Northcutt114

10m propagation was pretty poor today. Band was bad. With the JCP12 on 10m, you'll need all four black poles, no coil, and then the whip extended three sections and just an inch or so of the fourth. That will get you pretty close to resonant. The printer cable radials need to be spread out, as you said. If you have any questions, ask. I've been through hell and back with my JCP12.

OK, a few more data points for anyone still following or if you landed here via Google. I recently picked up a Yaesu FT-897 and took it out for its maiden POTA voyage. It has an FC-30 tuner attached to it as well. Running off of a EcoWorthy LifePO4 20AH battery. 2hours, 25 QSO's all over the country on 20m. All park to park. Even managed one contact on 10m, despite the poor conditions. Strong 59 signals from most stations. The difference in a 20W QRP radio and this 100w beast were noticeable. Interestingly enough, the FT-897 tuned the JCP12 on 10m with absolutely no problem. It also tuned on 20m, no problem. But it would not tune it on 40m. Interesting. The G90 will tune the JCP12 on 40m no problem. So it looks like different radios work differently....who woulda thought? So it appears that there is nothing wrong with the JCP12 antenna. I'm chalking up the G90's inability to tune on 10m due to the fact that the radio's head unit is separated. Something about that, I'm guessing, and the close proximity of the antenna to the radio in a POTA setting is throwing it off. I've read a lot of reports about the front end of that radio being sensitive. At least that's my uneducated assumption, given that the FT-897 (a 20+ year old radio with a 3:1 tuner) will tune it on 10m, no problem. So it appears that if I want to hunt or activate on 10m, I'll either need an EFHW with the G90 or I'll have to take the FT-897 out. Data points all around. I'm beginning to feel confident in this POTA thing. Diamond Hunter now, with 4 activations under my belt. Ooorah.

That's pretty much amazon's MO with any refund. They don't ask a lot of questions. It doesn't really have anything to do with your reason as the refund process is largely automated. So the radio lasted three whole days, huh? That's nuts. What makes you think the battery shorted? Most HT batteries are going to be proprietary. There's no real "standard" across brands and models. Expect that to be the norm.

Welp...NetTime definitely solved the issue. My screen was flooding with signals. Didn't manage to make contact with a single one, though. I'll have to keep digging.

I would argue that MURS would probably be a better choice because there's less potential for interference as fewer people are on it. Unless, of course, the church is near a Walmart.

All of that is correct in my settings. I think it's just my clock.

Interesting. Sounds like that is my issue.

Huh...Really? That's interesting. I'll have to check that out. I have no idea if the clock on my laptop is correct. Why would that matter? The waterfall is lit up all the way across, yes. Across roughly 3,000hz. List of "heard stations" only ever populated one station the whole time. But if my clock is wrong, would that explain that? Correct. That much, I do know, but the left hand panel only ever populated one call and it was a station to station, not a CQ. Transmit power was 49 watts. It sounds like the clock might be the culprit. I'll check that first.

Hmmmm...most of those settings tracked with what I was doing. I was able to get CAT control working and the waterfall in WSJT-X was full of signals - and I was hearing them in the radio, but I couldn't seem to get a contact or get anything to populate in the left hand or right hand window. I tried several bands, heard the distinct FT8 alien noises in all bands, but no contacts. I assume that if I can hear the noises, the contact is getting to me, correct? I must have some setting off or something...or maybe it was just too late in the evening. I'll try again tonight.

Congrats!

It varies per band. On 20m it's 14.074.

I'm 59 on that. Jumpers are set for the Yaesu.

I doesn't hurt that you're one hop from the Pacific in that direction. I tried listening for Japan stations last night and heard nothing. I suspect I never will living here. Eastern Europe's probably as far as I'll be able to go. Best of luck to you!

I haven't actually tried with the 7300 yet. I was running the Signalink with the FT897, so I was using a Yaesu. I wasn't able to get CAT control to work (figured out this morning that I had it plugged into the wrong port in the back) but did get it to work via the VOX option.

I consider myself very blessed to have been able to acquire one. I absolutely do not have $1000 laying around to blow on a radio. But, from a much younger, childless me, I did purchase many, many things that I have traded for many other things. This guy just so happened to have boxes of ham radio gear in his garage. I asked multiple times if he was happy with the trade and he said yes. But I got well over $3,000 MSRP worth of gear for something that I might have had $1200 in.