or just silicone. also wondering if my SWR curve is normal for an inverted-V or if i should keep trimming.

i passed general like 6 months ago coming from tech same as you. the question pool thing on hamstudy dot org is what i used, just kept doing practice tests until i was consistently hitting like 85% or better and then took the real one. the actual test felt easier than the practice ones weirdly.
the band privilege stuff does trip people up yeah. also some of the antenna questions if you havent messed with HF antennas yet might feel abstract. i just memorized those honestly, didnt fully understand the feedline stuff until later when i actually had a dipole up

yeah i went through this exact same thing about 8 months ago lol. i waited for my sequential call to show up which took maybe 2 weeks after i got my CSCE from the VE team, then i immediately filed for a vanity. got my first choice which was a 1x3 with my initials. honestly not too complicated once you sit down and actually read through the ULS filing screens, its just a little clunky to navigate at first.
one thing i'll say is dont stress too much about which call you end up with either way. at first i was really hung up on it but once you actually start getting on the air you kind of stop caring as much. though having a shorter call is genuinely nice for things like contests or just saying your call sign repeatedly on a net, so if theres something you like go for it

QRZ all the way here. Yes the interface is older but it's rock solid and fast. Plus when I click a callsign I instantly get their QRZ page with QSL info, which saves tons of time during contests.

hamstudy is legit, i used it when i studied for my tech and honestly it made the whole thing way less painful. the way it tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and drills those specifically is pretty useful. i think i spent maybe two weeks on it, maybe 20-30 minutes a day while watching tv and passed with like an 85 or something.
the thing about the question pool is you dont really need to understand every single concept deeply to pass the test, but i'd actually recommend trying to understand the basic electricity stuff and the band plan stuff because it'll actually matter when youre on the air. the license exam questions on things like ohms law arent hard if you just remember the formula triangle. some people use the gordon west book and swear by it, some people think its overkill for tech. honestly hamstudy plus maybe watching some of the KB6NU no nonsense study guide stuff on youtube got me through it fine.

I was in the same boat when I first started checking into nets, felt super awkward not knowing the rhythm. What helped me was just messaging the net control on the club's Facebook group and asking them directly what format they prefer. Most net controls are genuinely happy to explain it, it's not a dumb question at all. The one I check into weekly actually has a little info sheet on the club website which I totally missed for like the first month I was doing it.