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.

Yeah. I watched a couple of videos about the supposed "upgrades" and, like you said, for me, there's just no "there" there. I'm not hooking a monitor up to my radio, either and I'm not trying to hook it up to the internet so I can play radio from my tablet on the couch in another room. I will always love and keep my G90. Especially after all I went through to get it up and running. But that Yaseu FT-897 sitting on the kitchen table, that I am going to Harbor Freight tonight to get an Apache Case for? Ooooo boy, I can't wait to take it out and POTA at 100w.

I am. I just need to watch some videos. Like I said, K8MRD has a great, 30 minute video out there about how to use it. Back then I was adamant about not wanting to use FT8. But ever since I traded into this radio bundle and I found a Signalink in the bottom of the box, I've been tinkering with the idea. I saw the waterfall and I could see the stations on the left and right coiumn. and I could even double click on the stations in the left and it would TX from the radio, but nobody ever came back to me. And I couldn't find any of the people on the POTA sight actually in the display on WSJT-X. The fam is out of the house tonight. The agenda is to eat dinner in front of the video and make some FT8 contacts afterwards. I'm sure I'll have it sorted.

Man...there were a few FT8's listed last night and I was desperately trying to figure out how to contact them. I felt so bad. I was like "I see you, man. And I hear you. But I can't figure out this blinker blanking software!" I felt very old and all thumbs.

The thing is, though, sometimes they don't cut or edit anything. I was watching K8MRD's in field review of the new 7300 Mk2. Mainly to see if I should have FOMO about having just the 7300. Anyhow, he started calling CQ with some sort of automated message. (I need to figure that out, by the way). He did that for about 10 or 15 seconds and then got one call back. But after he spotted himself, the pile up really began. People want to get on the video so he get's the attention. I was naive in the beginning and didn't realize it. Those of us without "a channel" will never know how easy it is to park on one channel, call CQ, and get triple digit QSO's.

I am honestly a little bit gobsmacked by the 7300. My youngest daughter, who occasionally goes on radio outings with me, walked by last night and said "Wow, Dad. That radio sounds why nicer than your other ones." And she's far from an audiophile. I managed to get WSJT-X installed last night and kind of got FT8 running...but I couldn't figure out how to make a contact. K8MRD's got a good video on that I'll watch, but I saw the waterfall and the callsigns, so I know I have it set up correctly, just need to learn how to run the software. This EFHW is cut to 40m, but the 7300 will tune it for 80m. I made a contact with some random guy on 40m last night. Some kind of 'net. "Big booming 59plus twenty, man" was his response. I suppose that I'm going to have to get used to that. It's not the norm on my little G90.

I made my first two late shift contacts last night. Got the ICOM 7300 hooked up to a Chameleon EFHW in a semi permanent installation and managed to get a two operator contact in AZ. First contants on 40m...and at night. As someone who has spent his - yet brief - ham career operating outside and during the day, it felt really odd to be doing it inside and at night.

Right, but that 28.5 has to account for the bandwidth of the signal. 28.5 is the center of the frequency. If you're tuned up to 28.5 and transmitting on USB, you're actually transmitting somewhere between 28.5 and 28.528, depending on your bandwidth and vocal modulation. ETA: Nevermind. @SteveShannon literally explained this immediately after you posted. Should read the whole thread first.

I wanted to respond to this and condense your response so that people can see that sometimes activating a park is work, and far from easy. I think a lot of people watch these big name channels activate and hear them say things like "Wow, 12 contacts in less than 5 minutes" and then have that same expectation for when they try it. I, for one, appreciate your detailed account of the struggle. It validates my own frustrations. Thanks...and congrats on the activation!

There is a yellow piece of paper with a diagram for a jumper set up in the bottom of the box. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about it last night. I'm assuming it's the Yaesu diagram. I guess I just assumed that since it was in the box with the ICOM that it went with that.

I've never owned a radio this nice. I'm learning daily. I can not wait to TX @ 100w. Never done that before, either. OK, so the signalink must be for the 897. Because the other radios don't even have ports for it. As always, thanks, guys!