Michael Thompson

honestly the General isnt that bad if you put maybe 3-4 weeks in. i used HamStudy dot org almost exclusively and just hammered the practice tests every day for like 20-30 minutes. the math stuff looks scarier than it is, theres really only a handful of actual calculation questions and once you see the same ones a few times you kind of just remember the answers anyway. the pool did get updated not that long ago so double check which version youre studying, the site will tell you. i wouldnt bother trying to cram for Extra at the same time unless youre just that kind of person. i did General first, spent a couple months actually getting on 40m and 20m, then went back and did Extra when i was ready. made more sense to me that way because by then i actually understood why some of the Extra stuff mattered.

so ive been running a pretty standard 40m dipole for about two years now, center fed with some leftover coax I had lying around, ends tied off to a couple trees maybe 30 feet up at the apex. works fine, no complaints really. but i keep reading about how verticals clean up low angle radiation and are supposedly better for DX and i cant decide if thats actually worth anything in practice or if its just marketing stuff people repeat. the thing is i have a decent sized backyard and could probably put up a quarter wave vertical with a decent radial field, maybe 30 or 40 radials buried just under the surface. but thats a lot of work and i already have a functional antenna. my noise floor is somewhere around S4-S5 depending on the band and time of day which i know isnt great, most of it seems local, some switching power supply garbage from the neighbors. so my actual question is — has anyone done a real back to back comparison between the two on 40m specifically, not just theory. does the vertical actually pull in more DX at the expense of local stuff or is this one of those things that sounds better on paper

i did my first EME contact about two years ago with a single 9 element yagi and 500 watts, so it can happen but honestly it took like three sessions of trying before i completed anything and it was only one of the really big contest stations who was specifically hunting small stations. was a cool moment though. i think the realistic answer is you probably want to think about stacking two yagis if your lot allows it, even a 2x stack makes a meaningful difference. and yeah WSJT-X, just download it and get familiar with Q65 before you even try, there's a big difference in how you operate it versus JT65

so i finally got around to building a proper 40m dipole instead of using that crappy random wire ive had strung up forever. used 14 gauge stranded copper from the hardware store, center insulator i made from a piece of cutting board (yeah really), and just ran coax down to the shack. fed it at about 30 feet with a slight inverted-v droop on each side. the thing is the SWR across the band is fine on the low end, like 1.4:1 around 7.050 which is where i want it, but when i sweep up toward 7.250 or so it shoots up to almost 3:1. i get that SWR changes across the band but something feels off. the two legs should be equal, i measured twice before cutting. each side is about 33.3 feet. i dont have an antenna analyzer yet, just using the radio's built in SWR meter which i know isnt ideal. wondering if anyone else has seen this with a basic dipole or if im missing something obvious. the feed point connection looks solid, i soldered everything and taped it up with self amalgamating tape.

i was in the same spot like a year ago lol. just get your general, seriously the test isnt that bad and then you dont have to worry about any of this. most techs i know who want HF just go ahead and upgrade because the tech HF privileges are so limited its almost not worth the hassle of keeping track of what tiny slice you're allowed in.

honestly the technician exam isnt bad at all, i was pretty nervous going in but it ended up being pretty manageable. what i did was just use hamstudy.org every day for like 20-30 minutes, they have the full question pool and it kind of adapts to what you're getting wrong which helps a lot. two weeks is doable if you put in a little time each day, some people knock it out in a weekend but i wouldnt recommend rushing it just because some of the concepts actually stick better if you give yourself a bit of time. the math stuff is pretty light honestly, theres some ohms law questions and a bit of basic electronics but nothing that should scare you off. if you want a book the ARRL technician manual is fine but i personally didnt use one, just the question pool practice on that site was enough for me. find a local club too because they usually run exam sessions and sometimes do free study nights which is nice when you're just starting out

yeah this has been something ive wondered about too, im pretty new to HF and the whole spotting network thing was confusing at first. what i ended up doing was just bookmarking like three different pages and checking them when i sit down to operate lol. probably not the most efficient system. someone told me i should set up a telnet client connection to a cluster directly instead of using web interfaces but i havent figured that out yet, seems like extra steps for not much gain when the websites work fine

did the TCXO swap on mine last year, used a Connor-Winfield part that a few people on the reflector recommended. honestly the warmup drift was noticeably better after, my WSPR spots were more consistent in those first few minutes. you do need a GPSDO or at least a known-good reference to calibrate after you put the new one in, and getting the soldering right without messing up the surrounding components is the fiddly part. use flux and take your time, the pads are small but not insane. tx mod ive had in for ages and never had an issue, just dont key up on anything youre not supposed to the fan thing i havent touched personally. i know people do it but the 7300 already runs warm and i just leave it alone. probably fine if you're not doing long SSB overs or running digital at high duty cycle for hours at a time, but i wasn't willing to risk it for a bit of peace and quiet

so ive been on HF for about 8 months now and i notice some guys use phonetics for literally everything and others barely use them at all, like theyll just say the letters of their callsign without going full NATO. is there like an actual rule for when you're supposed to use them or is it just personal preference? i mostly do general rag chewing on 40m and sometimes 20m when the band cooperates. my callsign has a couple letters that sound similar (C and E are in there) so i do use phonetics for those just to be safe but i feel kind of dumb doing the whole Alpha Bravo Charlie routine when conditions are totally clear and the other station is 59. also someone told me theres alternate phonetics people use when the NATO ones dont get through well in certain situations but i have no idea what they meant by that, maybe regional things? anyway just curious what you all actually do in practice not what the handbook says

honestly i just gave up trying to break big pileups with anything less than a kw and a decent beam. not saying thats the right approach but i was beating my head against the wall with 100w and a dipole for years. upgraded the amp last spring and suddenly rare DX that never heard me before started coming back first or second call. physics is physics i guess. that said i do think the single short call thing is real — ive noticed the same pattern when i'm on the other side of it doing a small activation. the guys sending their call 3 times back to back just blend into each other and its actually harder to pull a call out of that mess than from someone who sends once cleanly and waits.

So I just passed my Technician exam last week (finally) and I want to pick up my first handheld. I figured it would be simple, just go buy a radio, but man there is SO much out there and everyone seems to have a strong opinion about it. Right now I'm kind of torn between just grabbing one of those cheap Baofeng UV-5R type things to start out since they're like $25 and if I break it or lose it whatever, but then I also see people talking about Yaesu and Kenwood handhelds and how the audio is way better and they're built to last. My main use case is going to be hitting the local 2m repeater and maybe some simplex, eventually APRS if I figure that out. Probably take it hiking too so durability matters I guess. Is it worth spending more right out of the gate or should I just get the cheap one first to make sure I actually stick with the hobby? I dont want to drop $200 on something and then it sits in a drawer. But I also dont want a radio thats going to frustrate me with bad menus and weird audio.

Been tracking my QSL confirmations over the past year and thought I'd share some interesting numbers. Out of about 1,200 contacts: Paper direct: 65% return rate (expensive but reliable)LoTW: 22% confirmation rateeQSL: 12% confirmation rateBureau: Still waiting on most cards (6+ months)The direct QSL method seems most effective but costs add up fast with international postage. Anyone seeing similar patterns?