Proppy: HF propagation prediction
An interactive interface used to predict geographical coverage for a given site at a specified time and frequency.
Proppy

Attracting more women to Amateur Radio
Kimberly Olsen VK2KMI spent some time researching how to attract more women to amateur radio.
Southgate

3B7A Saint Brandon all-SDR DXpedition
This is the first major DXpedition that will be using only SDR transceivers in its setup. No old-school analogue radios.
sunsdr.eu

More than 30,000 new Ham licensees in 2017
Despite the optimistic influx of 32,196 newcomers last year, the net growth of 5,349 — about 0.72% over December 2016 — reflects some 27,000 expired or cancelled licenses in the FCC database over the past year.
ARRL

DIY Pi RF transmit filter hat with SMA connector
The Pi is a dirty old man when it comes to broadcasting and we need to clean up its act.
Naich’s crappy blog

Hackers can hijack emergency alert sirens with a Baofeng and laptop
Emergency alert systems manufactured by Acoustic Technology Inc. can be hijacked and made to play any audio thanks to a vulnerability dubbed SirenJack.
CSO

Backpacking with a pocket-sized HF radio
Far and away the most effective backcountry communications facilities are available to licensed radio amateurs.
N7RR

Review: AnyTone AT-D868UV dual-band DMR handheld
First impressions? Solid, in fact, very solid. This radio has some heft to it. You know you are holding it. It seems to be well made with a nice action on the rotary knobs.
Essex Ham

Video

Work the World with WSJT-X – Dr. Joe Taylor
Dr. Joe Taylor, K1JT, author of many of the weak signal digital modes and co-author of the very popular FT-8 mode presented: “Work the World with WSJT-X” at the 2018 MicroHAMS Digital Conference in Redmond, Washington.
YouTube

Airspy HF+ and Gqrx running on Raspberry Pi
In case you’ve been wondering if a Raspberry Pi is powerful enough to run a SDR app, here is a quick test.
YouTube

The Soviet villagers who blocked Western radio broadcasts
The village Radio Station #5, in what is now the republic of Georgia, had the sole purpose of jamming broadcasters such as the BBC and Voice of America.
BBC News

TV rabbit ears receive NOAA satellite images
N1SPY tests if an old TV antenna found in the garage is capable of receiving NOAA weather satellite images.
N1SPY

Hams pitch in to help as “Hat Trick” of major storms hit Northeast
WX1BOX volunteers were active for 17 hours straight, and afterward, some continued to monitor high tides and strong winds, which persisted into the weekend. The volunteers handled more than 1,000 reports of wind damage.
ARRL

Azimuthal map
Azimuthal map with DX spot reporting.
HA8TKS

Understanding AGM batteries
Often forgotten in the mix is absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries. They’re very adaptable for off grid use and have a lot of overlooked advantages.
Off Grid Ham

Building a filtered amplified Coketenna for ADS-B
Combine a proven, easy-to-do concept, the Coketanna, with the best performance RTL-SDR dongle for ADS-B and a filtered low-noise amplifier for great and affordable receive performance.
Radio for Everyone

Live trees affect antenna performance
Living wood absorbs EMF from vertically polarized antennas.
AmateurRadio.com

Which two-way radio service is right for you?
Choosing the right two-way radio can be confusing. You can’t just buy a couple of radios and start talking on them. Most two-way radio services require licensing of some sort, and radios designed to be used in those radio services must be certified by the FCC.
KB6NU

SpaceX launch punched huge, temporary hole in the ionosphere
Rocket launches act somewhat like a small volcano eruption.
Ars Technica

Shortwave supports secure digital communications
Taking advantage of its long-distance capabilities, the established technology has a new mission.
Radio World

China establishes single broadcaster, ‘Voice of China’
Voice of China, as the new outlet will be known internationally, will be formed by combining three mammoth state-run national networks.
CNN

Video

Women’s History Month
Women scientists that have made radio history.
ARRL

Mount Juliet Simplex Society
The Mount Juliet simplex net registers 20+ check-ins per net. Ham Nation interviews the founder of this ARRL affiliated club.
Ham Nation

2 meter vertical dipole build
This antenna offers an air choke to keep stray RF from wondering back into the shack, since I’m pushing 65 watts.
WI9LL

A simple field strength meter
A simple FS meter is the simplest thing to make and is good enough to see if the antenna under test is radiating more power than your old ground plane, old mobile vertical or just radiating at all in a particular direction or in all directions.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club

APRS beacon with Uputronics GPS Board and a Raspberry Pi 3
This is a detailed, step-by-step guide to using an Uputronics GPS board as the main component of a Pi based APRS position beacon.
K4HCK

FCC accuses stealthy startup of launching rogue satellites
The U.S. communications agency says tiny Internet of Things satellites from Swarm Technologies could endanger other spacecraft.
IEEE

The grand G3YUH Morse Key Project
How to build an excellent key for very little cost and with no special tools.
G3YUH

Power supply restoration
I wasn’t sure if the transformers or caps were shot, but I liked the look of it and figured it would make a cool enclosure for something else if I couldn’t get it working.
AWSH

Tennessee middle school students will send a CubeSat into space
NASA has informed Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that its “RamSat” 2U CubeSat proposal has been accepted for participation in NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative.
ARRL

DMR/FM VHF/UHF mobile installation
The VHF transceiver is a Hytera MD-652, and the UHF transceiver in a handheld PD782G using a Hytera car kit docking station combined with a 5W IN – 40W OUT DMR compatible UHF amplifier.
VA2SS

Video

Video captured inside the Woodpecker’s operations facility
The top secret military base hidden in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone.
YouTube

Overview of the LNR W4OP Loop
Overview and field trial of the LNR Precision W4OP loop antenna.
YouTube

The story of radio broadcasting
1944 Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc.
YouTube

The HF Voyager Project
Jupiter Research Foundation Amateur Radio Club has integrated an HF transceiver with an autonomous ocean-going drone. Our mission is to deploy a ham radio station that roams the world’s oceans while providing an opportunity for amateur radio operators everywhere to make contacts with rare locations.
JRFARC

ARRL repurposes AM broadcast transmitter for Ham Radio use
Thanks to a joint effort by ARRL and the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut (VRCMCT), a classic Gates BC-1T AM broadcast transmitter will enjoy a second life on the Amateur Radio bands for occasional use under W1AW.
ARRL

Alexa Skill: Band conditions
This skill uses the information from http://www.bandconditions.com/ and can help Amateur Radio operators quickly get information about current band conditions on a scale from “dead” to “great.”
AC4PA

How to make a MMDVM Digital Repeater
After following this article you will be able to put together a multimode amateur digital repeater that can be connected to the internet for world wide digital communication.
San Antonio Digital Radio Club

The Army’s costly quest for the perfect radio continues
The decisions that the Department of Defense made about its “radios of the future” more than 20 years ago are still having an impact on the communications gear the military services purchase today.
Ars Technica

Will the FCC sink pirate radio in Colorado?
Word spread quickly about the mysterious unmarked black SUV parked at a highway exit just outside the town of Ward, CO.
Westword

Valerie, NV9L, is Amateur of the Year
Hotzfeld is a co-host of the netcast Ham Nation and has created several how-to videos on YouTube for the ham radio community.
ARRL

The QCX 5W CW Transceiver from QRP Labs
The board is top quality, and comes with the two SMT devices already soldered on. They are the Si5351, which is the heart of the synthesized VFO, and the FST3253, which is used for the quadrature sampling detector. Inside the red packing is the LCD module.
AA7EE

Solar power in a can
Already designed to resist the elements, [bennelson] is using a 50cal. ammo can for a portable enclosure. Inside, he’s siliconed a 15AH, 12V lead-acid battery in the centre to maintain balance and to leave room for the wiring and storage.
Hack A Day

Veteran long distance walker to use 2m on his latest 900 mile walk
Fifty-nine year old Paul Truswell, M3WHO, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, will shortly be starting a 900-mile walk south to north across Great Britain.
Southgate

Video

Ham radio helps WA9SZL find his voice
Johnnie Mayfield began using ham radio when he was young, and the hobby has helped in real emergencies, including the time he spent days relaying information during a blizzard.
WRAL

ARRL requests expanded HF privileges for Technician licensees
ARRL has asked the FCC to expand HF privileges for Technician licensees to include limited phone privileges on 75, 40, and 15 meters, plus RTTY and digital mode privileges on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters.
ARRL

A KX2 to FT-818 comparison
In terms of form factor, the 818 is essentially unchanged from the 817. So it’s worth asking again: just how “ultra portable” can an HF radio be?
W2LJ QRP

N8RMA’s 2018 State of Hobby
I’m hosting my own survey, to collect the opinions from the community on topics that I care about. 2017 Results.
N8RMA

UCF to manage Arecibo Observatory
A consortium led by the University of Central Florida will start formal transition activities to take on the management of the National Science Foundation’s Observatory.
University of Central Florida

Keep the faith, having fun with no sunspots
Keep the Faith. Go call CQ. I was glad I did.
AmateurRadio.com

Instant GNU Radio
A customizable, programmatically generated VM and live environment for GNU Radio.
bastibl.net

Finding noise with an antenna
The main culprit in K5ACL’s house is the ceiling light that’s right there in the shack.
Hack A Day

Morse code shoes send toe tapping texts
A pair of smart shoes has been created to let industrial workers keep in touch via toe-typed coded messages.
BBC

Video

Point to point networking line of sight in Google Earth
How to make straight lines to see if there’s a line of sight between our point to point 5Ghz nodes. The google earth 3D buildings and terrain are insanely accurate and useful for line of sight analysis.
N0SSC

Soldering 101
See all sorts of soldering devices and learn how it’s done with lots of tips and techniques.
KE0OG

Rescue on Uncompahgre Peak
A teenage boy came up to me and said he had been sent to “find the guy with the radio” because a girl had been hit by a rock down below and was hurt.
K0NR

FCC: Bitcoin miner interfered with T-Mobile network
Bitcoin miner generated spurious emissions in 700MHz, disrupting T-Mobile LTE.
Ars Technica

Low cost carry bag for Elecraft KX3
This week I found a Manfrotto shoulder camera bag for $20 that fits it very well.
Marxy’s musing on technology

VARA HF Modem
VARA Modem brings state of the art Military grade technology to new and existing HF data.
EA5HVK

Diversity in the shack
The Raspberry Pi has opened up the opportunity to provide low cost services. I have one as an APRS igate, one that runs my SatNOGS ground station and that was it until last week when I put an unused older Pi2 to good use as an ADSB receiver using a system called PiAware.
G7KSE

DIY LiFePO4 battery pack for the Yaesu FT-891
This first pack (128wh) is a lightweight rapid deployment pack.
OH8STN

High school students go ‘Ham’ with Amateur Radio competition
In the school’s first year competing, 90 students signed up to participate.
Reporter Herald

J antenna variations
Here we see five variations on the basic J antenna (aka J-pole).
hamradio.me

Video

Charging and discharging a LiFePO4 battery at the same time
I demonstrate what happens when you try to simultaneously charge and discharge a LiFePO4 battery as you would when using a power module in the field.
KF7IJZ

Yaesu FT-817 replacement details leaked
Finally, the replacement for the very successful Yaesu FT-817nd is about to see the light of day.
QRPblog

APRS over HF
HFAPRS with APRS Messenger & DroidPSK.
OH8STN

Send APRS to email via Xastir on RF
You may only send one line messages of 64 total characters maximum for the message.
S55MA Ham Blog

KM4LAO brings Ham Radio hobby, expertise to campus
Willet, who is double majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics, first got licensed in June 2015 as a ham radio operator because of her interest in Morse code.
Kettering University

Build a Milk Crate AM Broadcast Loop Antenna
It’s small enough to maneuver around easily, but big enough to give it some gain, so I can listen to daytime DX.
Shortwave / Medium Wave

Inside the desperate fight to keep old TVs alive
Behind a nondescript Manhattan storefront, Chi-Tien Lui is stockpiling objects many people wouldn’t think twice about trashing: cathode ray tube televisions.
The Verge

1940s transmitter finds new home
The massive transmitter is being moved from the former RCI site to the former Dorchester jail.
CBC

Video

Video over HF
FreeDV plus Video adds a new dimension: A QSO where you’re able to listen to and see the other operator.
WA6NUT

Quartzfest 2018 part 1
Jeri Ellsworth, AI6TK, and Amy Herndon, AI6ZU, at Quartzfest.
K7AGE

A visit to Orlando Hamcation 2018
Hamcation video highlights.
Retro Tech & Electronics