Cathryn's Top 10 Ham Radio Hints.  These are things I've realized, having ham
licenses for a few years.  Maybe these points will help someone.

1.  If people don't respond, it's more likely they can't hear you
rather than they don't like you.  It seems obvious, but it wasn't
clear to me when I started.  Sometimes your antenna just won't be
resonating as well as the other station, for various reasons.

2.  A vertical on the roof with radials is a lot better than a vertical
on the ground with no radials.	My guess, is that in order for a
vertical antenna to work better than even a low dipole, it needs
to be on the roof with radials.  I tried for the longest time to
use a vertical on the ground, with and without radials, and didn't
do so good.  When I moved the vertical to the roof it helped a lot.

3.  It's cool to use the Internet to get contacts.  I know the Ham
Radio purists won't agree, but I kind of like hanging out in #hamradio
on EFNET (irc), and connecting up with other people in the chat rooms.
It's kind of fascinating, how difficult it is, actually.  Especially,
I've found that some close locations are very difficult to reach via
HF.

4.  Call CQ.  And call CQ for a long time.  Okay, not just a long time,
make that a really long time.  Sometimes, it's the only way.  It's
a huge drag there to call and call and call, with nobody answering, but
sometimes this is the best way to raise people.  Especially if the band
is dead.   Especially with 30 meters, where everyone seems to be listening
and nobody is sending.	The TS870, has big friendly buttons right on the front
for sending morse or SSB with the voice memory.  I use these for calling CQ.
This is one of the best features of this radio.

5.  Figure when 'prime time' is for the people you want to talk to.  For
working Japan, figure out when it's evening in Japan, and call CQ JA then.
It's not just propagation, the people in that country have to be awake.

6.  If the equipment isn't working, don't assume it's broken.  I don't know
how many times, I've thought the radio was broken or the antenna was broken
or whatever, and it's just turned out to be operator error.  Take a deep
breath, and get out the manual, again, and go through the adjustments like
it says.  Every time I go away from ham radio for a bit, I forget how the
'carrier' and the 'proc' controls work on the TS870 and have some very weird
confused QSO's.

7.  Adjusting the transmitter for SSB is harder than it looks.	I'm still
learning myself, as I don't operate SSB that often.

8.  Being Extra is good.  Especially for those low CW bands where the DX
stations really do call.  I now work DX since I got my extra, and I never even
heard DX before I got my extra.  If you're general or advanced, I'd use the 30m
band.

9.  Get the tests out of the way all at once.  I did it this way, and I'm
just glad now, I don't have to mess with them any more.  It's a huge relief.
The 20wpm, here in the states is a little tough, but I just slugged it out
using SuperMorse.

10.  Join the clubs.  I've been a bit lax in this lately, but really it is
the best way to get going on 2 meters.	I've always had a hard time really
making 2 meters work, and I do realize that joining the clubs is the way
to do this.