Author Archive

Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 300

Amateur Radio Weekly

Meet the Raspberry Pi 5
Increased CPU performance and a significant GPU performance bump.
SparkFun Electronics

Air Force seeks to explore terahertz radio
One of the last frontiers in military RF communications.
Military Aerospace Electronics

Crushing spurs with better bandpass filters
The results were really good.
SolderSmoke Daily News

Junk box loading coil
This coil covers 40M through 17M.
WB3GCK QRP

From Amateur Radio operator to creator of the Smith Chart
Phillip Smith, an Amateur Radio operator working at Bell Labs, devised a chart that even today can help engineers understand the behavior of transmission lines.
All About Circuits

WSPR Watch version 4
A long overdue re-write of the app in the modern SwiftUI framework.
Marxy’s musing on technology

Dipoles–A domestic secret weapon
The dipole is the oldest antenna—Herr Professor Heinrich Hertz used a dipole in his 1888 experiments.
OnAllBands

Bit by The Black Widow: a 15 meter Moxon Antenna project
The Moxon is an 2 element Yagi style antenna that boasts of a low takeoff angle and high front/back signal to noise ratio.
KB8VBR

MMDVM-based projects to merge into one Open-Source project
Many of the long-term bugs in the software have been fixed.
ARDC

Video

How to read VOACAP charts
Understanding propagation charts.
Broken Signal

Radio texting the easy way
Simple web chat over APRS using DigiPi.
KM6LYW Radio

HF APRS & HF Winlink on ANDROID devices
A new Robust Packet TNC called the Teensy RBR TNC.
Off-Grid Ham Radio OH8STN

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 299

Amateur Radio Weekly

Real-time video from a high altitude balloon
Using an RF4463 to put out 1W of FSK on the 70cm band.
scd31.com

Practical Antennas
Homebrew antenna projects based on over 50 years of building and experimenting.
Practical Antennas

Six things I learned after becoming a CW operator
Things that no one told me about or I thought couldn’t possibly apply to me.
QRPer

Is a 20m antenna also resonant at 2.4GHz?
Can you get WiFi on that?
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Altoids tin spy radio goes solid state
The design is centered on a custom oscillator board.
Hackaday

Imaging TV satellites with a DIY radio telescope
The result forms a heatmap image of satellite transmissions in the sky.
RTL-SDR

Visiting the Inmarsat communications groundstation
Normally closed to the public, there was an open day for the 50 year anniversary.
PE4BAS

Lithium battery fire risks: Sorting it out
Is the danger real, or a big nothing burger?
Off Grid Ham

Video

The death of the 1/2 million watt transmitter
A view into a fading long wave station.
Ringway Manchester

Stealth Ham Radio antenna the HOA will never find
Chameleon CHA Porta Mast with CHA Hybrid Mini.
HOA Ham

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 298

Amateur Radio Weekly

K8EBR 20 meter vertical half-wave dipole
An outstanding antenna for DX.
K8EBR

HELLFEST: The contest from Hell
Feld-Hell contest haunting your radio October 13th.
HELLFEST

Organic Maps
Privacy-focused, offline maps app for iOS and Android.
Organic Maps

DLARC Amateur Radio Library tops 90,000 items
The newest additions to the free online library include ham radio magazines and newsletters from around the world.
DLARC

Playing Ham Radio in Minecraft
A look into the Radio Craft Mod for Minecraft.
Live Free and Ham

Sand Grenades
A DIY antenna launcher.
Ham Radio Outside the Box

New LoRA distance record: 830 miles
The conductive surface of the sea makes an excellent aid to propagation.
Hackaday

EZNEC antenna modeling
Goal: Determine how a 2-meter 8-element Quad stacks up against the alternatives.
K5ND

My first POTA activation
The temperature and weather was absolutely perfect.
K8VSY

Why building for 10 meters is harder than building for lower frequencies
Why would an amplifier that is well behaved on 20 meters behave so badly on 10 meters?
SolderSmoke Daily News

Building a SHARI AllStarLink Node
A second node for mobile operation.
DK1MI

Video

Parachute mobile
20 meter CQ session parachuting from a plane.
LifeAtTerminalVelocity

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 297

Amateur Radio Weekly

The return of RadioShack?
Under its new management, RadioShack is doing pretty well.
Sound and Vision

FreeDV project update
Integrations with FreeDATA capable of sending data down to around -8dB on poor quality HF channels.
Rowetel

Ham Imports
A comprehensive catalog of low-cost radios coming out of China.
Ham Imports

ESP32 APRS tracker
A small form factor, feature rich APRS tracker, digipeater, igate, and modem.
RPC Electronics

Decoding space weather data for HF communication
Publicly available ionospheric data to help you operate on HF.
N6CTA

Long wave radio fans mourn fading frequencies
The band is basically almost dead.
BBC

Titanic: Government filed motion to block salvage of the ship’s wireless telegraph
This important machine was used to transmit a distress call when the ship was sinking.
artnet

USB-C power for Ham Radio
Most HTs lack a modern USB-C port.
Hackaday

Video

RTL SDR V4 with built-in HF upconverter
Vast improvements made over the V3, especially for HF reception.
Tech Minds

1 Watt POTA activation
1 Watt QRP SSB Challenge to test the N9SAB 40-6m off-center-fed dipole.
N2MAK

End the Ham Radio FCC symbol rate limit
The push to move from Symbol Rate to Bandwidth Rate limits for data.
Ham Radio Crash Course

Umbrella Antennas
Building a radio telescope from an umbrella and copper cloth.
Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 296

Amateur Radio Weekly

Modifying magnetic mobile antenna mount to accept radials
Spots into Europe on 40m seem to suggest it works well.
AE5X

How to self-spot off-grid for SOTA/POTA using HF
The answer lies in a phone app called SOTAmat.
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Forensic analysis of the Arecibo collapse
Blame it on the sockets.
Hackaday

Repeater World
Open Source and Open Data repeater directory.
Repeater World

DX in a hurry: An ode to DXing and FT8
Tips on how to work a lot of DX in a hurry.
N6CTA

QO-100 on FlexRadio
Accessing QO-100 on a FlexrRadio 6700.
G7UFO

Fun with HamClock
Unused 32 inch TV earmarked for HamClock.
N1FD

Knife-edge effect in 2m and 70cm
You can be surrounded by mountains and still reach far with their help.
EA5IYL

Best QRP transceivers for operators who are blind/visually-impaired
The Elecraft KX3 is loved for the CW read outs and tactile buttons/knobs.
QRPer

Video

How to Slinky antenna
How to make a Slinky HF Antenna using Xiegu G90 and a Slinky to work France.
W6IWN

Ham Radio operations over smoke-filled Cascade Mountains
This flight takes us from Tacoma Narrows Airport (KTIW) to Twisp Airport (2S0) in the Methow Valley.
W7NY

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 295

Amateur Radio Weekly

RFBitBanger: Off-the-grid QRP radio
Designed to be assembled and maintained off-the-grid.
RFBitBanger

KiwiSDR 2 pre-release announcement
KiwiSDR 2 prototypes are now under construction.
KiwiSDR

As Canadian wildfires rage, Facebook’s news ban reveals importance of radio
AM and FM radio still play an essential role.
The Conversation

Can just 1 radial really be better than 8 or more?
A field expedient temporary antenna follows a different rulebook.
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Parachute mobile Ham sets QSO record
Ranae Six (KR5SIX) unites community with daring jump.
W0MET

FEMA and FCC plan nationwide emergency alert test
Test messages will be sent to all US TVs, radios and cell phones.
FEMA

2023 Huntsville Hamfest from the view of a vendor
I can tell already it is going to be a good show.
WK4DS

DCC papers now online
41st ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference.
TAPR

How ARES is Structured: Ham Radio 101
The ARRL governance structure divides the United States into 15 ARRL Divisions.
OnAllBands

Video

Homebrew transistors
Building a 1200°C tube furnace.
ProjectsInFlight

Resonant dipoles
A look at the finer details of dipole antennas.
FesZ Electronics

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 294

Amateur Radio Weekly

RTL-SDR V4 dongle initial release
The HF design consists of a SA612 double-balanced mixer circuit with front end filtering.
RTL-SDR

A 200ft wire antenna up zero feet
How does it perform?
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Hack the ARRL
Creatively overcoming the limitations of the ARRL.
KB6NU

APSPOT: APRS spotting tool
APSPOT is a new APRS system designed to provide a one-stop shop for self spotting activations via APRS.
APSPOT

A declaration of love to Amateur Radio
Since the spring of 2019, practically not a day has gone by that I have not engaged in some form of Amateur Radio.
DK1MI.radio

Python Telegram bot for QRZ.com lookups
The code is available on GitLab.
K8VSY

SolarPi experiment 2: Finally something that works
It finally works, but there are still some challenges I need to solve in the long term.
Bystroushaak

Activating a park on the side of the road
I had a great time doing it even with the traffic on the other side of the truck.
WK4DS

Dos and don’ts on Greencube IO-117
IO-117 is a medium earth orbit satellite meaning it is moving rather slow compared to low earth orbit satellites.
Notizbl0g

Video

Inside the EPMAK transceiver
A look at the EPMAK SDR HF transceiver.
UR6EA

Vertical half wave antenna – QRP portable
Working Australia from a beach in North Carolina 10 watts SSB QRP.
Coastal Waves and Wires

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  • Matt W1MST, Managing Editor