2015 SKYWARN Recognition Day
SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.
NOAA

Ten-Tec sold to mystery owner
I had a discussion with the new owner last night, and I wanted to relay some information.
amateurradio.com

Santa Claus Arctic Circle Team active during December
OH9SCL has been on the air each holiday season for the past 30 years.
ARRL

See the invisible wireless signals around you
The app offers an augmented-reality experience: spin your iPhone or iPad around you, and your device will act like a window into a previously invisible world.
The Verge

Operating from downtown San Francisco: A compromise
Living on the eighth floor of an apartment building in downtown San Francisco isn’t an ideal environment for an amateur radio station.
Fine.Business

Now online: A new WebSDR in Iran
Ham Radio club EP2C has just put a WebSDR online in Iran–perhaps the first in this part of the world.
The SWLing Post

Rock ‘N Radio — QRP style
Operating QRP can mean operating from a “Quiet Restful Place.”
N4PBQ

Video

ISO-TIP 7700 Cordless Solder Iron review
This is my video review of the ISO-TIP #7700 rechargeable battery soldering iron.
ToddFun.com

Sneak peak: VK9WA Willis Island DXpedition 2015
A short video of beautiful Middle Cay, Willis Islets, Coral Sea, Australia – the home of the VK9WA amateur radio DXpedition.
YouTube

and finally…

Antenna cannon
The easy (dangerous) way to string an antenna through a tree.
YouTube

Raspberry Pi Zero: $5 computer
Of all the things we do at Raspberry Pi, driving down the cost of computer hardware remains one of the most important.
Raspberry Pi

3916 Santa Net 2015
Every year on 3916, we give good little boys and girls a chance to talk to Santa Claus at the North Pole!
The 3916 Nets

Kids are not the future of Ham Radio
You’ve heard it a million times: our kids are the future. But I am starting to think it is incorrect.
K0NR

rtl_433: 433.92MHz generic data receiver
rtl_433 turns your Realtek RTL2832 based DVB dongle into a 433.92MHz generic data receiver.
GitHub

5 things good Elmers do
Sending a newcomer a QSL card is a good way to encourage them to get on CW again, and I included the message, “I hope to hear you on again sometime.”
KB6NU

RTTY contest soapbox
I honestly thought I was going to be making blazing fast contacts since it’s a “Digital” mode. Nope… RTTY contacts are much longer than CW or SSB.
NT1K

DIY kit for aircraft band monitoring
There is an interesting kit being sold on eBay designed specifically for aircraft monitoring of 118-136 MHz.
The SWLing Post

SatSat iOS satellite tracker
Satellite tracking software displays current and next passes for any satellite. It also provides beacon frequencies to listen to.
SatSat

APRS Paths explained
“Why is WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 better than WIDE2-2?” The answer has to do with the use of neighborhood “fill-in” digis.
wsanders.net

HF Automatic Link Establishment (ALE)
Automatic Link Establishment, or ALE for short, has become a worldwide standard for initiating HF communications between two or more points.
VA3QR

Samuel Morse’s other masterpiece
The famous inventor’s painting of Gallery of the Louvre is as much a fascinating work of art as a 19th century history lesson.
Smithsonian.com

Video

The changing face of hobby electronics
The internet offers cheap components from global suppliers to anywhere in Australia but may also herald the downfall of local brick and mortar stores.
State of Electronics

5MHz amateur band – it is now official
WRC-15 has ratified the first new HF amateur allocation since 1979.
amateurradio.com

National Parks on the Air map
In cooperation with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) CQmaps is pleased to offer the 2016 National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) map. Your map is the ticket to all 432 parks that the ARRL has included in the 2016 Centennial.
CQmaps

The Sproutie “SPT” Beacon – A legal, unlicensed HiFER beacon
This blog-post discusses the use of the 13553 – 13567KHz band under FCC Part 15 regulations in the US.
AA7EE

Extreme milliwatting
WSPR on 80m with only 10mW (on the horizontal 80m loop).
PE4BAS

State ousts leader of Oregon Amateur Radio Service
The state has an agreement with amateur radio enthusiasts to provide a backup system.
OPB

Arduino pocket lightning detector
This sensor watches for the particular waveform of lightning at 500Khz and gives a distance approximation.
Instructables

TV going the distance: Propagation
At shortwave frequencies, distant propagation is much more common. Shortwaves travel via ground wave (short distance) and sky wave.
Hack A Day

HF Underground
Shortwave Pirate Radio Forums in North America and Around The World. (And other stations that go bump in the night.)
HF Underground

Ham history

Radio hams do battle with ‘Russian Woodpecker’
From their own homes, many ham radio operators have quietly carried on an electronic war with the Soviet Union .
Miami Herald

Duga radar (Russian Woodpecker)
Duga-1 was a Soviet over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system used as part of the Soviet ABM early-warning network.
Wikipedia

Sound clip of Russian Woodpecker
It sounded like a sharp, repetitive tapping noise, at 10 Hz, giving rise to the “Woodpecker” name.
YouTube

Video

Delta loop vs Cobwebb antenna
Amateur Radio Guy!

Multimode Raspberry Pi transmitter software
PiTX permits transmission of HF signals directly through a pin of Raspberry Pi GPIO.
Southgate

Hams talk digital
Towards the end when the two stations switch to regular SSB, the difference is dramatic.
Hack A Day

What happened to WWBS?
Down in Macon, Georgia, USA there was once a private shortwave radio station with the callsign WWBS.
Mount Evelyn DX Report

Morse Code is only mostly dead
When I completed my 100th CW QSO as a new operator I decided to gather some statistics on age of Morse Code operators with whom I had QSOs.
N4PBQ

Diagrams for every wire antenna ever
Wire antennas for Ham Radio.
N4LCD

10 things you never knew about military radio technology
In honor of Veterans’ Day, we look back at military radio technology.
goTenna

How to

The “Cylinder” center connector for dipole antenna
This is another alternative home-brew center connector for a dipole.
K4ICY

Raspberry Pi ISS iGate Project
This project is an APRS iGate for ARISS program’s digipeater aboard the International Space Station.
N5DUX

Video

Windows Pi
George demonstrates Windows 10 on the Raspberry Pi.
Amateur Logic TV

Building an 80m horizontal loop
It looks easy but this video is made in a 4 hour timespan.
PE4BAS

The very particular world of amateur radio
In the last three years, the number of amateur radio licences has risen by over 8,000 – with 80,000 currently issued in the UK.
BBC News

How a group of neighbors created their own Internet service
Powered by radios in trees, homegrown network serves 50 houses on Orcas Island.
Ars Technica

Feds have plan in case we are hit with catastrophic solar flares
The White House bases contingency plan on the Carrington Event.
Digital Journal

DSTAR Parachute Mobile QSOs prove popular in Japan
Mark Meltzer, age 66, had an optimistic longshot QSO sked with hams in Japan hoping to work them on 28.425 KHz with a 5 watt SSB signal.
Southgate

QSO with W0RW from Knox Mountain
Every day is a surprise.
amateurradio.com

FCC, Justice Department investigate covert Chinese radio network
The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department are investigating a California firm whose U.S. radio broadcasts are backed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government.
Reuters

Secret radio stations by the numbers
There are actually several types of number stations, but the prototypical one is simply someone on the air reading lists of numbers.
Hack a Day

How good is the FT817’s MH-31 stock standard microphone?
Others reported improved results by substituting an electret insert. It seemed too simple not to try.
VK3YE

How to

SDR reception of Digital Amateur TV from the ISS
How to receive DVB-S digital video transmissions from the International Space Station with a bit of hardware and a lot of software.
pabr.org

Video

W1AW/6 Pacificon Special Event Station – All on one antenna
This video explains how they ran multiple stations using a single antenna. Watch and see how Rick engineered the radio system.
K7AGE

Why You Need Circulators in Repeaters
A discussion of circulators and a teardown of a 915 MHz circulator.
The Life of Kenneth

2015 Field Day results now available
The number of logs received appears to be an all-time ARRL Field Day record. This year saw 35,369 participants, down slightly from 2014.
ARRL

UK to auction former Amateur Radio spectrum
Spectrum at 2.3 and 3.4 GHz that once was allocated to Amateur Radio is going on the auction block in the UK.
ARRL

Where are the new Technicians coming from?
Invariably, we wonder “where are these new hams coming from?” and instituted a survey to try to find out.
K0NR

Newly published interview with founder of 73, Byte Magazine
My interview with computer magazine publishing pioneer Wayne Green.
K6KJN

Modems for VHF digital voice
It would be nice to make some re-use of existing FM VHF radios. So is it possible to come up with a waveform that can pass through legacy FM radios, but also be optimally demodulated with a SDR?
ROWETEL

Whitepaper on soldering aluminum
One of his most visible accomplishments can be easily seen if you live in the SF bay area; he developed the welding process for the steel/aluminum third rail on the BART system.
Life of Kenneth

How to build a low-tech internet
The low-tech alternatives result in much cheaper and very energy efficient networks that combine well with renewable power.
Low Tech Magazine

How to

A tutorial for launching your first balloon
There are a lot of reasons to put together a weather balloon launch. Its a great project for a STEM class, it requires planning, electronics and programming, and teamwork.
Tracksoar

Video

Ham Radio from a moving train
Tim Carter, W3ATB, and Jim Cluett, W1PID pair up to give a demonstration of DX Ham Radio from a moving train.
W3ATB

Base jumping from Radio Arcala
One midsummer weekend three lucky men received permission to use the antenna tower for something completely different.
Vimeo

And finally…

ARRL CEO position available
The League is accepting applications for the position of ARRL Chief Executive Officer. The deadline to submit an application is November 15.
ARRL

The Yellow Box of Power
The Yellow Box of Power is a very yellow Pelican box (size 1550) loaded up with 36 amp-hours of 12-volt battery capacity that can be charged by way of normal 120V household power or through one or more solar panels.
GAD.net

Use of 146.52 MHz FM simplex frequency cleared for ARRL contests
The committee felt that permitting the use of 146.52 MHz would allow new/curious contesters possessing only FM-mode radios to stumble upon more contacts.
ARRL

How do lacquered boards stand up over time?
A query I hear from time to time about using copper-plated boards for construction is what they look like after a few months or years.
AA7EE

Unscientific spectral analysis of two Baofeng radios
This transmitter is all over the place. Tons of spurious emissions, some as little as 30dB down from the fundamental. This transmitter is definitely misbehaving or not properly filtered.
KD8TWG

Digital Voice Balkanization
Wouldn’t it be cool if we had one digital communications format for the VHF/UHF amateur bands?
AmateurRadio.com

All your modem are belong to us
Closed source and proprietary chipsets are nasty, a glaring problem in a cool geeky field that is otherwise open source. It’s got to be fixed.
ROWETEL

Spoken command injection on Siri, Google
It is possible to trigger Siri remotely by emitting an AM-modulated signal containing voice commands at 103 MHz.
University of Pennsylvania

Try FSQ for fast, simple QSOs
FSQ is a Fast Simple QSO mode designed specifically for HF. It works well under NVIS and sunrise/sunset conditions on the lower bands, and also works well for short skip and grey-line on higher bands.
KB6NU

Scripting Fldigi on OS X
With excellent support for executing external scripts, it is easy to set up Fldigi to log all recorded QSOs directly to one of the three major OS X logbook programs.
Mac Ham Radio

Good SWR and antenna resonance
Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) is an important concept that describes how good of a match exists between a transceiver and antenna system.
Ham Radio School

Video

VHF propagation timelapse
This is a timelapse of NG0E’s APRS VHF Propagation monitor.
YouTube

Fox 1A satellite beacon
“Hi, this is amateur radio satellite Fox 1.”
YouTube