I got my General ticket back in June of this year. I actually made contact last night on 3970 on the 75 meter band. On the country cousins net Al KB8AMW, south west of Dayton, was the moderator.
I have an Icom 746 pro, I was at about 75 watts ran it through an LDG auto 100 tuner to a simple dipole antenna about 4 ft above my head in the room with me. I got him full quieting he reported a good signal from me as well. The band was booming!!
