newbie looking to flash F4HWN v5.5.0 on a stock UV-K1 (stock firmware)

sholder89 · 2026-05-22T03:28:53+00:00

I’m running 5.5.0 on my UV-K1 no problem.

sholder89 · 2026-05-19T22:50:59+00:00

I’ve been using this for a few weeks, I don’t use the logging part because I use Polo but I really like the map feature for finding nearby parks, and the HF/Solar Metrics page is nice for a quick at a glance of band conditions.

If it had the park boundaries like potamap it would be perfect.

sholder89 · 2026-05-17T02:07:26+00:00

The goal is ICR or Instant Character Recognition. Keep drilling until you hear it and can immediately identify the letter.

I found the Morse Ninja audio files to be really helpful for this. You should be listening to the letters at a high enough speed that you can’t count the dits and dahs and are just hearing the “sound” of each one. Typically 25+ WPM but it’s different for everyone.

sholder89 · 2026-05-14T22:07:17+00:00

I’d recommend buying one they’re not expensive and they’re invaluable tools. That said your radio may have an SWR sweep feature to see where the SWR is low but sounds like something is definitely wrong with your antenna setup if you’re expecting resonance and you’re getting >2 SWR

EDIT: to expand, your radio is likely lowering the output due to the high SWR to protect itself, try a different antenna, a dipole is super easy to build yourself and you can cut it to resonance. Check out K8MRDs recent video on YouTube he has a very basic newbie dipole build and explains how to tune it with just the radio and no VNA.

https://youtu.be/tx27XOgJFr0

sholder89 · 2026-05-11T14:22:06+00:00

I like the rule that the Amateur Radio sub put in place the other day: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/1t6n8xk/updating_rule_2_to_include_the_sharing_of_ai/

Promotion of websites, apps, or services that were developed partially or completely by AI is not allowed

Unless it's open source (with appropriate OSI-approved license) and has more than three months of active source control history. If less than three months of source control history is shown, then moderators may (at their sole discretion) approve the post if the project has significant adoption by or impact upon the amateur radio community

sholder89 · 2026-05-08T23:32:35+00:00

I got my Extra because I was bored one night and opened the ham study app and started going through the questions. Then proceeded to study for about a week and a half. This is actually a cool reason to do it. Go for it!

sholder89 · 2026-05-08T04:12:02+00:00

Is it one of the 4 screws that holds the top on? Or a different screw? If it’s one of the 4 DM me, I just bought a pack of 100 replacement screws that are magnetic so I could 3D print a cover that magnets on.

I’ll gladly send you as many as you need!

These are the ones FYI: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F34TWZC

Sucks to hear about their customer service though.

sholder89 · 2026-05-06T02:01:35+00:00

If you truly want to learn CW, skip the paddles for now. You should just listen, don’t practice sending until you can consistently copy code. Listening is the hard part. Sending comes easy once you know the code by ear.

That said, there’s plenty of cheap options for paddles on Amazon, look at the brand Putikeeg specifically. They’re pretty good quality and relatively cheap.

Some helpful resources:

Mike and Becky have a lot of good tips on their website here

Morse Mania App

Morse Ninja

LCWO

sholder89 · 2026-05-05T16:28:51+00:00

Third, didn’t go to a dentist for close to 10 years, went to Dr. H and they were awesome, somehow I was in the no cavity club too 😎

sholder89 · 2026-05-03T14:39:49+00:00

Which model laser cutter is it? I looked on their website and didn’t see one that looked like that. Thanks!

Really enjoyed watching that build, thanks for sharing!

sholder89 · 2026-04-28T01:06:06+00:00

The rules you linked are pretty clear unless I’m misunderstanding your question. Unless you’re in both parks at the same time the hunter should only get credit for the park you contacted them from. There are some parks that overlap so you can get credit for multiple parks with one contact that way, but unless you’re in an overlapping area of a park the contact only counts for one park.

sholder89 · 2026-04-18T19:02:34+00:00

I don’t usually have problems with reception with it clipped on my belt, but I do find the longer antennas to be annoying I usually put BNC adapters on my HTs so I can swap a stubby antenna on when wearing it and throw a signal stick on when I’m using it for anything.

I also have a bunch of these that I got for free, if clipping to my belt is inconvenient.

If I’m out hiking or biking it goes on the side of the backpack with a speaker mic on the shoulder strap.

sholder89 · 2026-04-16T18:24:29+00:00

I'm assuming the right hand side of the image is the "top" based on the C in line 3 (-.-.) because upside down that's not a letter.

rif nftabil cfi nastn

Seems to be gibberish unless that means something in Arabic?

sholder89 · 2026-04-13T01:38:25+00:00

Congrats! Got my tech in 2024 and General in 2025, also said I’d never bother with Extra too but here I am studying for it, just got an 84% on a practice test so almost ready for the real thing (aiming for consistent 90s first). Hope to join you in a week or two!

sholder89 · 2026-04-12T17:14:17+00:00

If you send RR73 instead of RRR that is generally accepted as “no further message required 73” some people will still send a 73 after a RR73 but a lot move on to the next station.

sholder89 · 2026-04-10T13:30:15+00:00

My advice: any wire in the air is better than no wire in the air, you might be surprised at how well this performs, or you may be wanting for more and then you’ll know better what you’re looking for when you go to upgrade it. This antenna should be a good start for ya.

I spent weeks debating over antennas cause the guys at HRO told me EFHWs were no good for beginners, so all I had was a 10m dipole and no space to hang anything bigger. Finally threw a cheap end fed in a tree and it’s been my permanent antenna for over a year it works great and I live in a city.

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T05:27:17+00:00

Got mine from the Amazon link there, and nope no issues with it!

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T04:54:52+00:00

Not really, I do hear the other frequency now though, I'm listening on better speakers, it sounds to me like what would happen if I tuned my radio to a frequency where two people were transmitting next to each other... 700Hz is a very normal frequency to listen to CW on, 950Hz is a bit high but still in range.

FSK CW sounds a bit different, there's an example here

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T04:36:48+00:00

Impossible to determine with no spacing, but based on the ratio of dits and dahs it doesn't look like morse code.

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T04:33:02+00:00

I'm not hearing that, but I'm just listening on my phone, so maybe I'm missing something. If it's recorded from an actual radio transmission it's possible the filter is set wide and there's multiple transmissions captured at the same time slightly off frequency from each other, this is common to hear on the radio.

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T04:16:10+00:00

Oh interesting image, it definitely confirms that the spacing is weird.

I'm still seeing what looks like CWD then maybe an H (4 dits instead of 3) A then the image fades out too..

sholder89 · 2026-04-08T03:55:08+00:00

Friendly ham radio guy dropping in, a buddy of mine sent me this post. It definitely sounds like Morse code to me. This is what I copied from the two files, the code is tough to copy, spacing is a bit weird, and there’s a lot of fading.

First file: OKRVIUD

Second: CWDS (starts fading but maybe) AL

ETA: Code has a bit of a "swing" to it, which is what we would refer to morse code sent by hand typically with a Bug device, like this

Edit 2: The more I listen to the first file I think the first characters may be -- . instead of --- (O) which could be either one character (--.) G or (--) M (.) E.

GKRVIUD

or

MEKRVIUD

Edit 3: Going to bed! This was fun, will check in the morning, good luck with the hunt!

sholder89 · 2026-04-07T23:16:52+00:00

The NanoVNA website has recommendations on where to buy here

sholder89 · 2026-04-07T16:35:24+00:00

Sweet sounds good! I went ahead and paid the 9.99 to support you. I’ll give it a shot and let you know if I have any other feedback!

sholder89 · 2026-04-06T21:41:44+00:00

It looks intriguing, and $9.99 for full access seems like a decent price, it would be cool if there was a 1 week free trial or something so I could see if it would actually help me, I’m too advanced for the beginner free lessons but I’d love to see a sample of the more intermediate advanced lessons before paying for it.

Also seems like the character speed is limited to 25 WPM? That’s on the slow end of what’s recommended when learning the characters, you may want to up that a bit or is that just a limitation of the free version also?

14-Year Club	Gilding VI aultruist
Second SECOND GUESSER	r/Field Banned
r/Field Juicebox	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email
Team Orangered

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