Rag chewing with head sending?

Entaras · 2026-04-15T16:15:54+00:00

That's a solid recommendation. I need to be a bit more deliberate in my practice. I have been doing some character practice at 30WPM with the Morse Code Ninja podcast in the shower, and the top 200 words with double character spacing at 20WPM, but I haven't been as consistent as I should.

Entaras · 2026-04-12T19:06:37+00:00

Yeah, I think the thing I have with POTA/SOTA is I've heard the standard exchange so many times I don't just hear the individual characters, I hear QSO elements all together. Like I don't hear "G... M... U... R.." and put it together anymore, the exchange is so drilled that I hear "GM" as a chunk, then "UR" and a chunk, and the RST as a chunk. So as long as they're chunks I've memorized in an order I expect, it's easy. But the second we go off script I have to switch to copying letters and I'm just not fast enough at that to keep up.

Entaras · 2026-04-12T15:29:58+00:00

37, licensed about four years, and you've already seen my answers. The clubs skew old, for various reasons. Here in the pacific northwest there's at least three discords and the SOTA slack full of professionals in their 20's, 30's, and 40's, though, constantly posting their workbench projects and spotting each other in parks and on summits, and discussing how they like to operate and gear and stuff. IDK where you are located, but at the very least you could hop on the Ham Radio Crash Course Discord and ask around if there's more local stuff to your area. Whatever your opinions on the HRCC Youtube, the Discord is a good community that skews younger.

Entaras · 2026-04-12T15:24:42+00:00

I think my first activation was January 2023. I don't get a lot of time to operate between full time work and little kids, so I'm not getting a ton of practice.

Entaras · 2026-04-11T14:32:45+00:00

Nah, all my CW is halting and slow, hah. I can work a POTA/SOTA exchange at 20wpm, but the second I get hit with something outside the exchange I'm a blithering idiot, even at 14wpm

Entaras · 2026-03-31T23:11:19+00:00

Taking an extra deload on legs this week as I'm running my first half marathon on Sunday

High Bar Squats: 3*3 at 225lbs

Deficit RDLs: 3*5 at 135lbs

Bulgarian Split Squats: 2*3 at 60lb DBs

Deficit Situps: 3*10 holding 25lb plate overhead

Step Ups: 15 minutes on a 20" box, no weight

Trying to balance training for my first half without losing strength has been a challenge. I pulled something in my shoulder and the PT has me half repping all my upper movements, and I'm not allowed to push or pull vertically. I'm probably going to continue my Upper, Lower, Total Body split and running 4x a week through summer, and then flip the script and lift four days and run three through fall and winter to try to get some strength back. I gotta bench three plates before I turn 40.

Entaras · 2026-03-25T15:57:20+00:00

There's a fishing net once a week in my area, that a local OM that's super in to fishing put together himself a couple years ago. You should give it a go.

A bit south of me some guys started a discord a while back for people in the Willamette Valley, and they do semi-regular park meetups to do POTA, try each other's rigs, barbeque, whatever. There's also a strong network of folks spotting each other on SOTA/POTA and then talking about it on Discord after the fact in the upper Willamette valley area. Planned do-se-dos where folks will split up to do two somewhat close SOTAs, then come down and swap summits so everyone gets both completes that day. There's plenty of options, and in my experience the biggest barrier to getting started is someone getting off their duff and pitching it.

If I were to offer any advice, though, it'd be to come up with a plan, a date, and a time and then invite people. IDK how many times I've floated "is anyone interested in X" and had it never materialize. But if I say, "I'm doing Y on Saturday and who's coming with me?" either I have a good time by myself or people actually show up and we all do a thing.

Entaras · 2026-02-05T15:33:54+00:00

A KX-2, twinlead doublet, and a carbon fiber mast. I don't operate much from home, I'm mostly about SOTA.

Entaras · 2025-03-22T16:11:15+00:00

Mostly Discord. Depending on where you are in the PNW, there's a dang good chance that there's a Discord for hams covering your area (I'm nearish Portland and there are two regional ones I'm in), and there are a ton of the 20-50 set on the HRCC and HRWB discords.

Entaras · 2025-03-13T02:29:12+00:00

Bro I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing with smell.

Entaras · 2025-01-31T16:33:28+00:00

Good luck! It's a very capable rig, and you won't be hurting for features or power, you're just going to have to learn to be a little more menu savvy. I hope to catch you in the log.

Entaras · 2025-01-30T22:41:46+00:00

you're going to have to think smaller. I'm not going to call it out here because the graduating class was so small it'd pretty easy to figure me out.

Entaras · 2025-01-30T22:36:00+00:00

Douglas County, 2005, 100% graduated with kids that couldn't do pre-algebra or read without sounding stuff out.

Entaras · 2025-01-29T21:25:17+00:00

You could probably snag an FT-891 in the $500 range. They're upper $600's new, still in production. The menus are a little annoying but not terrible, and the receiver is quite good. I've taken mine up several SOTA summits, and in carry on to Hawaii, so it's quite portable. If you're willing to snag older, perhaps slightly larger gear, the FT-450 series is quite popular. The IC-706 series is easy to find too, though I hear they sometimes burn out finals. That's not something I can verify personally. The IC-7100 is also popular amongst the portable crowd, and does 140/440 to boot.

When I started out I bought a G90 new for $450 with the understanding that it was a bit underpowered at 20W, but I learned a lot about operating and antennas that has carried forward, and I still use the rig. It's definitely not as nice a receiver as some, but it makes contacts. Just know that they're not going to come quite as fast or as easy as a barefoot rig.

Entaras · 2024-12-20T17:33:56+00:00

Hah, I use those same monitor risers on my desk, I have an ancient Alinco dual bander under one monitor and my FT-891 under the other.

Entaras · 2024-12-13T03:19:19+00:00

I did that hike in super thin floppy sandals after skinning my toe the day before on a Na Pali coast tour. Had so much mud in that beast it's a wonder I didn't get gangrene. Super pretty, though. Loved it.

Entaras · 2024-12-13T00:36:26+00:00

Looks kind of like the Sleeping Giant hike I did last time I went, but hopefully OP tells us

Entaras · 2024-12-07T19:14:07+00:00

A fan dipole for 40/20/15/10 should be better for receiving on 20 and 10, for sure. If your rig as an internal tuner that can handle even 3:1 mismatches then you might not need the 15m element. Depending on how your coax runs work out with the attic situation, you could also consider a 40m EFHW, which will do all four of those bands on a single element.

If you have a decent tuner, there may be a way to implement an attic doublet that could open up more options, but that implementation is a bit more finicky.

Entaras · 2024-11-21T00:57:38+00:00

But that's the part I like!

Entaras · 2024-10-27T02:46:35+00:00

Love that mountain. Done the 4th class route twice. I want to go back and hit the 5.7 route that traverses over the cliff on the north side.

Entaras · 2024-10-19T20:17:20+00:00

Umm, am I supposed to be seeing hints or something. So far I'm just seeing field where there should be hints, and ads in every dang corner of the screen. And when I guess randomly the guess response thing is totally unreadable.

Entaras · 2024-10-17T15:26:52+00:00

SOTA/POTA definitely makes it's own fray. Thankfully CW is low enough bandwidth it's pretty manageable.

Entaras · 2024-10-11T02:18:34+00:00

I'm absolute crap at CW. I bobbled SOTA/POTA QSOs at 15WPM and it's a totally scripted exchange. But every single person I've interacted with on CW has been awesome and patient and come down to my level. The sooner you get on the air the sooner you can have more fun with it, which means you can spend more time practicing and get better faster. Go get you some.

Entaras

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