Yaesu FT-891 update
The Yaesu FT-891 is the smallest and lightest 100W HF transceiver ever built at 155x52x218mm and 1.9Kg. Unfortunately, the 2A current draw on standby makes it unsuited for truly portable operations.
QRP Blog

2016 Dayton Hamvention: Exhibits Photos
Extensive photoset of Hamvention exhibitor spaces.
The SWLing Post

The Hamvention Takeaway
You’re looking at about two football fields worth of parking spaces, filled with cars, tents, and collapsible tables and the strangest electronic devices you’ve ever seen.
Hack A Day

Photo tour of the 2016 Dayton Hamvention Flea Market
Weather at the Dayton Hamvention was quite pleasant–cool and partly cloudy.
The SWLing Post

Hamvention wants a future at Hara Arena
The Dayton Amateur Radio Association plans to stay at Hara for “as long as (they) draw breath.”
myDayton Daily News

$25 satellite tracker
I found a $25 pan and tilt solution, meant for mounting cameras from drones.
Paul’s Projects

80 meter inverted L
I needed a cheap and relatively unobtrusive solution and I found one in Len Paget’s (GM0ONX) design for an inverted L.
AmateurRadio.com

FCC denies petition for consideration in vanity call sign dispute
An Arizona radio amateur has been unsuccessful in convincing the FCC to take a 1 × 2 vanity call sign away from its present holder and grant it to him.
ARRL

HF portable ops solar powered
My power source for the Yaesu FT-857D is my 12 volt power can with the batteries being maintained by the two solar panels.
Jerry’s Journal

Is pirate radio still a problem in the digital age?
We are examining why ‘pirate’ radio persists despite the existence of legal alternatives to unlicensed broadcasting.
Middlesex University London

Video

Elecraft KX2 decoding PSK31
VA2SS

New D-STAR HT from Kenwood
Tri-band, D-STAR, APRS included. Rumors of August availability at $600.
AmateurRadio.com

New Yaesu FT-891 mobile HF rig
It covers 30kHz to 56MHz on receive and transmits in the amateur bands from 160m to 6m with 100W output.
QRP Blog

HamRadio360 interviews Elecraft co-founder, discusses new KX2
Elecraft gives first peek into the new KX2 transceiver.
HamRadio360

[PDF] Elecraft KX2 brochure
Elecraft

[PDF] Elecraft KX2 data sheet
Elecraft

[PDF] Elecraft KX2 FAQ
Elecraft

Video: KX2 in action for SOTA activation
Elecraft KX2 and KX3 Transceivers in action, side-by-side
WG0AT

DV4home announced, supports D-STAR, DMR, dPMR & P25
The DV4home features direct Internet transceive mode using the microphone and the external speaker.
Wireless Holdings

Uniden announces DMR support for its flagship scanners
Uniden has announced that its flagship BCD436HP and BCD536HP HomePatrol series scanners will soon support DMR monitoring.
VA3XPR

Dayton Hamvention AMSAT demonstration plans
A special demonstration on SO-50 will take place during the 12:19pm (16:19 UTC) pass on Saturday May 21st.
AMSAT

Hackaday at Hamvention
The main purpose of my visit is to document the immense swap meet. There will be over a thousand vendors hocking their wares, from antique radios to gauges and other electronic paraphernalia.
Hackaday

ARRL CEO want to hear from you at Dayton
ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, said he’s looking forward to hearing in person from ARRL members when he makes his inaugural appearance at Hamvention.
ARRL

DX Engineering announces new acquisitions
DX Engineering has acquired exclusive rights to Clifton Laboratories’ ham radio product line, and it has purchased TW Antennas.
ARRL

Experience Hamvention remotely
Check out some of the webcasts that will emanate from Hara Arena during the big show.
ARRL

NPOTA activations while bound for Dayton
En route to the 2016 Dayton Hamvention, I’m doing a few National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activations with my my buddy, Eric (WD8RIF).
The SWLing Post

CubeSats with Amateur Radio payloads deploy from ISS
The Slow Scan Television (SSTV) satellite STMSat-1, built by Elementary students at Saint Thomas More Cathedral School (STM), was deployed along with the pair of NODES CubeSats built by students at Santa Clara University.
AMSAT UK

Television signal DXing
Would pristine digital signals make it harder to find unusual stations? And with so many TVs offering digital channel-scanning functionality, would the heavy tweaking so often needed to bring a channel to life eventually make TV DXing impossible?
Motherboard

habhub: Complete high altitude ballooning software tool set
Tracking system, predictor, car chase apps, SSDV, more…
habub

Ham Radio Mesh Networks – fun and fulfilling
The concept is to take commercial off-the-shelf technology and re-purpose it into a mesh data network.
AmateurRadio.com

Hara Arena Update
About the time we all were leaving Hara Arena last year, organizers were putting up posters detailing the upgrades that would soon be made to the aging facility.
KE9V

Icom: 3 booths at Dayton. Dedicated D-STAR and Land Mobile booths
We’ll have three IC-7300s in the main booth including demonstrations of it in operation with our RS-BA1 Remote Control Software.
Icom

Dayton forums to be streamed live
Official live coverage of Hamvention, produced by DARALive.
Hamvention

AMSAT: Top 10 reasons to come to Dayton
Rub shoulders with 25,000 of your best friends at the largest hamfest in the United States.
Southgate

Dual-band mobile supports DMR, D-STAR and C4FM
“NEW RADIO” will operate on the 2m & 70cm bands and support the most common ham digital modes, including DMR, D-STAR and C4FM (System Fusion), plus analog FM.
VA3XPR

Ham sues repeater owners
The issue before us is whether repeater owners have the right to determine who can and cannot use their network.
PRN

Open VHF digital voice radio prototype ready for manufacture
The SM2000 will be a small box that contains a fully functional VHF SDR Digital Voice radio.
Rowetel

DMR is getting big around here
As a member of Auxcomm, I noticed DMR radios were in heavy use at the state EOC. Also, every time I get around a group of hams, the subject of DMR comes up.
KK4DSD

No Nonsense Extra Class Study Guide ready for new question pool
The new Extra Class question pool goes into effect on July 1, 2016. KB6NU’s updated study guide is now available.
KB6NU

Solar Efficiency: It’s Not What You Think
We’ll go through a hypothetical power system step by step and examine solar efficiency, then fit the pieces together to make the picture complete.
Off Grid Ham

Video

Icom IC-7300 MNF ANF IF Filter works on interference
The Icom IC-7300 knocks out annoying interference.
K0PIR

Built my Elecraft KX3 in about one minute
DL2YMR

FreeDV 2400A and 2400B demos
This digital voice mode will run on any legacy FM analog radio.
Rowetel

FCC action anticipated on ARRL’s “Symbol Rate” petition
ARRL seeks to change the Amateur Service Part 97 rules to delete the symbol rate limit in §97.307(f) and replace it with a maximum bandwidth for data emissions of 2.8 kHz.
ARRL

Review: Leixen NOTE 25 Watt HT
The NOTE is a 16 Channel UHF transceiver, the likes of which I have never seen before.
Miklor

10 Milliwatt WSPR Beacon
The Etherkit Si5351A Breakout Board combined with the Si5351Arduino library provides a low-cost, wide range PLL with excellent frequency resolution.
Etherkit

RF coverage tool
VE2DBE

Listen more than you send
Make the most of your opportunities to listen to live QSOs from your home station.
Ham Radio QRP

Pirate from Baghdad
Hassan has bootleged multiple calls for several years.
Southgate

2016 Digital Mode Most Wanted Survey
These surveys help DXpedition planners and are of interest to all digital operators.
Southgate

BridgeCom releases 220 MHz Mobile Radio
Features include 30 watt Mitsubishi power amplifier, Bluetooth option, and included programming cable.
BridgeCom

How to

Decoding APRS packets with SDR Dongle
S55MA Ham Blog

Dashboard for MMDVM DMR relay
F5KMY

Video

Digital Amateur TV in action
Rpidatv is a program that allows a Raspberry Pi to transmit DATV without the need for any additional hardware.
RTL-SDR.com

HackRF replay attack on Jeep Patriot
Demo of a replay attack on a Jeep Patriot’s keyless entry system.
YouTube

P5: Disease or Sickness?
It’s time for the ARRL to do the responsible thing and delete P5 from the DXCC list.
KE9V

Breached secrecy foiled North Korea DXpedition, group leader says
“What we did not have was the support of those we asked to remain quiet, nor the support of anyone we asked for help with funding.”
ARRL

Three new CubeSats now in orbit
Signals have been received from the three CubeSats launched April 25 on Soyuz flight VS14 from the Kourou spaceport in South America.
Southgate

The Icom IC-7300 vs. Elecraft KX3: Which do you prefer for CW/SSB?
At the end of this post, I have an embedded a survey in which you can vote for the sample recordings you like best.
The SWLing Post

Power Genius XL sneak peak
This baby uses a pair of state-of-the-art LDMOS chips and cruises at 1,500 Watts 100% duty cycle (no worries in RTTY or JT65) and covers 160m to 6m.
With Varying Frequency

FCC Invites Comments to eliminate 15 dB gain limit on amplifiers
Expert maintains that the 15 dB gain limitation is an unneeded holdover from the days when amplifiers were less efficient and the FCC was attempting to rein in the use of Amateur Service amplifiers by Citizens Band operators.
ARRL

USB soldering iron is surprisingly capable
We know what you’re thinking. There’s no way an 8 watt USB-powered soldering iron could be worth the $5 it commands on eBay.
Hack A Day

How the End-Fed antenna gets a bad reputation
When used in a shack you hear all manner of stories of how the end-fed random wire antenna absolutely reeks havoc with RF at the station. So what’s the deal?
Ham Radio QRP

Dissecting D-Star streams between reflectors
In preparation for some software development work contributing to XLX reflector software I wanted to disassemble the UDP stream exchanged between D-Star reflectors and a reflector and a connected node respectively.
Notizbl0g.

W1UL free Ham license preparation
The W1UL method is a ham cram on steroids.
Ham Cram

Company settles charges of operating cellphone jammers
An Alabama company has agreed to pay $20,500 in civil penalties to settle charges that it illegally operated cellular phone jamming devices on its premises, in violation of FCC rules.
Southgate

Repeater owner bans Baofeng radios
Simply put, these radios do not allow for “advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art” (Part 97.1).
N4NJJ

Online streaming platform for DMR Brandmeister network
All Brandmeister Talk Groups are streamed on-demand and active participants will show up on the dashboard automatically.
Hoseline

Ladyada passes Extra exam
Ladyada took all 3 exams at once, including perfect scores.
Adafruit

Fo Time podcast is now HamRadio360
In an effort to keep it Fun, we decided to do the 50th episode with a Live Video Stream. You’ll quickly see why we do the show with audio only!
HamRadio360.com

Iridium Antenna Hack
Here’s several channels simultaneously visible in Inspectrum.
ShareBrained Technology

Hearing The Hum?
Glen set up a website where people could report what they were hearing and found that it was a worldwide phenomenon.
amateurradio.com

Learning CW is not a sprint
I am in the 9th month of my CW / Morse Code journey and I will readily admit that in my case it has been slow, steady progress rather than a sprint.
Ham Radio QRP

ESDR: New portable SDR HF transceiver
The ESDR features a large color display, digimode decoder/keyer, 2x USB ports and micro-SD card. The required supply voltage is 12.6V and the maximum output power is 30W.
QRP Blog

Differences between UV5R / UV82 series Baofengs
The UV5R, RA, RB, RC, E5, F8, GT3, etc. are all cousins.
Miklor

A lightwave adventure
VE7CNF successfully inaugurated his lightwave station earlier this week, on Monday night, completing a nice two-way CW contact between West Vancouver and Mayne Island.
VE7SL

Rare and classic shortwave QSL cards
A couple months ago at my local ham radio club meeting (the NCDXCC), my buddy Paul Greaves (W4FC) mentioned that his passion for amateur radio DXing originated with shortwave broadcaster DXing.
The SWLing Post

Video

FCC enforcement team
We got a great demonstration on how the FCC enforcement team keeps unlicensed & wireless spectrum violators at bay.
YouTube

FS 5000 receiver demo: Cold War spy radio
This is a demonstration of the receiver section of the FS-5000 cold-war shortwave spy radio, developed during the eighties by the government branch of AEG Telefunken.
YouTube

ISS Slow Scan TV success
This week, radio hams around the world received Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions from space commemorating 15 years of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.
Southgate

American Airlines UFO report caught on Ham Radio
The pilot reported seeing an extremely large bright object that he estimated a mile wide to his right.
Open Minds

ARES group boots storm chasers off repeater
The Wichita County ARES group had to shoo at least two storm chasers from the group’s repeater.
Times Record News

Contact with the inventor
I had the honor to meet Joe K1JT on air at 20m JT9 this evening.
PE4BAS

My first attempt at NPOTA
They were chastising me because I wasn’t on the air long enough and were upset because they were waiting for me on 40m and didn’t make enough contacts on 20m.
NT1K

Multi-band Slinky Doublet
Further research showed a single slinky can stretch to ~5m in length and contains ~20m of coiled wire.
M0SPN

29 MHz – the forgotten frequency for amateur radio satellites
Unfortunately, a 29 MHz downlink would not be practical for most of today’s very small satellites, owing to the size of the antenna required.
EE Publishers

Coax cable: It’s all in the family
Even many experienced ham operators will approach a table full of coax cable reels at a swap meet or stare at online listings and feel lost in all the options.
Off Grid Ham

The Eagle has landed
Ten-Tec Eagle — A CW masterpiece.
Ham Radio QRP

Improved GPS reception with a ground plane
It definitely helped make indoors reception in my shack much more reliable.
amateurradio.com