Carol Davis

IRF510 on 40m is totally doable, i built one a couple years back based loosely on a design from qrp-tech mailing list. the input cap thing is real but honestly if you just put a small resistor in series with the gate like 100 ohms it tames a lot of the ringing issues. dont obsess over it, just build it and see what the drain waveform looks like on a scope if you have one. the keying click thing though, yeah you want to think about that earlier rather than later. shaping the keying envelope is way easier to design in from the start than bolt on afterward. a simple RC network on the keying line to soften the attack and decay goes a long way. you dont want to be that guy putting out splatter across the band when youre working QRP, kinda defeats the purpose. look up the W1FB keying shaper circuit, its simple and works well.

honestly at 55 miles on 2m FM the difference between a X50 and a X510 is probably not going to be the thing that saves you. youre talking maybe 3dB more gain on a good collinear and that sounds like a lot until you realize the path loss at that distance on a marginal day will eat that up pretty quick. a 5 or 6 element yagi pointed that direction is going to give you more like 10dBd and that is a completely different conversation. the two antenna thing isnt as crazy as it sounds though. i run a vertical for local stuff and a small yagi on a cheap TV rotor for the DX repeaters, the rotor cost me like 30 bucks used and it works fine for this. you dont need a big azimuth rotor rated for a dish or anything, just something that turns slowly and holds position. depending on your roof situation it might actually be pretty simple. the coax switching is the fiddly bit but even that isnt terrible.

I ran an RTL-SDR V3 for about 18 months before picking up an RSP1A (previous version, same basic idea as the 1B) and honestly the HF difference was noticeable enough that I didn't regret it. The direct sampling path on the RTL is functional but you do get a lot of birdies and the sensitivity just isn't there compared to a proper front end. The RSPdx is even better if you care about MW and the lower HF bands but that's another step up in price. For WSPR decoding and shortwave listening the RSP1B should do you fine. SDR++ works great with it via the SDRPlay API, just gotta make sure you install the API first or the software won't see the device at all. That trips people up sometimes. One thing though — if your antenna situation isn't sorted out the radio upgrade won't help as much as you'd hope. The RTL-SDR's noise issues on HF are real but a lot of what people blame on the dongle is actually RF getting in through a bad feedline or a too-short antenna.

yeah 4 contacts is the minimum, you got it right, so that summit counts and you should get the points for activating it. the 10 points you're seeing is the summit's point value for the activator — that'll show up on your total once the log processes, sometimes takes a day or two depending on when you upload. the 4 in your log is just the number of QSOs you made, different thing. for the alerts i usually post mine at least the night before, sometimes two or three days out if i know my plans are solid. the chasers in your region probably didnt see it in time since you posted same morning. also worth posting a spot on SOTAwatch once youre actually on the air, either from your phone or ask someone to do it for you, that gets the pile-up going way faster than the alert alone. once people see a live spot they start calling pretty quick especially on 40 during the day

i upgraded last year after being a tech for like 2 years and honestly wish i had done it sooner. the exam felt harder going in but once i actually started studying i realized a lot of it overlaps with tech stuff just goes a bit deeper. the band plan questions tripped me up at first because theres just a lot to memorize but hamstudy drills it into you pretty fast. one thing nobody told me before i upgraded was that even after i passed i had to wait for the FCC to update my license in the ULS before i could actually operate HF legally, took like 3 days. so just be aware of that so you dont go home and immediately jump on 40m thinking youre good to go lol

yeah the checklist thing is real. i have a laminated one in my pack now after forgetting my coax adapter twice on two seperate activations. at some point you just learn what your brain will forget under pressure and you just hardcode it in somewhere

ok so ive been licensed about 4 months now (general) and i mostly just listen but ive been trying to get more active on HF. my question is about when its appropriate to just start calling CQ on a frequency versus when you should be listening first or checking in to a net or whatever. like is there a rule about how long you listen before transmitting? i asked this at my club meeting and got like 5 different answers which didnt really help lol also related i guess — whats the deal with net check-ins, do you just wait for the net control to call for check-ins and then just give your callsign? i listened to the tuesday night 40m net a couple times and it seemed like people were just throwing their calls out but i couldnt always tell what order things were supposed to happen in. probably overthinking this but id rather ask and look dumb than step on someone and actually be rude about it

the mushy tension thing is almost certainly the paddle, not you. cheap ebay paddles are kind of notorious for inconsistent feel and the gap adjustment is usually way off from the factory. before you give up on it try tightening the tension springs a bit and closing the gap down — you want the contacts to feel crisp and snappy, not spongy. theres usually two small screws for gap and tension adjustment and a lot of new paddles ship with way too much slop. that said 12 wpm is totally fine to start at, dont let anyone pressure you to go faster. i actually learned on a straight key first before switching to a paddle and some people swear thats the right order because it forces you to think about each element. but plenty of people learn straight to iambic and do fine. the main thing is just get on the air even if its slow and sloppy — nobody on 40m CW is going to yell at you for sending at 12 wpm with a few mistakes, we all started somewhere. if you want a cheap paddle that actually feels decent the Begali Simplex is great but overkill for where you're at. honestly the N3ZN paddles punch way above their price point if you want something better without spending Begali money

so i finally did my first activation last weekend, took the ft-818 and a linked dipole up to a W6 summit that looked pretty easy on the map. and yeah the hike wasn't bad but i completely underestimated how long it takes to get set up when your hands are cold and you're breathing hard from the climb. by the time i got the antenna strung between two scrubby little trees i only had like 35 minutes before i needed to head back down to make it to the car before dark. managed 6 contacts on 40m which i know is enough to qualify but honestly felt a little rushed the whole time. nobody could hear me at first and i was convinced something was wrong with the radio until i realized i hadn't fully extended the whip on the antenna connector thing, user error completely. also spotted myself on sotawatch before leaving the trailhead which helped a ton, got a small pileup after about 10 minutes which was cool. anyway my question is really about antenna options for faster deployment. the linked dipole works fine but stringing it up solo when there's not great tree placement is a pain. ive been reading about the end fed half wave stuff but not sure if thats actually easier in practice or just sounds easier. anyone done both and have an opinion? also how do you all handle logging in the field, still doing paper then transferring later which feels clunky

so ive been chasing this one for about three weeks now and im starting to lose my mind a little. my 7300 just randomly drops to like 5-10 watts output for no apparent reason. happens on all bands, doesnt seem to be temperature related because it'll do it cold, and it comes back on its own sometimes after a few minutes or i can cycle power and its fine again. no ALC weirdness that i can see on the meter, SWR is flat, and the PA temp readout looks totally normal when it happens. i swapped the coax, checked the connectors, reseated the RF board ribbon cables as best i could without doing a full teardown. the radio is about 4 years old and i bought it used so i have no idea what the previous owner did with it. anyone run into this before? i'm wondering if its a PA transistor going soft or maybe something on the driver board. or could it be a firmware glitch? i did update to the latest firmware last month but honestly i think this was happening before that too i just wasnt paying close attention. before i send it to Icom for a $300+ repair bill i want to make sure im not missing something dumb

Totally get the hesitation on that first check-in, I sat on 75m for probably three weeks before I actually keyed up. But honestly nets are the friendliest thing going in this hobby — that's kind of the whole point of them, especially the round table and ragchew style ones. For finding schedules, the ARRL net directory is actually pretty decent and gets updated more regularly than most of the random club sites you'll stumble across. Also worth checking if your local club runs any nets, a lot of clubs have a weekly 2m net that's really low pressure and great for just getting comfortable with the format. Check-in, give your call and name, maybe your location, and you're done. Net control handles everything else. The traffic nets (like the NTS stuff) have a little more structure so if you caught one of those and want to participate there's a bit more to learn about message handling, but still very approachable. Lots of people there will walk you through it if you just say hey I'm new to this. The special event stations are fun too — W1AW does anniversary stuff and there are always commemorative events going on where you can get a certificate just for making contact. Those are worth chasing if you're trying to stay motivated to get on the air more.

dont stress too much about the activation zone, the 25m rule is pretty generous on most summits and unless youre on some knife-edge peak youll probably be fine anywhere near the top. just use your phone GPS and the summit elevation listed on sotadata if you want to double check. for spotting, most activators post an alert on SOTAwatch a day or two before with an approximate time, then when you actually get set up and ready you put a fresh spot up. chasers watch the alerts to plan their day but theyre really watching the spots to know youre actually on the air. i usually give myself a 30 min buffer in my alert because getting the antenna sorted always takes longer than expected especially the first time lol also bring more food than you think you need, summits in that area can be deceptively long approach. good luck saturday

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, just hit 12 wpm after about 4 months of practice. One thing that helped me a lot was switching from random letter groups to actual words — real words apparently stick in your head better because your brain already knows what to expect. There's a setting on lcwo for that I think. Also I read somewhere that you shouldnt practice more than like 20-30 minutes at a time because your brain needs time to consolidate the patterns. I dont know if thats scientifically true but i started doing shorter sessions and it did seem to help actually.

had this exact same headache last year. turned out there was a two-way igate about 15 miles away but my path wasn't hitting it because of terrain, i was only reaching the closer rx-only one. i ended up bumping to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 temporarily just to test and suddenly messages started flowing. not saying thats your fix cause more hops isnt always better but it helped me figure out which igate was actually handling my traffic. also double check the message format on the 710, theres a known thing where if the other stations callsign isnt entered exactly right including the SSID it just silently drops it.

just jump in, i was terrified my first check-in too and the net control guy was so nice about it. i accidentally said my callsign backwards on the phonetics once and he just chuckled and worked with me. these people genuinely want new hams to participate, thats like half the point of the net. oh also — if you ever miss the check-in window dont just key up randomly in the middle of things, wait for net control to ask for late check-ins or additional traffic, they usually do that near the end. learned that the somewhat embarassing way haha