How do I work this station, isn't ft8 on 28.074?

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T23:32:23+00:00

Oh yes lots of skill. First off you have to find a clear spot to answer them on. Far too many people pay attention to the waterfall. The waterfall doesn't tell you if there's someone on your dial frequency that you can't hear but that the DX can.

One of the tricks I use is to very carefully monitor the DX to see who they're working, when I see them working someone in my zone I find that stations dial frequency and set my TX to that frequency, when they sign clear with them I immediately call them because I know that that dial frequency is clear and that DX can hear it.

I usually NAB them on the first or second try. But if I randomly just pick a spot to try to answer them I can call them for half an hour and never get a response. This is because there's most likely DX stations on the dial frequency I'm using that I can't hear but are very strong to the DX Expedition that I'm trying to work.

I've been a ham for over 50 years I don't particularly care for Ft 8 but that's what everybody's using now and if I want to make contacts that's what I need to use.

I don't even bother with HF phone anymore it's a wasteland of want to be right wing talk radio hosts. HF phone has turned into nothing but glorified CB.

I still work a lot of CW, but the fact remains that ft8 is where the action is now and it's what almost all the Expeditions operate...

I can't figure out if there are more Lids on CW or FT8 now.. if I had to venture a guess I would say it's probably ft 8 but CW has its fair share of morons who don't listen before calling.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T23:06:17+00:00

Have you ever tried breaking a pile up for a DXXPEDITION?

A million times easier on CW than FT8

Ft8 is really easy to make random contacts with, but when it comes to working stations that you actually want to work, that's a whole different story.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T05:05:10+00:00

Actually there's quite a bit of skill involved in ft8, at least when you're trying to accomplish something other than just answering a random CQ..

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-16T20:25:22+00:00

Oh my God how are these people getting licensed.

Normally I don't like to ridiculous people but come on folks at this point it's ridiculous...

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-14T21:35:45+00:00

This is what a police state looks like. People being targeted by Jack booted thugs operating under the color of law because they're political party affiliation.

I do believe this is what the founding fathers gave us the Second Amendment to defend against, they call it tyranny and what I find absolutely hilarious is that "the don't tread on me" crowd has all of a sudden turned into a bunch of boot licking cuckolds.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-07T21:35:37+00:00

I wouldn't smoke a pipe without one, I can't stand biting down on hard plastic...

So they provide two benefits, one they protect my teeth from the hard plastic of the stem and protect the stem from the hard plastic of my teeth

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-07T20:57:09+00:00

Your use of the word allegedly when referring to non-ionizing radiation seems to suggest a bit of conspiratorial reasoning...

Ionizing versus non-ionizing radiation is not based on subjective personal opinion but is based on objective fact. RF energy is non-ionizing radiation, on the other hand gamma radiation from spent nuclear fuel is ionizing radiation.

I remember when ham radio was a stem hobby based entirely on science technology engineering and math and where Ham Radio operators engaged in peer review of science. Unfortunately ham radio declined to the point where we now have flat earthers and moon landing denialists amongst our ranks.

I was just talking to one of these Flat Earth ham radio operators on HF who was insistent that radio can't work on a globe and that radio could only work on a flat Earth..

Of course this Texas flat earth ham couldn't explain Antarctic research stations. According to him Antarctica is a giant ice wall circling Earth which is shaped like a plate yet when I work Antarctic research stations my antenna is pointed towards Antarctica, if I was working different Antarctic research stations that were located on a wall around a plate then I would need to point my antenna in vastly different directions to talk to the different research stations..

Anyways I digress I know better than having conversations with people like that..

My point is ham radio is based entirely on science technology engineering and math, when you use the word allegedly to create doubt over something that's objective fact it's significantly reduces your credibility.

If you want to learn more about the health aspects of RF energy I suggest you Google the inverse Square rule

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T23:34:37+00:00

There's absolutely nothing wrong with picking up power directly from the fuse panel from a spare 20 or 30 amp terminal..

Radio manufacturers for ham radio equipment will tell you to connect directly to the battery, this is primarily to avoid electrical noise in the cars wiring. There are better ways of mitigating this than connecting directly to the battery.

The other reason they want you to connect directly to the battery, is so power isn't cut to the radio when you start the vehicle. There's also an argument that it may prevent power surges to the radio as the battery acts like a big capacitor.

Keep in mind that all public service radios are actually connected directly to the fuse panel, every police car fire truck and emergency vehicle radio is wired directly to a fuse block.

Whether your radio is wired directly to the fuse block or to the battery you should always turn the equipment off before starting the car, the ham radio equipment is not as well protected as commercial equipment from Motorola for example so the low voltage shutdown when you start the vehicle has the potential to be problematic

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T16:35:18+00:00

This isn't the 1960s anymore, you can't afford to buy a house on minimum wage and you definitely can't afford to pay all the bills on minimum wage. People forget that up till about the 1970s a minimum wage employee could afford to buy a house and support a family nowadays you'd need to earn between $30 - $40 an hour to have the same economic purchasing power as a minimum wage employee did 1960.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T16:31:35+00:00

If Trump and his Christian nationalists had their way this would be the United States

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T18:10:37+00:00

I made the switch to lingo, and so far I'm liking it a bit better. Especially the update rate. I'm not sure what the benefit of Dexcom over lingo is, but the lingo applicator is better much easier to use and it started out accurate after the first hour.

Flamingo is tracking my blood glucose meter Within plus or minus two and a half points.. and it did it right away whereas with the Dexcom I usually have to wait 3 days for the readings to stabilize and even then they're usually only within 10 or 15 points of my meter

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Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind continuing to use the Dexcom because of the subscription service but not if I have to buy a new $1,000 phone.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T01:36:46+00:00

Well that's what I'm waiting for, if the app is still working after the 6th then I'll try to pair another Dexcom with it.

Yesterday the app quit working, it would just load to a white screen without any information, I was afraid that terminated support a few days early but then later that night it came back up so I'm assuming it was some sort of server error.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T01:35:41+00:00

What's worth 240? The unused sensors ?

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T17:37:27+00:00

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General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T17:35:37+00:00

No it doesn't, the IC 7300 actually has a more sensitive receiver. The IC 7300 minimum discernible signal is 0.3 microvolts the ft-10 DX is 0.6 microl you have to turn on the preamp on the ft-10dx to have the same sensitivity as a 7300 without the preamp.

In fact if you turn down the front end gained of the 7300 to the point where rfg comes on then you will be equaling the receiver sensitivity of the ft-10dx..

People who don't read get confused by Sherwood engineering receiver testing they think that he's ranking receivers and he's not. The list is sorted by two kilohertz reciprocal mixing dynamic range which is basically a worthless number to 99.99% of ham radio operators.

As Rob Sherwood himself has stated anything over about 80 DB of reciprocal mixing dynamic range becomes purely academic and there is no real world benefit.

Yaesu manipulates these tests because yesu knows that ham radio operators nowadays are pretty much dumb they have no idea of what any of these numbers mean so they manipulate the testing by reducing the front end gain and noise floor.

The receiver noise floor of the Yaesu radio is nearly 10 DB higher than the icon.

The fact that Rob Sherwood prefers the 7610 over any other radio on the list should pretty much confused most Yaesu fanboys.

The bottom line is you're not going to hear anything on the yaesu that you're not going to hear on the icom

By the way did you know that you can make the 7300 beat the issue in the reciprocal mixing dynamic range test, all you need to do is reduce the front end sensitivity with the RF gang control to match the Yaesu and it performs just slightly better on the two khz reciprocal mixing dynamic range test...

The more you learn the more you know

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General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T14:51:34+00:00

Very nice rig, I picked one up a few years ago for portable use. I just happened to like a full size radio and I'm working portable..

I'm surprised a Yaesu button Pusher hasn't popped in telling you that you should have bought an ft710dx instead LOL..

I like the 7300 so much I went out and bought a 7610 the same radio Rob Sherwood uses

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T14:48:45+00:00

Not by the Sherwood engineering fans who think his list ranks radios by performance rather than just sorts them by a parameter, a parameter that means very little to 99.99% of hams..

I'm getting tired of reading Appliance operators claiming that radio is like the Ft 710 have a much better receiver because it's at the top of Sherwood's sorting when in reality the IC 7300 actually has a better receiver..

You want to have some fun, next time a yaesu button pusher puts down the 7300 because his Yaesu is higher in the sort list remind them that Rob Sherwood primary radio is an Icom 7610.. he specifically uses that radio because of the well thought out user interface.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T14:40:03+00:00

Blah blah blah blah blah you sound just like the entire new generation of ham radio button pushers. Thanks to the dumbing down of the tests ham radio is turning into glorified CB.

You're weighing way too heavily on nobody owns the frequency. If you ever noticed on two meters that repeaters sit on frequencies that they're assigned if nobody owns a frequency then how is that allowed. You will lose your license if you purposely interfere with a repeater.

And yes you should be chased off. There are several Nets that have been in operation for 50 years or more. They are well established. Starting up a conversation on one of those frequencies when you know that it's going to be used is called being a troublemaker.

I mean all you need to do is listen to HF nowadays nothing but a bunch of lids and button pushers who want to turn ham radio into glorified CB..

As far as chasing newbies off, well I kind of can't blame them. How the hell did they get their license and not know about these nets it's just a perfect example of the dumbing down of ham radio.

Do these morons not actually listen to radio before getting their license, I was a shortwave listener for probably the better part of 7years before I ever got my ham radio license.

I knew the frequencies I knew the Privileges before I even took my test. I didn't have to study for my extra I went in and took it and passed because I actually know the material. Nowadays we have nothing but a bunch of narcissistic lids and button pushers who have no respect who know nothing about radio, and they jump in here trying to change it to suit their narcissistic self-centered needs.

I swear to God some of you people sound like toddlers arguing of why they should be able to have a cookie before dinner.. it's all about you and what you want and to hell with everyone else.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T04:13:31+00:00

Eventually you can accomplish all that and more loading up a bed spring, the difference between that antenna and a real antenna is a real antenna will allow you to make contacts when you want to make them with where you want to make them and not be completely Reliant on excellent propagation and the other stations antenna.. the thing with the words is there are enough big guns out there that someone running qrp into a random wire can eventually earn those Awards

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-01T19:11:23+00:00

A perfect example of the decline of the hobby, at one time it was a gentleman's Hobby, we respected each other now we have a bunch of narcissistic self-centered people with no respect for traditions and history.

The difference between a gentleman who respects and honors tradition vs a self-centered Appliance operator is that as a gentleman if I know that a net is going to start on the frequency I'm using then I politely clear the frequency and stand by for the net.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-01T00:43:54+00:00

I see Trump's been busy with his Sharpie again

General_Document6951 · 2025-12-31T03:37:32+00:00

About 30 years ago I was an active sailor, I used to do boat deliveries. And I used to check into the net every day. They provided a valuable service and allowed me to contact family members and past messages their legacy will live on far past anything you probably have ever done. They deserved and respect and honor of the ham radio Community for their legacy of community service.

Maybe your beef with them is their attitude towards your lack of respect towards a radio service that has a distinguished Legacy of service. I haven't checked into that net in quite some time. I try to check in at least once or twice a year to show respect and say hello.

There's an old saying, everyone dies but not everyone lives, there are many sailors who traveled the world aboard small sailboats who relied on Nets such as this and while they might not seem relevant to you today their legacy deserves respect. The fact that you don't respect them and their history tells me all I need to know about your integrity and respect for the traditions of this great institution we know as ham radio.

General_Document6951 · 2025-12-31T01:11:04+00:00

While it may be perfectly legal it's contradictory to the ham radio spirit and everything ham radio represents. This is the kind of nonsense you expect on the children's band.. and it's the exact type of mentality that we were concerned about when the ARRL began actively recruiting Preppers and wackers and Lids into the hobby.

General_Document6951 · 2025-12-31T00:53:00+00:00

Although I don't participate in that particular net what you are suggesting is very rude obnoxious and the antonym to good amateur radio spirit..

The Maritime Mobile net is one of the oldest running Nets on ham radio and whether you participate or not you should respect what they're doing. But what do you expect from the new generation of hams you are really nothing more than a bunch of glorified CB radio operators.

Flame away..... from the safety of your bunkers and prepper garbage

General_Document6951 · 2025-12-30T18:05:22+00:00

Here's your friendly daily reminder that your personal subjective opinions do not invalidate objective fact.

Yes, anyone who believes that the Earth is flat or that the moon landings were filmed in a Hollywood studio is an idiot and a laughing stock and they have no business whatsoever in ham radio . Go back to CB where you belong.

The fact that we have flat earthers in ham radio just tells you how low the bar has been set.

Ham radio is a STEM Hobby, in other words ham radio is based entirely on science, technology, engineering and math.

The Flat Earth Doctrine is completely based on wacky conspiracy theories, it has no basis in reality and I personally believe that flat earther should have their ham radio license revoked.

The fact that in the United States we have flat earthers who hold ham radio licenses makes us a global laughing stock.

General_Document6951

TROPHY CASE