August 27, 2029 A full house was expected for tonight’s meeting of the Logan Lake DX Club. The main presentation was going to be a live video session with the owner and chief promoter of the rapidly growing FacilisQSO amateur radio service. Since its launch a few months earlier interest had been running high and word on the street was that tens of thousands of hams had already subscribed. Once the meeting got underway all...

SKCC WES: “Old Timers and Summer Bands” “Old Timers and Summer Bands” theme - If you held an amateur radio license 25 years ago or longer you are an “Old Timer”! It is not necessary for you to have been continuously licensed for twenty-five years. “Old Timer” stations will send their name/XX (XX is number of years licensed). Total up all those years licensed and that will be your bonus points. ...

I got an email today from someone I don’t know telling me: “I want to share something we’ve been quietly working on for a while. You know how, after the hundredth FT8 contact in a session, your wrist starts complaining? How you find yourself wishing the computer would just… handle it, so you could focus on the radio and the band conditions and the coffee getting cold?” “So I built something. It’s...

I’ve been taking a deeper dive into the K4 transceiver. Despite owning it for more than a year I haven’t bothered learning too much about it. There’s a lot to learn. But a recent firmware update implemented what Elecraft calls Spectral Subtraction Noise Reduction (SSNR) algorithm in the DSP. It works remarkably well causing signals to pop out of the noise floor and now I find myself using Phone more than CW. I’ve even...

Field Day 2026 is just around the corner. My plan is the same as the last two dozen times – operating from the backyard until the batteries wave the white flag. And I’ll do that in the cool of the day, assuming it doesn’t rain. I’m not ashamed to be a fair weather outdoor radio enthusiast. One of the local clubs will operate at a nearby park and as usual I’ll stop by to offer...