GOT MY GENERAL!!!!

[WRYS709]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

I would love to learn CW but my brain just doesn't work that way. 

Try the Jerry Ziliak Method: did wonders for me!

He teaches you each letter/symbol at 21 wpm but then uses spacing to achieve sending words at 5 wpm. 

He then increases your speed with practice that decreases the spacing!

[TNFrank]

I saw a method where you learn by sound, not dots and dashes.

[WRYZ926]

@Lscott You can add a dirty FM radio station antennas to that list. There is a local FM station near me that will flat out mess with every brand of 2m mobile radio when you drive by the station. One time I heard the broadcast on my Icom IC-2730 for a few seconds when I was within 1/8 mile from the station. Normally it is just a bunch of static.

[TNFrank]

I've been getting 32 to 35 on the General Practice Tests on HamStudy.org so I signed up to take the test on February 18th with a local HAM Club. I'll keep studying until then so it shouldn't be too hard to get at least 26 right so I'll pass. I can hardly wait. 73

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I've been getting 32 to 35 on the General Practice Tests on HamStudy.org so I signed up to take the test on February 18th with a local HAM Club. I'll keep studying until then so it shouldn't be too hard to get at least 26 right so I'll pass. I can hardly wait. 73

Great!!!

You’ll do well.

[RoadApple]

On 1/27/2026 at 11:56 AM, TNFrank said:

I would love to learn CW but my brain just doesn't work that way. 

CW, i.e. dots and dashes is simply an early form of binary (0 and 1) data communication.  From there, voice comms was a HUGE breakthrough!   The way I see things, it seems like a bit of regression to use CW when you can just talk to someone...        I've no interest is saying "HELLO" via my computer by typing: 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

I've been getting 32 to 35 on the General Practice Tests on HamStudy.org so I signed up to take the test on February 18th with a local HAM Club. I'll keep studying until then so it shouldn't be too hard to get at least 26 right so I'll pass. I can hardly wait. 73

Good Luck @TNFrank !     We're cheering for ya...

[AdmiralCochrane]

1 hour ago, RoadApple said:

CW, i.e. dots and dashes is simply an early form of binary (0 and 1) data communication.  From there, voice comms was a HUGE breakthrough!   The way I see things, it seems like a bit of regression to use CW when you can just talk to someone...        I've no interest is saying "HELLO" via my computer by typing: 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 

 

Good Luck @TNFrank !     We're cheering for ya...

You can skip the radio altogether and call someone on the phone.

You could just hit a baseball off a tee like pre-k kids do. 

[TNFrank]

21 minutes ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

You can skip the radio altogether and call someone on the phone.

That's no fun. I made a POTA QSO from Hawaii who was Activating 2 Parks so I got a 2'fer and talked with someone all the way from Arizona to HAWAII, that's Uber Cool IMHO. 

[RoadApple]

2 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

You can skip the radio altogether and call someone on the phone.

YES!!  HA!! You are correct, IF I knew their number. 

Last night as I listened to a 2m net discussing Meshtastic and Coretastic and sending datagrams via radio, I could not help but rhetorically think; WHY?    Our cell phone is already a radio sending data, so why are we eagerly reinventing the wheel.   Answer: (1) Just for fun, (2) in the event common commercial infrastructure is not available!   

For those that find CW fun, I say go for it, I won't rain on your parade.  It is just not for me.

Radio is great when commercial infrastructure is not available, reliable or is otherwise impractical for the type of communication needed, such as a road trip caravan, off-roading, camping off the grid, community events, emergency comms, and contacting unknown people in far away places, etc.   

99% of the time, if I know the person I'm trying to contact, I do call on the phone.   

But I'm just an old pragmatic troglodyte

[Northcutt114]

40 minutes ago, RoadApple said:

Last night as I listened to a 2m net discussing Meshtastic and Coretastic and sending datagrams via radio, I could not help but rhetorically think; WHY?    Our cell phone is already a radio sending data, so why are we eagerly reinventing the wheel.   Answer: (1) Just for fun, (2) in the event common commercial infrastructure is not available!   

Don't get me started on Meshtastic. If I had known then what I know now, I'd have never spent the several, several hundred dollars into it that I did. Now, the node that I use on my LBE for ATAK to run GPS was money well spent, but the rest of it? I've got three blackberry looking things that won't text each other past about 3/4 of a mile. Dumb.

Good luck @TNFrank. It took the FCC less than 48 hours to update my status once I passed.

[RoadApple]

1 hour ago, Northcutt114 said:

Don't get me started on Meshtastic. If I had known then what I know now, I'd have never spent the several, several hundred dollars into it that I did. Now, the node that I use on my LBE for ATAK to run GPS was money well spent, but the rest of it? I've got three blackberry looking things that won't text each other past about 3/4 of a mile. Dumb.

Good luck @TNFrank. It took the FCC less than 48 hours to update my status once I passed.

Yeah, based on the conversation I listened to, it sounded like the reliability and/or utility of the Meshtastic technology was very questionable.  All the more reason for me to simply ask myself: WHY? 

Again, for those who like to experiment and pursue it just for fun; I won't unplug your bouncy castle... 

[AdmiralCochrane]

8 hours ago, RoadApple said:

Yeah, based on the conversation I listened to, it sounded like the reliability and/or utility of the Meshtastic technology was very questionable.  All the more reason for me to simply ask myself: WHY? 

Again, for those who like to experiment and pursue it just for fun; I won't unplug your bouncy castle... 

It all depends on how robust your local mesh is.  In areas with dense mesh, it definitely is viable reliable alternate to the common infrastructure you are completely dependent on.  Just because you don't participate does make it weak.

[WRYZ926]

@TNFrank you got this and I'm sure you will do just fine on the actual test.

I want to learn CW but I need to figure out what's going on with my ears and hearing first. CW is useful and it is the original weak signal mode. You can make contacts on 5 watts using CW that you would not be able to make using voice modes.

The weak spot with Meshtastic is the hardware. And as mentioned, it really only woks well in densely populated areas. My club is looking into setting up Meshtastic and I had to tell them it won't work very well in our area when there are only two towns with populations over 10,000 people. Most towns have a population between 1,000 and 3,000. Plus every town is at a minimum of 7-10 miles apart. We would have to setup Meshtastic nodes or repeaters in every town to even attempt to get a good coverage area.

[SteveShannon]

On 1/27/2026 at 2:20 PM, TNFrank said:

I saw a method where you learn by sound, not dots and dashes.

That’s really the key.  Trying to count the dots and dashes and match them to a memorized character is not the way experienced CW users work.  They recognize each sound combination as a whole.  Modern means of studying emphasize that, rather than memorizing the written pattern of dots and dashes. That’s how language learning works.  We learn to hear and speak our native tongue long before we get involved in spelling.

[SteveShannon]

18 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I want to learn CW but I need to figure out what's going on with my ears and hearing first. CW is useful and it is the original weak signal mode. You can make contacts on 5 watts using CW that you would not be able to make using voice modes.

 

And, in a truly SHTF situation, you can twist together a small number of components to make a 5 watt CW transmitter.  

 

[WRYZ926]

Most of your SOTA and general QRP operators use CW since it doesn't take much power to make long distance contacts. 

The US military did away with CW only to figure out they needed it when digital radios failed in Afghanistan and in the Pacific Ocean. CW is not dead.

Some curmudgeons have made comments that the CW portion of the license tests should be brought back. I don't agree with that as that will definitely keep the hobby from growing. CW is not for everyone. But it is also far from useless.

Technicians can use CW on the 2m, 10m, 15m, 40m, and 80m bands. Yes some people still use CW on the 2m band.

[Northcutt114]

13 hours ago, RoadApple said:

Yeah, based on the conversation I listened to, it sounded like the reliability and/or utility of the Meshtastic technology was very questionable.  All the more reason for me to simply ask myself: WHY? 

Again, for those who like to experiment and pursue it just for fun; I won't unplug your bouncy castle... 

At least initially, for me, the idea was to give one of my children a way to contact family that wasn't a phone. It looked "phone-ish," but it wouldn't allow them to get to the internet or, more importantly, let the internet get to them. And if that worked, maybe replace cell phones for family communication.

I was told mythical tales of the LoRa 900mhz frequency and its distance and ability to penetrate urban enviornments. It was largely over hyped. Largely. 

[Northcutt114]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Technicians can use CW on the 2m, 10m, 15m, 40m, and 80m bands. Yes some people still use CW on the 2m band.

It's funny you should mention that. I saw a guy on the POTA spot page last night in Japan doing an activation on CW on 2m. I thought to myself "I had no idea people did CW on VHF." Apparently they do.

 

[Bogieboy01]

On 1/27/2026 at 9:20 AM, TNFrank said:

This one.

 

Let me know how it works.... i have been eyeing those for a while now, for once i get my tech... wonder how well they would work on the antron 99 i just picked up 2 nights ago i have stsrted slowly building up a ssb setup for primarily 10/11m use, and have started with the antenna... 

[RoadApple]

6 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

It all depends on how robust your local mesh is.  In areas with dense mesh, it definitely is viable reliable alternate to the common infrastructure you are completely dependent on.  Just because you don't participate does make it weak.

 I totally agree!   I never said or suggested it was weak. I don't use it and I don't claim to know a lot about Meshtastic,  I was merely relaying the impression made upon me by some locals who were discussing it, while I listened, as their experience seemed to be much less than robust or reliable.   Sorry, I did not intend to drag this thread down the Meshtastic rabbit hole. 

Back on Topic:    Again, Good Luck @TNFrank. I hope you find a method for learning CW that works for you, and good luck on your general test!!

[TNFrank]

On 1/31/2026 at 11:12 AM, Bogieboy01 said:

Let me know how it works.... i have been eyeing those for a while now, for once i get my tech... wonder how well they would work on the antron 99 i just picked up 2 nights ago i have stsrted slowly building up a ssb setup for primarily 10/11m use, and have started with the antenna... 

I'm not expecting a lot from 5w. My hopes are to get some closer POTA contacts on 20M and 40M once I get my General license. Other than that I'll stick with the QT80 for the long range stuff on 10,12 and 15M

[Bogieboy01]

52 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I'm not expecting a lot from 5w. My hopes are to get some closer POTA contacts on 20M and 40M once I get my General license. Other than that I'll stick with the QT80 for the long range stuff on 10,12 and 15M

Im not so much wondering about how many fars it has, as thats easy to solve when you are only starting with 5w....plenty of 10/11m amps out there that will boost that signal plenty... more wondering interface, usability, etc... i aldo have my eye on the qt80/anytone 6666, but i seek to like the face plate of the at5555 pro better, i feel like it gives more info... i could be wrong though.... you also take a wattage hit on the 5555 vs the 6666

[TNFrank]

I'm trying to get LESS Fars. 10M skips right over a lot of the States close to Arizona including here too. I hear that 20M and 40M will allow you to make contacts CLOSER to your home base. 

[RoadApple]

57 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I'm trying to get LESS Fars. 10M skips right over a lot of the States close to Arizona including here too. I hear that 20M and 40M will allow you to make contacts CLOSER to your home base. 

Hey @TNFrank, I'm curious if you have tried making 10m contacts at night when there is lower solar activity and it is much less susceptible to skip conditions.  Doing so might help you stay closer to home...

[TNFrank]

2 hours ago, RoadApple said:

Hey @TNFrank, I'm curious if you have tried making 10m contacts at night when there is lower solar activity and it is much less susceptible to skip conditions.  Doing so might help you stay closer to home...

I hadn't thought about that mainly because most POTA Activactions are over once the sun starts to sit.