HAARP transmits Bitcoin, SSTV
The assistant professor at the UAF’s Geophysical Institute transmitted two UAF logos, a photo of his cat, and a QR code granting the recipient 0.001 Bitcoin.
ARRL

RadioShack offers Maker Space
This open area of the store will be home to the many classes the store now offers, such as soldering classes, drone classes and monthly training sessions on how to set up and use a cell phone.
Citizen Tribune

APRStweet: Tweeting APRS packet information
APRStweet is a light weight script that posts your location and a link to APRS.fi so that people can see your track and location on the map.
KC8QCH

APRS telemetry dashboard
Data is beautiful. With the FaradayRF Telemetry service you can track your High Altitude Balloon Telemetry in real-time.
FaradayRF

The speed of light is not fast enough
As illustrated by the Voyager spacecraft, the success of any radio system lies with the antennas.
Microwaves&RF

Homemade digimode interface
I decided to make another modem, a very simple one that uses the VOX in the FT817 for TX switching.
PE4BAS

Man fined $15,000 for running illegal FM station
Dudley was confronted twice last year for sending music through the airwaves on 103.9 FM.
WAFF

Setting the record straight on FM radio in iPhones
Apple purposefully does not connect the antenna.
National Association of Broadcasters

Squeeze Keying – Iambic mode operation
Electronic keyers provide Iambic modes to allow for fewer strokes while keying, thus improving keying efficiency.
Ham Radio QRP

WSJT-X and linear satellites
Here we examine the effect of TLE age on the accuracy of the Doppler computation.
destevez.net

UT Amateur Radio Club looks to future
The UT Amateur Radio Club started in 1947 in response to a rise in public interest in satellite and radio following the end of World War II.
The Daily Beacon

Video

How to bend PVC the right way
I had to bend some pvc for an upcoming project and I had some trouble just using a heat gun, so I had to come up with another solution.
YouTube

MSK144 QSO with KJ6KO on 6 Meters
This was a completely random QSO with KJ6KO on the night of the 2017 Orionid Meteor Shower.
N1SC

New bands spring to life, some denied access
A few operators reported making contacts on 630 meters the first night, although noise levels were high, and a geomagnetic storm was in progress.
ARRL

Scouts’ Jamboree on the Air this weekend
Operating frequencies on HF, DMR, D-STAR, APRS, more…
Scouting.org

Meet the geek who tracks rogue satellites with coat hangers
He liked to catch the military’s secret space shuttle, which sounded like a video game monster in agony.
Wired

Bicycle race communications with N7RXE
200 miles, three states, multiple public safety jurisdictions, 4 net controls, 8 repeaters including mobile repeaters, APRS iGates, portable Digipeaters, 135 operators, and 40 vehicles beaconing APRS.
HamRadio360

Elecraft AX1 Antenna
The AX1 is a dual-band (20 and 17 meter) compact antenna system based on an optimized 2-piece whip.
VA2SS

Kansas City firefighter uses Ham Radio skills to help Puerto Rico
“We put this PVC, tape measure antenna up,” Dougherty explained. “Next thing you know, we were talking to somebody 100 miles away, passing traffic back to San Juan for people who needed to contact San Juan.”
WDAF

ADS-B Shootout: FlightAware vs rtl-sdr.com Antenna Kit vs Jetvision
Three antennas on windowsill, one week.
Radio for Everyone

Upcoming LF tests from WH2NXD / NI7J
One of Ron’s several experimental licences allows him to run as much as 10W ERP from 68-76 KHz.
AmateurRadio.com

Homemade data cable for Yaesu FT-2D
This piece of wire can be used as outlined in the manuals. I was able to read and write my FT-2D as expected.
Notizbl0g.

Video

NIMO Tube: Rarest and most dangerous digital display of all time
Rarer than a moon rock…. Deadlier than plutonium… It’s The NIMO digital display tube!
FranLab

How high should a dipole be?
A look at antenna modeling.
KE0OG

Portable Ham Radio tips & tricks
Tips & tricks on taking the radio out of the shack.
K5ACL

NYC school’s radio club relays messages to and from Puerto Rico
The amateur radio club at the Garden School in Queens started just last year.
The Week

$400,000 FCC fine for interference
A Queens, New York man has admitted to making unauthorized transmissions on NYPD radio frequencies.
ARRL

Volunteers needed for RAC Canada 150 Award
Volunteers are needed to activate the 14 RAC stations for the RAC Canada 150 Award.
Southgate

Homemade 6 GHz FMCW radar
Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar works by transmitting a chirp which frequency changes linearly with time. This chirp is then radiated with the antenna, reflected from the target and is received by the receiving antenna.
Henrik’s Blog

Sputnik transmitter replica
PA3CNO continues to report about building a replica of the original Sputnik 1 transmitter.
radio.cc

Icom IC-R8600 wideband reciever
The IC-R8600 is a super wideband communication receiver that covers the radio spectrum from 10 kHz to 3 GHz.
Icom

Accidental satellite hijacks can rebroadcast cell towers
Engineers show how they identified their interference as GSM by its timing frames, and then how they narrowed down its source to Nigeria.
Hack A Day

Video

The future of amateur radio: Views from YOTA 2017
Five young radio amateurs from different countries explain what they think the future of amateur radio should look like.
RSGB

USB Morse Keyboard
I turned a 1950s Morse key into a USB keyboard.
YouTube

Hams in Puerto Rico install repeater, work with hospitals, reunification
The installation of a VHF Amateur Radio repeater on a mountain peak in El Yunque National Forest now gives radio coverage to approximately 60% of Puerto Rico.
ARRL

FCC grants temporary waiver to permit higher baud rates
The temporary waiver is limited to Amateur Radio operators in Puerto Rico using PACTOR 3 and PACTOR 4 emissions.
ARRL

New ham radio equipment for ISS
We will remove the 3 watt Ericsson handheld radio system, initially certified for flight in 1999, and the Packet module–both of which have recently had issues—and install a brand-new, specially modified 25 watt JVC Kenwood D710GA radio.
AMSAT UK

Autumn antenna adventures with Arduino
These guys from Italy took Atmel’s AVR chips and put them on a board with an easy to use USB interface and an integrated development environment, which uses a dialect of C. Weehee, could it get any better?
AmateurRadio.com

Discord for young Hams
Discord is a free voice and text chatting app well suited for gamers.
N0SSC

World’s largest telescope stopped by LED
Earlier this year a simple indicator LED brought the Keck 1 telescope, a 370 tons mass, to a halting stop. How exactly did an LED do this? Simple: it did nothing.
Hack A Day

Chicago Cubs special event
Members of the Metro DX Club will operate special event station W9C between October 2-8th, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Chicago Cubs winning the 2016 World Series.
Southgate

FCC chief tells Apple to turn on iPhone’s FM radio chip
Following the devastation from recent hurricanes, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says Apple should “step up to the plate” and put Americans’ safety first.
CNET

Video

The lost art of tuning a radio
The BBC’s David Sillito asks young people to tune a radio.
BBC

Hams are saving Puerto Rico one transmission at a time
Ham operators work shoulder to shoulder with public safety and utility officials to transmit information to other ham operators working with teams in the field.
CNN

Getting started on the new LF and MF bands
If you are thinking of getting on either of these new bands, particularly 630m, here is a short Q & A that may help you through the initial planning stage of how to get started.
VE7SL

Revised ARRL Frequency Chart available
The PDF chart has been updated to include our new bands at 2,200 and 630 meters.
ARRL

FalconSAT-3 now open for amateur radio use
The Air Force Academy satellite FalconSAT-3 is now open for amateur radio use as a digital store-and-forward system.
AMSAT UK

North Korea ‘aggressively’ jamming BBC’s radio service
Loud noise is deliberately broadcast over a foreign station to make it difficult or impossible to listen to.
The Telegraph

BITX40 QRP Transceiver overview
I made a few changes. I had a couple of 6mm shaft knobs that I wanted to use that did not fit the potentiometers that were supplied. I also wanted to implement a couple of the simplest and most useful mods.
High on Solder

Retrotechtacular: An oceanographic data station buoy for the 1960s
The film details the development through the early 1960s of one of the first automated remote ocean sensor buoys.
Hack A Day

View from above (antenna sunset photos)
As every amateur shutterbug has learned, it’s nigh on impossible to capture the true beauty of the setting sun. That is, unless of course you’re a ham radio antenna perched at the summit of a lofty tower, high in the heavens.
Delta Alfa

Video

N1MM Logger Spectrum Monitor Display
Logger Spectrum Monitor will not work unless the Icom 7300 Spectrum Scope is running. Change the Icom 7300 to CENTER and watch what you can do with the N1MM Logger Spectrum Monitor.
K0PIR

The SharkRF OpenSPOT review
This is the long version video of the QST review video (October 2017 edition).
YouTube

EURAO Party: DMR meeting on the air
Connect to EURAO Talk Group 9201 to have fun and meet other hams, or just do SWLing.
eurao.org

D-STAR QSO Party 2017
Talk to the world by connecting to D-STAR repeaters around the globe.
Icom

In devastated Dominica, ‘Hams’ become vital communications link
Hams set up a Facebook page from their home in Craftsbury, Vt., to act as a clearinghouse for whatever information they could glean through the airwaves via ham operators on Dominica.
NPR

EMCOMM real talk: Lessons from Irma
The recent storms seemed to reignite the ever-smoldering embers of Ham Radio’s place in EMCOMM. No surprise to see the many hams out in force debating the relevance of Amateur Radio in an emergency.
Ham Radio 360

Look no further than the waterfall
It’s not much of a stretch to proclaim that there’s considerably more activity on the HF digital modes than can be found on CW.
KE9V

The joy of the QSO
Many of us spend a lot of time in the hobby, so where is the meaning, where is the value added to our lives?
amateurradio.com

How Grey Line propagation works
One of the most fascinating propagational irregularities is the effect of the grey line on HF radio comms.
Delta Alfa

portableradio.org
Promoting more “Field Day” style events.
portableradio.org

Video

Very simple portable dipole
Here’s my ultra-portable 40m wire dipole that is held up by a 6m squid pole anchored to an aluminium ground stake.
Peter Marks

Passing ARRL Field Day messages the easy way with packet radio
The usual CW and phone traffic nets get clogged easily during this crush, but with packet radio you can egress the messages via radio accurately and quickly.
vapn.org

DIY portable LiFePO4 power for Ham Radio QRP QRO
For the ham radio operator in the field, portable battery power needs to be light enough, small enough, modular, have enough capacity, and above all it should be possible to replenish it off-grid.
OH8STN

Simple SWR indicator for QRP
Simple homebrew SWR indicator for QRP, just a ferrite, a wire and a LED.
AC2RJ

I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy.
After two minutes of training, I was talking to people desperate for help.
Houston Chronicle

How often are you on the air?
Heatmap shows the activity as reported by the Reverse Beacon Network (CW/digital modes) over the last 12 months.
DJ1YFK

FCC opens 630 and 2200 meter bands
Before using either band, stations must notify the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) that they plan to do so.
ARRL

Cyber threats prompt return of radio for ship navigation
The risk of cyber attacks targeting ships’ satellite navigation is pushing nations to delve back through history and develop back-up systems with roots in World War Two radio technology.
Reuters

Homebrew J-Pole Antenna for GPS
The antenna is soldered directly to two terminals of an SMA connector. This is a through-hole PCB connector, which has 5 terminals (5 for ground and 1 for the center conductor).
Eclectic Technical Experiences

Options when cell service dies in a disaster
Zello, Ham Radio, Iridum, more…
N4AE

When will Voyager stop calling home?
The twin spacecraft still send data back to the planet they left 40 years ago.
The Atlantic

LOTW rant
I found a 14-step process, written in that cryptic LOTW instructional style the ARRL is so fond of.
KK4DSD

Wi-Fi soundscape
The implementation sends MIDI notes to Garageband, where it can play various synths.
Carriers Everywhere

Video

Icom IC-7300 easy transmit settings for digital operation
This is for Hams new to digital operation or the Icom IC-7300.
K0PIR