Archive

I received a reminder from the INDEXA Treasurer that my membership is due for renewal in August. I didn’t renew my annual contribution to...

I became interested in amateur radio while in high school. A couple of my teacher’s found out and they quickly ushered me into a secret...

”Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem” - Woody Allen So I’m chatting over coffee with a couple of friends, all of...

Just another hot, muggy day in the Heartland. The only good news on our weather front is that with the 4th of July in the...

I copied a rock solid signal from J38DX this morning on 20 meters. Despite an hour of trying to work what would be an ATNO,...

Wednesday morning was a gift. I awoke to 60F with much lower humidity and hurried outside for a long walk while it was so nice....

Added two more WWA stations yesterday. Making twenty-five WWA contacts this week a stretch goal. I did snag a couple more POTA stations along...

The search for needed DX was a bust last night so I decided to pick off a handful of WWA stations. Seven contacts on...

We’ve arrived at the end of another month. Half the year has passed. If you consider the 4th of July as being halfway through the...

Well that was… different. CW for all occasions is typical at KE9V, so I sometimes use Field Day as an excuse to do phone. That’s...

It’s been about a month since the windows have been opened. Hot and stuffy weather spent in retreat in the air conditioning does not make...

Field Day Weekend is upon us. Have fun. Be safe. And remember, it’s not a contest, but keep score anyway. Wink-Wink. The motto of...

“Blogs are newsletters that don’t require subscriptions…” There is a trend toward sending electronic QSL cards that seems to be driving a lot of...

The International DX Association recently coordinated multiple resources from around the world to help improve the only amateur radio station on Tristan da Cunha:...

ARRL Announces Logbook of The World® Systems Upgrade: ARRL’s Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) is the 2nd most popular benefit among members. It...

Long-time rivals Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds meet for the first time, have dinner. It is quite a surprise that the kingpins behind...

I’ve been keeping a close eye on current solar activity as it pertains to HF propagation and my quest for DX. This has become a...

⁍ Written by Mitchell Hamm, N8XS In March of 2023, I saw a new rabbit hole that I almost slipped down. My ham club was invited...

Blogging is hard. It’s a medium that first surfaced decades ago and was routinely ignored. Then it went viral and soon everyone on the planet...

Not a great morning to be a human. It’s just a good thing we have social media to help inform us and sort everything out:...

I have said for the longest time that there is hidden joy in making up your own games using the radio. For instance, a determination...

I’ve lived around here nearly all my life yet I’m always amazed by the lifecycle of corn. It’s just popping through the dirt in neat...

Field Day is fast approaching and we can expect to hear a lot about whether the event is an emergency preparedness exercise or a contest....

UPDATE: I updated the links in this article because TACO Don and Musk have pulled their threatening tweets down. Maybe a little tonsil hockey...

The antenna work is still ongoing, adding ground rods and re-routing cables, etc. It’s sweaty work, especially now that it has warmed considerably. 88F was...

2025 ARRL Field Day - FAQ with the Contest Program Manager Friedrich Merz, DL7DQ - won lawmakers’ approval to become the next German...

Some antenna work is underway here that I expect might take about three days to complete so I figured now was a good time for...

The weather has been perfect (for me) this last month, 70F for the highs and 52F for the lows. Those who dream about swimming pools...

Look at that. The other day I whined (a little) about HF propagation and then almost immediately worked Nauru and Norfolk Island. Both on...

In a recent message to the Elecraft mailing list, Alan Wilcox, W3DVX announced his retirement from his repair services: As a number of...

Dick Jansson was an excellent engineer and radio amateur who spent much of his life in the tall weeds of endless technical details. His recent...

There were several items of interest in the recently published Minutes from the May 8, 2025 ARRL Executive Committee Meeting. ARRL President Rick Roderick...

Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning US military personnel who died while...

What happened to Solar Cycle 25? It’s been so good the last few years. Then we hit the peak and began what should have been...

For my Dad’s generation, the Greatest, raised during the Great Depression, the rails that passed through town were an open sesame to the outside world....

Next Generation DXing Track Videos Available via ARRL: ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® has published an 8-video series about the Next...

The mailman left the always welcome latest issue of Electric Radio magazine in the box today. In this May/June 2025 edition: Wireless on the...

I’ve been a Life Member of ARRL for as long as I can remember. It’s no where near perfect, but the constant criticism, mostly coming...

THE DIVIDED DIAL EPISODE 1: Fishing In The Night Season Two of On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial is the untold...

With less than a week to Hamvention, plans are no doubt still being made by many would-be attendees. This video from K8MDB Radio includes...

When I worked VP2VI last month, the expedition to the British Virgin Islands, it was an all time new one for me. But having worked...

One of the charms of POTA is the many awards that may be earned. I have a bunch of them though I think Worked All...

Despite having been licensed since 1977, I only began the quest for DXCC in 2022. I had just retired and figured the pursuit of DX...

Incoming LoTW surprises have slowed to barely a trickle and it’s safe to say that not much radio has been going on here lately. I...

A third of the year is now behind us. Wow. First of the month chores on the web site (backups, applying system updates, etc.) were...

VP2VI, British Virgin Islands, was active from 10-Apr-2025 thru 27-Apr-2025 and made more than 173,000 contacts in those 17 days. Operators were Ben (DA1DX, ex-DL6FBL),...

Product update from Wayne Burdick, N6KR: XG3 RF Signal Source Remember the XG3? It’s our deck-of-cards-sized, versatile and highly stable all-band signal...

I got my final results back from the DX Marathon for 2024. Mine are not really competitive results, but I enjoy the chase anyway....

Everybody has to be somewhere and yesterday, for me, it was the auto dealer for routine maintenance on my Jeep Renegade. It’s a 2015 model...

The UPS man dropped off a heavy package from California here yesterday. It was the KPA1500 I just ordered last week. How I came...

Interesting… Reticulate Micro, Inc., a software products company specializing in advanced video compression and streaming solutions, announced Reticulate Micro’s VAST Video Platform achieved...

Brit soldiers tune radio waves to fry drone swarms for pennies British soldiers have successfully taken down drones with a radio-wave weapon. The demonstrator...

No man's a jester playing Shakespeare Round your throne room floor While the juggler's act is danced upon The crown that you...

As a long suffering ham radio in space enthusiast, I concluded long ago that hams in North America are likely never going to have a...

Band conditions haven’t been very peppy lately. I know we’re on the back side of twenty-five now, but this drop-off can’t be explained by...

At least one guy gets it. Learn to read the room people. The name of the memo spills the beans. The way the ARRL...

Elecraft has announced a new shortened vertical, the AX3, a six-band, POTA-ready antenna that adds to the previously released AX1 and AX2 shorty radiators....

I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me. - Calvin...

Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, told NBC News that Trump’s economic agenda could lead to a “breaking down of...

RAC Votes to Cancel Attendance at Hamvention Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC), the national association for amateur radio in Canada, has voted to...

I was tuning the bands after lunch yesterday when I decided to drop in on the Six meter band and see if there was any...

I recently uploaded the Cornbread Road audio series to the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet...

Having worked a long career, raised a family, and generally lived a full life, I have discovered a number of things that I don’t want...

Those strong storms that ripped through here a few nights ago did a lot of damage. There were plenty of downed limbs and strewn trash...

News from solar prognosticator Frank Donovan, W3LPL that recent data indicates Cycle 25 probably reached its peak sometime last summer and the Space Weather...

I was licensed in 1959 having been bitten by the radio bug when I was a just a wisp of a boy. I spent every...

Local school kids are kicking off their ‘Spring Break’. Meanwhile, the official first day of Spring 2025 arrived here with snow and sleet. What can...

During a training event, the club station XU7AMO at the Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia was active for the first time in training mode via the...

The mail lady delivered a small package from ARRL yesterday. It was my DXCC CW certificate. I filed that application online as soon as I...

Headline in The Moscow Times: ‘Today We Celebrate’: Kremlin and Russian Propaganda Rejoice as Trump Guts RFE/RL, VOA Moscow is elated by President...

May your troubles be few, your whiskey smooth, and your days full of the kind of simple joys that can only come from a life...

The Ides of March is the day on the Roman calendar marked as the Idus, roughly the midpoint of a month, of Martius,...

With Hamvention a mere nine weeks away, one can’t help but wonder how the economic downturn and general America First nastiness might impact attendance. After...

Years ago there was the Palm Pico paddle and hams drooled all over them at FDIM. Then there wasn’t, and much gnashing of teeth was...

Band conditions yesterday were as bad as I’ve seen them in a long while. It took me all of five minutes spinning the VFO to...

GNU Radio is the leading open-source software toolkit for developing SDR systems, an increasingly viable and even critical tool for a new generation of...

My kids were chatting the other day about having received emails from their kids (my grandchildren) elementary school informing them that their systems had been...

We’ve been enjoying typical March weather in Indiana, something different every few hours. Rain and 50F one minute, clear and 20F the next. It has...

The ARRL International DX Contest SSB took place last weekend. Having had little interest in chasing DX using phone to this point, my current DXCC...

The world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The world economy could face a crash similar...

February has been a productive month at the key. Not only did I manage to crash the DXCC CW barrier early in the month, I’ve...

Coming up this weekend (March 1-2, 2025). Good luck! Complete rules. Contest Objective: To encourage W/VE stations to expand knowledge of DX propagation...

I spent an hour in the South Carolina QSO Party yesterday. Ten contacts, all phone. The first time I’ve touched the microphone this year....

Considering this is the year 2025, I probably spend way too much time in a terminal, on the command line. Old habits are hard to...

A new feature film about paranormal radio pioneer Art Bell, W6OBB (SK) may be on the horizon. Apparently Paul Giamatti (John Adams, The Holdovers, Sideways)...

I enjoyed reading the ZD7KYD DXpedition summary by KY8D, vacation style. A modicum of polite banter was both hoped for and expected. Minimalist...

Today is my 66th birthday. They seem to be coming faster which is not necessarily a good thing. I am grateful for what is becoming...

The plan was to hangout for several hours during the ARRL International DX CW contest this weekend in hope of snagging some needed DXCC....

Quarter Century Wireless Association is offering an Introductory 90-day Full Membership for qualifying applicants for only $3.00. That’s right; three dollars! This offer...

Yesterday I worked KH0W on 10 meters. The Saipan CW Club. The Northern Mariana Islands. Another joyless ATNO for me as I discovered LoTW was...

I have a friend, a good friend, who is twenty years my senior. Our lifestreams crossed when we both worked for Procter & Gamble in...

There’s a new race in space, but it’s not where you might think. It’s happening close to home – in the nearest bit of space,...

There was a lot of CW activity on the bands yesterday. I worked DL2025S again, on 15 meters this time. The 2025C ham radio...

Spy Satellite You’ve Never Heard of Helped Win the Cold War IN THE EARLY 1970S, the Cold War had reached a particularly frigid...

Mac Hodges has lived a long life for a guy just 30 years old. Friends call him an “old” soul, but he says “it’s not...

Daniel Estévez, EA4GPZ decodes a commercial satellite from Hydra Space transmitting in the amateur satellite 435 MHz band using the same modulation, coding and...

Three years ago today was my last working day. After 42 years at the coalface, I terminated my employment and began my journey into the...

In this video, Bob Nagy, AB5N compares the ICOM IC-7610 and the Elecraft K4D. This was of interest to me since I own both...

This event generated a lot of activity on the bands. I replied whenever I happened across one of the WWA stations calling with a strong...

End of the month chores completed. Logs updated, back-ups made, that kind of stuff. My first month in the New Year using CW-only went reasonably...

Here in Indiana we have endured a rather rough winter season. A Polar Vortex along with sky-high egg prices, when you can find them. Yes,...

I caught SM4OTI calling CQ on 10 meters this morning. He had a great signal on this end and we had a brief chat....

I’ve been listening for Felix, DL5XL operating from Antarctica for the last several weeks with no luck. Not a peep. Then yesterday I saw him...

Did you know that this weekend is the annual Winter Field Day event? Emergencies are never scheduled. If you haven’t planned anything, you still...

News from the ARRL DXCC desk: The Programs & Services Committee and headquarters staff from the Radiosport Department are moving ahead with the creation...

I live in East Central Indiana (EN70ge) in a small farming community. A mile or two north of here is another wide spot in the...

The polar vortex arrived. It was -1 degree when I woke this morning. The good news is it showed up without snow storms or wind,...

Rain this morning, but right on the verge of snow. It’s 35F now and has been raining for several hours. It got up to 40F...

Awoke to generally poor band conditions which makes LoTW being down less of an irritation. My local DX cluster is down again too. Plus,...

The good news this morning was that when I tested my local DX cluster, it was back online following a couple weeks of downtime. Given...

I use Jekyll to manage my blog content. It’s been around a long time and is stable. It’s also highly configurable providing me with plenty...

Circumlocution seems the order of the day when it comes to bad-mouthing ARRL. Or more correctly, the ARRL Board of Directors. I have a solution...

A fellow on one of the QRP mailing lists was asking if anyone had a TR-45L CW transceiver they would like to part with. This...

Last night, hours after local sundown, I decided to try to work a few stations in the NAQP. The juice had already drained from...

While I made no specific resolutions for this New Year, I have made a few decisions that sure look like resolutions given their timing. For...

I’ve had a Bluesky account since the service launched. I’ve been loathe to mention it here because having fled Twitter a few years ago,...

Good morning. Here in the US, it’s a National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter, the first former president to live to 100. That means...

Band conditions haven’t been great the last few days and my DX production has suffered because of it. Not helping is that my favorite DX...

People keep saying the ARRL needs to do something to goose up it’s membership numbers. Problem is, few have good ideas for how...

I refilled the bird feeders Saturday and enjoyed watching the little creatures eat their fill. My ham shack is located in a sun room addition...

Woke to 10F with clear skies this morning. The temperature in the shack had fallen to 45F, the coolest I’ve seen it in here. I...

I got my first scare of the K4 era yesterday when I noted a sudden high SWR on ten meters. I checked the antenna and...

Well I’m not the kind to live in the past, The years run too short and the days too fast, The things you lean on...

Happy New Year! Survive until ‘25 was a popular mantra. Now what? The 2024 blog posts have been archived and the new files for 2025...

As 2024 winds down there has been the usual year-end accounting work to wrap up. All of the logging chores for the year have been...

The RFzero™ has been developed for radio amateurs, RF enthusiasts and everyone else who wants to extend their Arduino skills in combination with RF. ...

The big day has drawn to a close and the house is unusually silent. All four of our kids and their spouses, plus our six...

Happy Holidays!

Space Station Slow Scan TV Transmissions Just in time for the holidays and New Year, ARISS is planning an Slow Scan Television (SSTV)...

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a private foundation that exists to support amateur radio and digital communication science and technology. <a href="https://www.ardc.net/the-hornet-amateur-radio-clubs-harcs-upgrades-to-the-uss-hornet/"...

With the year winding down and only a week until the fat man flies, I’m gently settling into the holidays using nothing but a straight...

Back in the summer I bought a new Framework 16, the DIY high-performance 16” notebook. After I installed Ubuntu 24.10, it’s become my daily...

The FCC has adopted new rules to expand very-low-power device operations across all of the 6-GHz band alongside other unlicensed and Wi-Fi-enabled devices. FCC...

I was always a big fan of CQ Magazine. It was the first periodical I found when searching for more info on ham radio way...

In the aftermath of the Great Hack of 2024 the ARRL managed to get LoTW operational after a few months of recovery efforts. What wasn’t...

I installed the just released, R36 firmware on my Elecraft K4 transceiver this morning. This new production release is apparently welcome news for many...

A few interesting things to share, firehose style: Web Power Switch Pro from Digital Loggers. ⁍ Slick new K-POD accessory. ⁍ The 2025 DX Marathon...

While perusing the 2023 ARRL Annual Report I was struck by something President Rick Roderick, K5UR wrote: According to an ARRL study, three-quarters...

I enjoy the weekly BATC net that takes place every Thursday afternoon (my time). The net is conducted via QO-100 and is not...

We always visit a local tree farm on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to pick out a Christmas tree. Today was no different. It was a...

Sometime over the last week I exceeded 2,000 contacts logged this year. Spit in the ocean for much more active operators, but another milestone for...

Couldn’t stir up even the slightest ambition in the CQWW CW this weekend. Spent a few hours instead on FT-x. The bands were in...

Many subjects are verboten in the amateur radio world. So many in fact, it’s surprising we have anything to talk about at all. One particular...

We enjoyed our first snow of the season yesterday. 2-3 inches of the fluffy white stuff fell over the entire day. Some say there will...

About a month or so ago a strange thing began happening with my iPhone. When I looked at the photo album collection, occasionally there would...

The quest to work activators in a thousand unique parks continues, slowly. I’ve been casually hunting POTA parks for a few years when I...

Band conditions weren’t very favorable in the pre-dawn hours this morning though a few nuggets of gold were found. I struck out on 40 CW...

Longest-serving satellite OSCAR-7 marks 50 years in orbit Launched on November 15, 1974, OSCAR-7, a micro satellite, continues its mission 50 years after...

ARRL reports over a million contacts made during Field Day 2024… Results are published, and the numbers are in. They paint a picture of...

“We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we...

An ‘Old Friend’ arrived this week. That is the direct conversion transceiver kit from Midnight Design Solutions (designed by K1SWL). I ordered the same day...

Bram Moolenaar is best known for developing VIM, a powerful, screen-based text editor. Released in 1991, Vim was originally a port of the Stevie...

We attended an NHL hockey game in Columbus, Ohio last week. The crowd enjoyed the game, at least until the visiting team kicked it into...

Life continues it’s march to some conclusion here. We are past the leaf-peeping season in this area. Nothing but dark oranges and browns left to...

Amateur radio is imbued with hundreds and hundreds of organizations representing the many varied interests of its adherents. These seem to grow like weeds in...

Chatting with a friend yesterday when the subject of the SolderSmoke podcast came up. It seems there is some possibility of that long-running program...

My ham shack exists in what was touted to be a “sunroom” when the realtor showed the house to us. It’s a new addition to...

I took some time off from using the digital FT modes. 40 days and nights away from the keyboard. It was good to get time...

Walter Massie, a Remarkable Wireless Radio Pioneer It was a cold, windswept February night in early 1905. Only a small amount of warmth...

I worked W7T yesterday who was calling “CQ BF” on 20 meters which got me just curious enough to call him back - and then...

I’ve been a ham forever. I thought I’d lost interest in radio, but it turned out that I’d only lost interest in post-modern radio....

Enjoying a steaming cup of Earl Grey with a splash of milk along with a bowl of danish cherry tobacco in a Peterson free-hand pipe...

Happy Columbus Day - chilly in the Heartland this morning, 44F now headed up to 58F for a high today. Autumn has arrived. Plenty of...

Old Sol has been spewing some of its angry energy towards Earth again with the result being yet another Northern Light show here in parts...

We have been enjoying the nice autumn weather in these parts. 70 degree days, dry with very low humidity, endless sunshine, and 40 degree nights....

Tuning on 20 meters this morning looking for weather traffic related to the hurricane set to make landfall in Florida, I caught special event station...

I heard K5M calling CQ yesterday on 20 CW and returned the call. Turns out a small operation was taking place on Marsh Island thanks...

Our team (T2C in 2023 and P29RO in 2022 and other activities in the years before COVID) has decided to announce its next DXpedition. We...

Having convinced myself that QSL cards are indeed an important detail in our daily amateur radio lives, the question becomes how can this practice be...

Thanks to those who replied with comments about part one of this series about QSL cards. The consensus seems to be that broadcast stations initiated...

Just a few years after CW displaced King ‘spark’ as the radio amateur’s mode of choice, Mac Anderson began to build his first radio station....

It’s been raining all morning, nice and gentle, so far. Made sleeping-in an extra hour too easy. The parched lawn is soaking every bit of...

All of hamdom has by now seen the video (16:10) where one ARRL Director revealed a few additional details surrounding the cyber attack on...

A message popped up on the QRP-L mailing list yesterday from Dave Benson, K1SWL with news of a new offering from the former Small Wonder...

I remember not long after my Dad turned 80 he decided it was time for a new roof on his house and I recall him...

Based on the listed bios of most radio amateurs, chewing the rag is a favorite pastime. Or at least the desire for a good “rag-chew”...

Having the KX3 out and in operation for a few days this week was a bad idea. Using it always reminds me of how...

I caught a message about the Run for the Bacon event being last night. I’m not a member of the Flying Pigs but I...

We have a lovely Farmer’s Market here in Yorktown every Friday evening during the summer months. An easy walk from my house. I thought...

Here’s hoping you’re not superstitous on this Friday the 13th, the first of two Friday the 13ths (the other one is in December) in 2024....

I spent some time yesterday deleting every social media account I can recall ever having. That’s not really a big deal when you consider I...

From chapter one of CALLING CQ, written by Clinton B. DeSoto and published in 1941: Calling CQ! Calling CQ to any amateur radio station!”...

Imagine if you will… In the year 2030, Forest Adams was in a car accident that left him comatose for an entire decade. To...

Revisiting why hyperlinks are blue I found myself enjoying my morning coffee, reading through hate mail from my first article, as one does....

Nothin’ but blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song… The Beginnings of FM Radio Broadcasting In the early and mid-1930s, radio communication...

The search for life in the cosmos has been an ongoing human interest for the ages, but since the advent of radio, the way we...

The National Traffic System has been around for 75 years. From the current (September) NTS Letter, Bud Hippisley W2RU writes in the first of a...

I haven’t been chasing the CY9C operation this time around. I already had St. Paul Island in the log on 40 CW from a...

Was in the shack this morning enjoying the cool weather (49F) with all the windows cranked wide-open when suddenly a transformer on a power pole...

End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell Editor-in-chief Ryan Smith: It is with great sadness that I find myself penning the hardest news...

We’ve come to the end of another summer. I know it’s not officially over just yet, and I have no doubt that another wave of...

Happy September! I saw a rumor last night concerning the popular KM3KM product line. Nothing reported on their web site yet, but the rumor...

Even with the solar cycle humming along nicely it can feel like a long time between elusive ATNO’s, though sometimes serendipity lends a hand when...

I live on the outskirts of town in Central Indiana, out here surrounded by tall corn on every side this time of year. Happy in...

It was in September 1974 that George Dobbs G3RJV started the wheels turning to make the G-QRP Club a reality. Fifty years later,...

When I was a kid I had two ways of making a buck. I mowed yards and I delivered newspapers. In those days, the throbbing...

My wife and I celebrated our 46th anniversary this weekend. It sounds like a long time, and it is, but to us it seemed to...

I’m not certain what to think about the recent ARRL bulletin that provided more details about the cyber attack and subsequent million dollar ransom...

48F when I woke this morning. This foretaste of autumnal awesomeness is simply too good to be true for August in Central Indiana. It’s been...

N1EA relays news that Schurr Morse Keys is now Bergsiek Morse Keys. Stefan Bergsiek has taken over Schurr Morse keys from Gerhard...

An update a few days ago from the N5J team said that many callers were continuing to use an older version of WSJT-X that...

Band conditions have been so abysmal that I didn’t even turn the radio on yesterday. As it turns out, too much solar maximum isn’t necessarily...

Woke to 53F again this morning and it’s shaping up to be another beautiful day in the Heartland. Windows all open and it’s almost chilly...

Up before the sun and in the shack with the windows wide-open. It’s 54F here this morning with a high of 76F and sunny skies...

ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA titled his most recent (September 2024 QST) Second Century editorial, Dewey Defeats Truman! a throwback reference to the <a...

I got word that the Jarvis N5J operation got underway last night and first thing this morning saw that they were QRV on 17...

The last post was about the new SuperFox digital mode. Today I want to speculate (spout crazy notions) on where this could lead us...

WSJT-X 2.7.0-rc5 and later includes a new mode for DXpeditions that’s been called SuperFox and is intended to dramatically improve rates and performance. Instead of...

Just like that, and it’s time to tear another page from the calendar. Between taking time off from radio for a few weeks and dodging...

It’s probably been since the late 1970’s when I last owned a battery powered, pocket-sized transistor radio. Yesterday I ordered the brand new XHDATA D-220...

I spent the last month with the ham radio gear shut down and the feed lines disconnected. This, after hitting it a little too hard....

Some catching up seems in order. It’s been a busy month with too much work in the yard for this old retired guy. The heat...

It’s a good thing my plans for Field Day were more modest than usual else I might have been disappointed. It has become my habit...

Field Day is this weekend. I have operated the event from my backyard using battery power for many years, but this time around I’ll be...

While it’s yet a few days before the official first day of summer, the oppressive heat wave that will soon cover most of these United...

NORAD has learned to check hobbyist websites to identify balloons since the US military shot down three unidentified objects in 2023. After dubious shootdowns,...

With more than a month of continuous downtime the only thing funny about the situation is the...

I have been keeping an eye on the devolopment of Framework Laptops for months, so when I received an email yesterday declaring, “Framework Laptop...

In case you missed the news, the AMSAT mail alias service will be terminated on August 1st, 2024. The popular feature permitted mail directed to...

Wayne Green was a radio amateur and entrepreneur born in the halcyon days of hobby radio. A veteran of the Second World War, he saw...

I ordered a new tablet a few days ago, and it’s not an iPad. Surprised? Daylight Computer is a new manufacturer with hopes of...

Just a week ago I wrote about the rapidly changing future for amateur radio emergency services due to the growth of wireless internet access...

The 3G0YA Easter Island DXpedition has concluded. The operation was QRV from 18-Apr-2024 thru 06-May-2024 and ended with more than 140,000 contacts having been made....

I worked VK6AS this morning on 20 meters. This was the second time working Dr. Smith, the first being about eight months ago. He’s located...

I recently uploaded the Cornbread Road audio series to the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet...

Living in isolation on a lonely mountain while the rest of the planet went to hell Clinton thought he had it pretty good. Sure, he...

The visit to town went better than expected. At least from an execution standpoint. His route from the wilderness to “civilization”, such as it was,...

The late afternoon shadows were growing longer and the nights were a little cooler, clear evidence that autumn was just around the corner. Clinton wasn’t...

Some weeks later the radio traffic began to grow and it was now possible to work several different stations along the east coast each day....

Ninety days had passed since the world changed forever. Life for Clinton had fallen into a routine, though not a normal one. He spent time...

After stopping by his house to pack a few things, Clinton set out for the long hike up to Boone. It was late enough in...

Twenty-four hours after the event some information was beginning to be received. The event over Carolina had indeed been some sort of magnetic pulse as...

When Clinton walked onto the campus he hoped everything would be normal here and the power outage just an isolated event. But he noticed the...

This day began as most others. The alarm went off at 6:15am. Clint rolled out of bed and hit the shower. At 6:20am the coffee...

In the next several posts, I want to explore the feasibility for radio communication during an actual SHTF situation. I’m not talking about a tornado...

I’ve held off writing about the passing of Bob Heil until now. We weren’t close friends, I only met him in person once, at the...