Depression and anxiety are not the same, but I really have social anxiety, and due to this social anxiety, I feel depressed. My friends have girlfriends, and I daydream about it only. I am shy, but I am also introverted, and I fight with my parents, which makes me feel guilty.

So i'm missing probably something elementary. I get how gamma match does the matching thanks to some resources i found.

There's a claim of gamma match being an balun, and gamma-matched yagis or dipoles are often connected in the middle to boom or some kind of metallic support. Why this works? Why current would go to the other leg of dipole, instead of boom or external surface of coax? Wouldn't that skew radiation pattern for dipole or introduce radiation polarized along the boom for yagis?

I assume the same explanation that works for gamma match would also work for half folded dipole, but i've not seen it bonded to the boom when used in yagis. (Maybe it's because these things are uncommon)

edit: more links

This radio is the most expensive thing I have bought for the hobby so far and it is making me want to cry. I cant figure out why it wont tune up to the dipole I made. It seems to work fine sometimes and just randomly shut off other times. SWR scan seems to be effected by being plugged in to power. ATU seems to be equally hit or miss. I am login my mind. Any help or advice is welcome!

Went out to Cherry Creek State Park (K-1213) with a buddy and played radio. I took my buddipole but couldn’t get it to tune up because I forgot to charge my VNA. Luckily I brought an EFHW that I strung up to the buddipole’s tripod.

I only worked 10 contacts in 4 hours. 8 SSB and 2 CW, but it was fun. I forgot how awesome operating from a park is, and I want to get back into POTA!

Rig: IC-705 Antenna: 80-10m EFHW Power: 9ah Bioenno battery

Just realized that today is field day. Gonna go out and see what the local hams are up to. Anyone else have plans?

I am looking for a vertical HF antenna that can pack down small and not be insanely expensive. Any idea?

I'm wondering if anybody knows what the antenna (and seemingly accompanying hardware) on this telephone pole is.

Thank you in advance!

I want to learn Morse Code. I have tried a bunch of different ways and I struggle. I considered how it used to be done, a cassette tape that plays the sounds over and over driving them into your skull. I figured I would make one myself and see if it helped. I feel like I am associating the sounds to the letters more effectively than other methods I have tried. Maybe it will help someone else too!

I like helical antennas, folks. Broadband, mechanically reasonably easy to make, rather compact and can be even made without large backplane (backfire helix). Catch both vertical and horizontal polarized signals which makes them good for scanners and resistant to polarization fading (important for satellites)

For terrestial work, circular polarization doesn't seem to be extremely common. Would it be a bad form to use circular polarization at UHF for simplex, or to hit a repeater?

Thought I'd share the construction of a local 2M repeater.

2 FT2980 radios mounted in an old power supply chassis.

Can anyone recommend software or a webpage that can map your QSOs for you? I notice some people post maps with arrows from their QTH to the contact they made.

How are they doing that? I want to try and map our how my antenna is getting out based on my QSO mapping.

So, I love talking on hf on 10 but it seems like nobody is ever on. Does anyone else notice that. Why are all the higher licensees staying so low in the bands?

I live in upstate New York, I have a general class license, and this is my first time using Lemmy (or any federated social for that matter).

My mobile rig is a VR-N7500 "50W" VHF/UHF. It uses Bluetooth control from my phone, and it does APRS.

My QTH rig is a Xiegu G90 on a 40m EFHW powered by micro solar. I mainly do FT8, as well as a little VARA HF WinLink. (I'm a bit mic shy and my antenna setup isn't that great.)

I'm interested in POTA (and maybe SOTA).

Hope to meet some friendly folk!

Got an X6100 and a dipole antenna and put them in this vmcase from harbor freight. The coax and antenna wires are in the layer of foam under the radio.

It's a little sparse right now, but feel free to post anything ham radio related while I get things organized!