Carol Davis

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.

im pretty new to all this, just got my general last spring and just joined the local ARES group so i havent been in a full drill yet but reading this is actually really useful to know what to expect. i kind of assumed the experienced operators would just have everything handled and i'd be following along. maybe thats not quite how it works haha. is there stuff a newer person can do to actually be useful in these drills or is it mostly just watch and learn the first time?

ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (technician) and i finally got my baofeng programmed with a few local repeaters from repeaterbook. most of them work fine but theres one i keep trying to hit and i just cant get it to open up. i can hear other people talking on it just fine but when i key up nobody responds and i dont think im actually getting into the repeater at all.
i checked repeaterbook again and it shows a CTCSS tone of 100.0 Hz for the input. i have the tone set in my radio but im not sure if im setting it right — like do i need tone encode only, or encode AND decode? ive seen settings for like tone squelch vs just tone and its confusing me. also someone at my club mentioned something about a courtesy tone, what does that mean and am i supposed to wait for it before i talk?
also general question — is there like an unwritten rule about how long you should wait before jumping in on a repeater? i dont wanna step on anyone or come across as rude. still figuring all this out.

so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, been doing the training nets and monthly meetings for about 8 months now and the county emergency manager requested ARES support for a big outdoor festival, something like 12,000 attendees over two days. our EC had us set up a communications net linking the medical tent, main stage, parking, and the EOC back at the fairgrounds office.
i was assigned to the medical tent which honestly was pretty quiet most of the time, handled a few welfare check relays and one actual medical assist relay to EMS dispatch. the net control guy did a great job keeping traffic moving and we used simplex on the designated tactical frequency for most of it with the linked repeater as backup if things got hairy.
my question is more about documentation, like after the event i filled out my ICS 309 but i wasnt totally sure what counts as a message vs just a check-in or routine net traffic. my EC was kind of rushed during debrief and i didnt get a chance to ask. anybody else dealt with this or have a feel for how strict your served agencies are about that stuff?

so i finally picked a summit to do my first activation and im pretty nervous about the whole thing honestly. the peak is W6/NS-306 and its only like a 2 mile hike in so nothing crazy, but ive been going back and forth about gear for weeks now and i think im just overthinking it at this point.
my current plan is to bring my FT-818 with a 3ah lipo, a linked dipole cut for 40 and 20, and just a telescoping fiberglass pole to get it up in the air. i've been practicing setting up the antenna in my backyard and it goes up pretty fast so thats good. im planning to self-spot on SOTAwatch before i leave the trailhead so people know im coming, and then also maybe try to post from the summit if i have signal.
my main questions are really just — do i need to stay in the activation zone the whole time or can i work people from anywhere on the summit? and also is 4 QSOs really all you need to count it as an activation? feels like a low bar but i dont want to stay up there all day if conditions go bad or weather rolls in. also should i bother with CW or just stick to SSB since im more comfortable there, im only like 6 months into my general ticket so cw is still pretty rough for me
any advice appreciated, really want to get this one in the log

i was in the exact same boat like a year ago lol. what finally made LoTW click for me was watching a youtube video that walked through the whole TQSL certificate thing step by step, i think it was from the ARRL channel or maybe W1AW. once i actually sat down and did it it wasnt as bad as i thought. took maybe 20 minutes.
eQSL i use too mostly because a lot of european stations seem to be on there and it confirms pretty fast. havent actually sent many physical cards just because stamps and printing add up, but i do have a design ready if someone specifically requests one via QRZ. the german card you got sounds awesome, those are always cool to receive

Great question! Phone operation on 20m starts at 14.150 MHz and goes to the band edge at 14.350. Below 14.150 is for CW and digital modes only.

i just passed mine like two months ago, no engineering background at all, work in landscaping lol. the math questions i basically just learned the formulas by rote and made sure i could recognize which formula went with which question type. there's only so many ways they can ask about reactance or Q factor before you start seeing the pattern. took me maybe 8 weeks studying off and on, probably wouldve been faster if i was more consistent about it.

yeah this trips up a lot of new hams, dont worry about it. basically LoTW is run by the ARRL and its what counts for DXCC, WAS, and most of the big awards. its more of a pain to set up because of the certificate stuff but once its going it pretty much runs in the background. eQSL is separate and easier to use honestly, lots of casual operators use it and it has its own awards but the big ones like DXCC wont accept it. so if you ever want to chase DXCC seriously you need LoTW confirmed contacts.
paper cards i still love them personally. i route everything through the bureau which is cheap and slow but theres nothing like pulling a card out of the mailbox from some rare DX. i do all three actually, just upload to LoTW and eQSL after every operating session and then send paper cards for the ones that feel special or when someone specifically requests one. if your LoTW confirmations arent showing up check that your station callsign and the date/time in your log match exactly what the other person uploaded, even a one minute difference can cause a mismatch.

i was in the exact same spot last year lol. took general about 6 months after tech and yeah hamstudy is fine, same approach works. the impedance stuff i just memorized the formulas enough to recognize which answer was right without really understanding why and that got me through it. probably should learn it properly at some point but anyway
my first HF setup was just a used ic-7300 i found locally and a random wire up in a tree and i was making contacts the first night. 40 meters is super forgiving, especially after dark you can work all over the place even with a janky antenna

so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, been doing the training nets and monthly meetings for about 8 months now and the county emergency manager requested ARES support for a big outdoor festival, something like 12,000 attendees over two days. our EC had us set up a communications net linking the medical tent, main stage, parking, and the EOC back at the fairgrounds office.
i was assigned to the medical tent which honestly was pretty quiet most of the time, handled a few welfare check relays and one actual medical assist relay to EMS dispatch. the net control guy did a great job keeping traffic moving and we used simplex on the designated tactical frequency for most of it with the linked repeater as backup if things got hairy.
my question is more about documentation, like after the event i filled out my ICS 309 but i wasnt totally sure what counts as a message vs just a check-in or routine net traffic. my EC was kind of rushed during debrief and i didnt get a chance to ask. anybody else dealt with this or have a feel for how strict your served agencies are about that stuff?

so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, been doing the training nets and monthly meetings for about 8 months now and the county emergency manager requested ARES support for a big outdoor festival, something like 12,000 attendees over two days. our EC had us set up a communications net linking the medical tent, main stage, parking, and the EOC back at the fairgrounds office.
i was assigned to the medical tent which honestly was pretty quiet most of the time, handled a few welfare check relays and one actual medical assist relay to EMS dispatch. the net control guy did a great job keeping traffic moving and we used simplex on the designated tactical frequency for most of it with the linked repeater as backup if things got hairy.
my question is more about documentation, like after the event i filled out my ICS 309 but i wasnt totally sure what counts as a message vs just a check-in or routine net traffic. my EC was kind of rushed during debrief and i didnt get a chance to ask. anybody else dealt with this or have a feel for how strict your served agencies are about that stuff?

Study propagation predictions before contests and monitor live ionosphere conditions. The 100+ operators know exactly when each band will peak and position themselves accordingly. Also consider SO2R - it provides more productive use of time and increases your presence on the bands.