Significant changes in store for FT8 and MSK144
Enhanced versions of the MSK144 and FT8 protocols will extend the message payload to 77 bits.
ARRL

ISS SSTV activation July 30-31
The Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station are expected to activate amateur radio Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions.
AMSAT UK

Why wire diameter is important
The larger the cross-sectional area of the conductor, the more electrons are available to carry the current.
VE7SAR

3D printed Arrow II portable satellite antenna clips
WI9LL has designed clips for use with the Arrow II Portable hand held satellite antenna.
WI9LL

Operating tips for VHF SOTA
I’ve been using VHF and higher frequencies for SOTA exclusively and have activated over 100 summits in Colorado and other states.
K0NR

FCC proposes $18,000 fine for Ham in interference case
“Given his history as a repeat offender, these apparent violations warrant a significant penalty.”
ARRL

A visit to the home of FreeDV and codec2
I knew I was in the right place when the squid pole supporting a corner dipole came in to view.
Marxy

WWFD in AM HD
America’s only AM HD station.
The SWLing Post

Is your repeater ID boring? Try something like this.
If your repeater ID is getting a little stale, perhaps this will give you some ideas on how to freshen it up a bit.
KB6NU

Receiving astronaut Amateur Radio conversations with an RTL-SDR
If you live in an area that can ‘see’ the ISS at the same time as the school then you can easily pick up the downlink.
RTL-SDR.com

Send APRS data/telemetry via Xastir command line
You can do it all via RF if your Xastir setup is already paired to the radio and configured to transmit.
S55MA

Ham radio technology used in Thailand cave rescue
UK radio amateur John Hey G3TDZ (SK) designed the special low frequency radio equipment, the Heyphone, used in the recent cave rescue in Thailand.
Southgate

SDR: Direction finding techniques
Public KiwiSDRs distributed around the world can be used to pinpoint the physical locations of any 0 – 30 MHz transmitter using the TDoA technique.
RTL-SDR

New: No Nonsense Amateur Radio Podcast
The No Nonsense Amateur Radio Podcast is a discussion of where we are in amateur radio and where we’re going. It is a production of Dan, KB6NU, and Tom, KB5RF.
No Nonsense Podcast

A short guide on baluns
Unless precautions are taken to minimize it, all coax fed antennas will have significant current flowing on the outside of the coax shield while transmitting.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club

ARRL contest award certificates now available for download
This new online certificate feature will offer enhanced content over what has been offered previously on ARRL certificates.
ARRL

88 MHz Trans-Atlantic signals heard in Ireland
Northern Ireland managed to hear a Canadian radio station across the Atlantic at 88 MHz.
EI7GL

W6/NC-353, Burdell Mountain – 2018
I did this summit late last year as my first morse code activation. Last time it was a combo POTA/SOTA activation. This time would be only SOTA. And it was a heck of a lot warmer too!
KE6MT

Shortwave radio listening continues its steep decline
Shortwave audiences are virtually disappearing in Pakistan, and down substantially in Nigeria.
BBC

3D printed 10KV tuning capacitor
I will show you how to build a super-cheap tuning capacitor that will tolerate up to 10,000 Volts of RF and allow you to use up to about 100 Watts of RF into my 14MHz (20m) antenna.
The SWLing Post

Directive Systems 2 Meter Rover Yagi
With an 8 foot boom, it’s just the right size to fit on the roof of my SUV for transport and works great on the fiberglass push-up mast.
K5ND

Video

Make your own LED battery level indicator
In this video I will show you how we can use the classic LM3914 IC to create an LED Battery Level Indicator.
YouTube

K4R Dry Tortugas EL84 roving trip on schedule
Robert KE4AL, Rich N4ESS, and Matthew, NJ4Y will be arriving on Garden Key, EL84np in the Dry Tortugas mid-day on Friday July 6, staying all day Saturday, and then leaving Sunday morning July 8.
Southgate

Postmortem decoding of SSTV/APRS
SSTV decoding went quite fine using the Android app Robot36.
Notizbl0g.

Exposing hospital pager privacy breaches
It has been a known open secret that for years many hospitals have been transmitting sensitive patient data over the air completely unencrypted via their pager network.
RTL-SDR.com

The legacy of Iraq’s amateur operators lives on
People from all over the world reached out to Baghdad’s team of “hams” in hope that they could lend a helping hand.
The National

Radio Amateur to pay $7,000 to settle FCC interference case
Ham intentionally interfered with the communications of other Amateur Radio operators and failed to properly identify.
ARRL

Home Beaches On The Air
Beaches On The Air (BOTA) is an award scheme for radio amateurs and shortwave listeners that encourages portable operation from beaches.
BOTA

No more bullying
This form records reports of bullying within Amateur Radio in Australia.
VK6

Pentagon Amateur Radio Club
The Pentagon Amateur Radio Club (PARC) is open to all active duty military, government civilians, or contractors assigned to the Pentagon.
K4AF

15 kilometre LoRa SSH link with RNode
I decided I’d try to see if I could create a useable SSH link over a distance of 15 kilometres, with just two RNodes, and no intermediaries.
unsigned.io

Video

How to hack your 433 MHz Devices
Hacking an outdoor awning to auto retract based on windspeed gathered from a home weather station.
YouTube

Receive SSTV from Space June 29-July 1
These images will commemorate the various satellites that were hand-deployed from the ISS.
AMSAT UK

Attendance holds steady at Hamvention 2018
At 28,417 visitors, Hamvention recorded its third-largest attendance ever in its second year at its still-new location in Xenia, Ohio.
ARRL

“Baker is Brutal!” KH1/KH7Z DXpedition team reports
“They say it never rains on Baker,” the DXpedition noted in its June 28 update. “At midnight giant squalls came through knocking out one of our three antennas that we worked so hard to get up.
ARRL

That wasn’t good – that was great
180 degree opposites! As much as I feared that I wasn’t into Field Day this year, that’s how much it turned out to be a truly great experience.
W2JL

Field Day 2018 – Every day is field day
One of the primary goals of my station configuration, whether at home or in the field, is keeping the station as small and uncomplicated as possible.
OH8STN

The N4Y 2018 ARRL Field Day Report
Field Day this year was a two operator, one transmitter operation on emergency power.
N4KGL

The Apollo Survival Radio
The transceiver and its cylindrical battery pack were water-tight. It could operate in beacon mode for up to 24 hours.
The SWLing Post

Activating Southern Britain’s Highest Mountain on Top Band
I was pretty confident that I’d have enough space for an 80m dipole, as long as I setup well away from the main summit.
Adventures in Ham Radio

13 Colonies special event begins July 1
Celebrating 10 years honoring the original 13 colonies.
13colonies.net

Cuban special event
Activity is to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the Naval Battle during the Spanish, Cuban, American War.
Southgate

Video

Building a giant 2m corner reflector antenna
For GOES-16, pulsars and more.
YouTube

Basics of RF Bias Tees including applications and examples
Bias Tees are RF components that are used whenever you need to couple a DC, power or low-speed control signal onto an RF signal path.
W2AEW

Field Day site locator: Find a Field Day event near you
This page shows public Field Day sites that members of the public and media can visit.
ARRL

Increased solar activity for Field Day
We have not seen numbers such as this since last September. This is good news just before ARRL Field Day, assuming the activity does not produce any geomagnetic disturbance.
ARRL

Field Day 2018: Give Them A Reason To Care
When you go to Field Day 2018, bring someone with you and convince them that amateur radio matters.
Off Grid Ham

Field Day Bulletin Schedule
Those participating in Field Day can earn 100 bonus points for copying the special Field Day bulletin transmitted by W1AW or by K6KPH.
ARRL

Shortwave station WTWW featuring live call-ins during Field Day
9930 and 5085 KHz. Call in toll free: 833-390-5085
QRZ

Broadcaster to Transmit Field Day Greetings in MFSK64
A 100 kW HF broadcast transmitter in Nauen, Germany, will send Field Day greetings to North American radio amateurs in MFSK64.
ARRL

Field Day Site Survey for a Horizontal Loop Antenna
We are seriously considering a 260-foot loop that is one wavelength at 80 meters. It can be a square or triangle.
N4KGL

Explaining the current capacitor shortage
In short, we are in the middle of a global capacitor shortage the likes of which the electronics manufacturing industry has not experienced since 2008.
WAi

Building an RF Direction Finding Robot with an RTL-SDR
The goal is to set up an ISM band transmitter as a beacon, and use the RTL-SDR on the robot as the receiver.
RTL-SDR.com

1970s Citizens Band Radio culture
“It was before mobile phones, before the internet. It was the initial form of mass communication, a way you could chat to your friends for free,” says David Titlow as we talk about CB Radio, the now-obscure 1970s and 80s technology.
British Journal of Photography

Video

Why We Love Field Day
An 8 part video series highlighting the best aspects of Field Day.
DX Engineering

Going ham for Ham Radio
Lawmakers are making a multi-pronged push to drive the bipartisan Amateur Radio Parity Act through Congress and finally bypass objections from top Senate Commerce Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, whose allegiance to his state’s homeowners’ associations drove his panel to yank the bill from consideration last fall. Editor’s note: Scroll toward the middle of this article for mention of the Parity Act.
Politico

Operating Rover in the ARRL June 2018 VHF Contest
First June VHF contest as a rover. Route worked well. Good QSOs from contest stations. Heat burned me out. WSJT burned me up.
K5ND

Could a P5 DXpedition happen?
Based on what I saw on the news coverage of yesterdays Summit, I would have to say that “anything is possible” and it seems that the possibility is more likely today than it was yesterday.
N6PSE

Iran radars on ham radio 28 MHz band
Iranian radars have been very active in the Amateur Radio primary 28 MHz (10m) band every day.
Southgate

RAC 25th Anniversary Challenge Coin Program
Radio Amateurs of Canada launched the special RAC 25th Anniversary Challenge Coin program.
RAC

Tropospheric DX on 2m SSB (with video)
I’ve never really experienced a proper tropospheric opening on 2m before. It’s a propagation mode I’ve been fascinated in, but I’ve just never been on the air at the right time.
Adventures in Ham Radio

Bench Testing HF Radios with a HackRF
This post describes how we implemented an HF channel simulator to bench test a digital HF radio using modern SDRs.
Rowetel

Series & parallel wiring your solar array
So you’ve had your fun with small single solar panels and are ready for a larger multi-panel system that can handle beefier loads.
Off Grid Ham

Raspberry Pi as an SDR – without the SDR
This has been made possible through clever use of the on-board Broadcom 802.11ac WiFi chip. The result is a TX-capable SDR.
Hack A Day

Video

2 Days Off Grid – PowerFilm Solar Ham Radio & Raspberry Pi
During March 2018 I took a short trip to 66 degrees North to field test the solar powered ham radio field station.
OH8STN

ARRL on The Weather Channel
Meteorologist Stephanie Abrams interviewed ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey on how to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season.
Facebook / ARRL

FT8 Adoption: The New Cool Thing
Making QSOs is king.
K0NR

Trouble Free HF Antenna For The Apartment Dwelling Ham
One enterprising local amateur has combined early established antenna fundamentals along with sound engineering to arrive at an elegant and highly successful solution.
VE7SL

FCC proposes $2.8 million fine against manufacturer
The FCC proposed a $2.8 million penalty against HobbyKing, a provider of audio/video transmitters that are intended to relay video to unmanned aircraft systems and other devices.
Southgate

Tom’s Backpack Shack
The goal is to make a field-deployable DX kit that isn’t cumbersome or time-consuming to set up on site.
The SWLing Post

Raspberry Pi Vintage Radio
Converted 2 vintage radios by replacing the analog electronics with a Raspberry Pi and python software to emulate the tuning of vintage radio content from the golden age of radio.
Maker Share

Student grilled for carrying VHF radio
A 19-year-old ham was detained at Nagole Metro Station and questioned for almost one hour.
Telangana Today

Classifying crystals with an SDR dongle
That’s generally a job for an oscilloscope, but if you’re clever, an SDR dongle can make a dandy crystal checker too.
Hack A Day

How to tell if you have a fake Nagoya antenna
A number of ways to tell if your NA-771 is a fake.
KB6NU

When antenna tilt matters
Ever wonder how sensitive our mobile antennas are to antenna tilt? Data from a previous test of antennas on my small SUV show a pattern tilt correlating to an approximate 5 degree antenna tilt towards the centerline.
Ham Radio . Magnum Experimentum

Video

Altair 8800 as AM SDR transmitter
Sending radio wave interference to a nearby AM radio.
YouTube

Getting ready for the VHF/SOTA Contest
The ARRL VHF contest is this weekend, so I am heading out to the George Washington National Forest to activate some 10 point SOTA summits and finish it up with the VHF contest. All these sites qualify for the Parks on the Air as well.
KB1HQS