Susan Clark

so ive been running my 7300 for about two years now and always kinda wondered about the TCXO upgrade. the stock oscillator is fine honestly but i do a lot of digital modes and FT8 especially and i kept reading threads about how the frequency stability improves noticeably with the TXCO-2 option unit installed. finally bit the bullet last weekend and did it myself, the install is pretty straightforward once you pull the top cover, just a small board that drops into a socket near the front left if i remember right.
honestly the difference on the waterfall is pretty visible to me. before i'd occasionally see my own signal drift a tiny bit over a long FT8 session especially when the rig was still warming up, now it just locks in and stays. could be confirmation bias i guess but i dont think so. also noticed the CAT control feels a bit snappier but that might be unrelated, maybe i just imagined that part.
anyway wondering if anyone else has done this mod or any other internal upgrades to the 7300. i know some people do the fan mod too to quiet it down, havent messed with that yet. curious what people have found actually makes a difference vs stuff that sounds good on paper but doesnt change much in practice.

RG-58 over 12 feet shouldn't cause a SWR issue like that on 70cm, higher loss yes but it won't reflect power back and inflate your SWR reading that dramatically. More likely the coax connector at the antenna base or wherever you terminated it. Even a tiny amount of moisture or a bad solder joint at PL-259 will do exactly what you're seeing — fine on 2m, noticeably worse on 70cm because the wavelength is less forgiving of connector issues. I'd pull the coax connections, inspect them closely, and if you soldered the PL-259 yourself just redo it. Also double check the NMO to antenna connection, sometimes those can work loose especially with vibration from driving.
The 2.1 to 2.4 range you're seeing on 70cm is honestly not terrible for a mobile install, won't hurt the radio, but if you want it tighter then start with the connectors before spending money on new coax.

inverted-v's are a bit tricky because the angle of the legs affects the feedpoint impedance, and at 45 degrees youre already compressing it quite a bit from the flat dipole's nominal 73 ohms. the closer the legs get to vertical the lower the impedance drops, which is why you sometimes see worse swr even after trimming to the right frequency. 2.1:1 isnt terrible honestly, most tuners handle that no problem, but if you want to chase it down further try raising the apex a few feet if you can and see if the legs can be a bit more spread out. also 4 inches off each side total is 8 inches off the overall length which is a pretty decent jump, might try 2 inches per side next time and give it a few minutes to settle before measuring again. what analyzer are you using?

yeah the 7300 has a pretty aggressive default TX EQ and a lot of guys dont realize how much that mid-range bump can mess with audio on the receiving end. first thing id do is get someone you trust on a local repeater or a nearby HF freq and have them actually critique it while you tweak in real time, the monitor isnt a great representation of what goes out over the air.
for SSB specifically you generally want to roll off anything below about 300hz pretty hard, cut some of the low mids around 400-500hz, and boost a little presence around 2-3khz. voice intelligibility lives in that upper mid range. the 7300 has a built in speech processor too — if thats cranked up it will absolutely cause splatter if your mic gain is already too hot. id back the proc off or turn it off entirely first and set a clean baseline before adding any of that back in.
also the mic itself matters more than people admit. a cheap dynamic bundled mic is often voiced for close-up broadcasting, not for SSB. doesnt mean you need to spend a lot but something like an SM58 or even a Heil PR-40 if you wanna go down that rabbit hole makes a noticeable difference.

So ive been trying to get Winlink working for about two weeks now and i think im close but not quite there. Background: i got my General last year and i mostly do local VHF stuff but the ARES group here keeps talking about Winlink for emcomm exercises and i finally decided to just dive in.
I installed Winlink Express and got the Vara FM trial running. I can see RMS gateways on the frequency list thing in the program and i can actually connect to one of them — or at least it looks like it connects, shows the handshake or whatever — but then when i compose a message and try to send it nothing actually shows up in my sent folder and the other person never gets anything. I dont know if the message is getting stuck somewhere or if im doing something wrong with the addressing.
Also confused about the difference between RMS relay and RMS gateway. The docs kind of explain it but not in a way that clicks for me. Is the gateway just the node i connect to over RF and then it handles getting the message to the internet side? And do i need to have an internet connection myself for any of this or is the whole point that i dont need one?
Running an IC-9700 into a Arrow dual band yagi if that matters. The gateway im trying to hit is maybe 15 miles out, should be totally workable.

congrats on the first one, they're addictive right? yeah the pre-activation alerts on SOTAwatch are definitely worth doing, i usually put mine up the evening before and include the bands and modes i'm planning to operate plus an approximate start time. chasers absolutely use them, especially the dedicated ones who have a whole morning routine of checking whats coming up. some of the regulars on 40 will literally be sitting there waiting for you if you post a good alert.
the S2S contacts are the best part honestly, theres a whole separate log for those and the points are worth more. once you start recognizing the callsigns of other activators you kind of develop this little community. also get the SOTA Goat app or just the regular SOTAwatch app on your phone for self-spotting, even with marginal cell service it usually gets through if you step around and find one bar. some guys use APRS to spot via radio which is slick if you're in an area with no cell at all.

Excellent timing on this post! Setting up FT8 for the first time on my 991A. CAT control as well as PTT via one USB cable from the computer to the radio. SWEET! The built-in sound card interface really makes this radio shine for digital modes. No external interfaces needed.

The 7300 is constantly sold used because it's probably the best selling HF radio in history - there are thousands out there. I picked up a clean used one for $900 and it's been fantastic for both contesting and casual operation.

so i've been mostly a 40m and 80m guy for years because honestly the higher bands just felt dead whenever i checked them. but yesterday afternoon i was just spinning the dial on 10m kind of out of habit and suddenly there were signals everywhere. worked a couple stations in Brazil and one in Spain without even trying that hard, running like 50 watts into a dipole.
been checking the solar flux numbers on and off and i know we're supposedly in a decent part of the cycle right now but i never quite know how to read all that stuff properly. like i see the SFI number and the K index and A index but im not always sure what combination of those means i should actually bother jumping on the higher bands. is there a rule of thumb anyone uses or do you just check the DX clusters and see whats actually happening
also curious if anyone else has been seeing good conditions on 15 or 12m too because i havent spent much time there

yeah the RSP1A is a noticeable jump from the rtl dongle for HF, especially with that noise floor difference. the 14-bit ADC vs 8-bit makes a real difference when you're trying to pull weak signals out. that said your attic wire is definitely holding you back too, so dont expect miracles just from the hardware swap.
SDR++ works fine with the RSP1A, you just need the SDRplay API installed and it picks it up no problem. i barely touch SDRuno anymore honestly. the only time i open it is when i want to use their notch filter stuff which is pretty decent for dealing with broadcast interference on 49m. but for day to day use SDR++ is way cleaner to work with.
one thing to watch for is strong signal handling — if you're near any AM broadcast towers the RSP1A can still get a little wobbly without a filter in line. i run a simple high pass on mine and it sorted that out pretty much completely

yeah its not a legal requirement in part 97, its more of a strong convention. the reason everyone pushes NATO phonetics is because theyre specifically chosen to be distinct from each other even on a bad signal — like November and Mike arent going to get confused the same way N and M would if you just said the letter. your "D as in dog" is totally fine and honestly most ops wont care, but the problem comes up when the band is noisy or youre working someone whos not a native english speaker. Delta is gonna land better than Dog in a pileup at 3am with a S7 noise floor trust me. dont stress about correcting yourself, everybody does it

oh man i just did my second one last month and the nerves dont totally go away but its such a good time. one thing that caught me off guard my first activation was just how much people WANT to work you, like once you get spotted the pileup comes fast and if youre not used to running a pileup it can feel overwhelming. just slow down, work them one at a time, nobody expects you to be a DX contest station out there in the woods haha.
also bring more battery than you think you need, i always underestimate how long i end up staying once i get into it

been trying to work AO-91 this morning and the transponder seems shifted down about 2khz from where it should be. doppler correction is on in my software and i double checked the keps are fresh from yesterday. anyone else noticing this or is it just me? using ft-857d with arrow antenna if that matters

been trying to work AO-91 this morning and the transponder seems shifted down about 2khz from where it should be. doppler correction is on in my software and i double checked the keps are fresh from yesterday. anyone else noticing this or is it just me? using ft-857d with arrow antenna if that matters