$8,000 fine proposed for Ham causing interference, failing to identify
Ham volunteered to track down the interference he was causing.
ARRL

Are Amateur Radio-based emergency communications still relevant?
From “we are the be all and end all of disaster communications planning” down to “hams who show up to emergency scenes should be arrested.” So what’s the answer?
VA3QR

Slim Jim vs. Traditional J-pole Antenna
Real measurements of a Slim Jim antenna and traditional j-pole antenna reveal the truth about their respective gain and pattern.
hamradio.me

New, fast JT9 Meteor Scatter modes
Joe Taylor K1JT has published some information about the new ‘Fast JT9’ submodes for Meteor Scatter communication on 28 and 50 MHz.
Southgate

Rufus Turner: Ham Radio’s first African American Operator
Rufus was an engineer who developed the 1N34A germanium diode in the 1946.
KC4LMD

First Tracksoar test flight
The Tracksoar APRS tracker is designed to be flown under anything capable of lifting 60 grams, including balloons, RC planes, quad copters, or anything else that flies.
Tracksoar

Danish CubeSats head for ISS
The IARU have coordinated 437.250 MHz for the 1k2-9k6 bps beacon and 437.425 MHz for the GMSK beacon.
AMSAT UK

SkookumLogger contest logger for OS X
Supporting CW and SSB events on the six HF contest bands plus 6m, 4m, 2m, and 70cm.
K1GQ

CJU satellite antenna for HTs
A minimalist satellite system.
VE6AB

How to

Setting up Ubuntu for Decoding NOAA and Meteor M2 Sats
In this guide, I will attempt to make it easy to set up Ubuntu with GQRX, GNU Radio Companion, WxtoIMG, and Tools for decoding Meteor M2 Sats.
voiceoverman

And finally…

One acorn too many
Woodpecker fills Antenna with Acorns.
YouTube

Getting started in Meteor Scatter
I write this during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower as it’s much more likely for a newcomer inspired by the article to decode meteor scatter bursts with a modest VHF station.
M1BXF

Perseids peaking
My receiver immediately sprung to life with a very loud SSB signal, slightly off-tune. We talked back and forth for about another 60 seconds before the burn finally dissipated.
VE7SL

Meteor Scatter experiments
Last weekend was very close to the peak meteor shower from Perseid. This gave us an ideal opportunity to try meteor scatter for the very first time.
Loughton & Epping Forest

J-Pole antenna grounding
A fully grounded antenna is certainly a very worthwhile goal so long as you don’t needlessly compromise the antenna’s functionality.
hamradio.me

Cross country HF APRS
The HF APRS network that resides in North America is on the high end of 30 meters. This band is open day and night.
VE6AB

$40 Arduino antenna analyzer
It is no surprise that hams will build an antenna analyzer from a DDS module and an Arduino instead of dropping a few hundred dollars on a commercial unit.
Hackaday

Skywave Linux
With global SDR access, shortwave listeners can access broadcast, utility, amateur radio, military, and other signals from almost anywhere in the world.
Skywave Linux

Tennessee QSO Party 2015
1800z Sunday, September 6 until 0300z Monday, September 7, 2015
Tennessee QSO Party

Noise canceling speaker hack
I have several Onkyo speakers from a retired surround sound system and a 100 watt 12 volt car audio amplifier and started to think on hacking this into something usable.
Prepared Ham

How to

Add OpenStreetMaps to Xastir
This tutorial will guide you how to install OSM maps into Xastir software.
S55MA Ham Blog

Video

Replace the meter light on a Kenwood TS-430s
KF4NOD

Portable radio operations
Using Morse Code to keep in touch with friends.
Wiltshire Man

FreeDV QSO Party Weekend
The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group would like to invite all amateurs interested in HF digital voice communications to join us on the weekend of September 12th and 13th in a FreeDV Codec2 digital HF voice QSO Party!
AREG

Do not Digipeat via PCSAT
Although this is the correct frequency for APRS operation in IARU Region 2, it is not compatible with our Region 1 bandplan.
AMSAT UK

My Amateur Radio bucket list. What’s yours?
There is just so many possible things you can do within the hobby that it could possibly take a lifetime to achieve.
NT1K

Chinese Amateur Radio Satellites set to launch in early September
The XW-2 series satellites are equipped with substantially identical Amateur Radio payloads — a U/V mode linear transponder, a CW telemetry beacon and an AX.25 19.2k/9.6k baud GMSK telemetry downlink.
ARRL

Simplex, Duplex, Offset and Split
Simplex is a term that applies on all of the ham bands, because it is the simplest way to communicate. However, it is not the “opposite” of using a repeater.
Ham Radio School

What happened when I added a counterpoise to my HT
By adding a 1/4-wave counterpoise, you, in effect, turn the antenna into an off-center-fed, vertically polarized 1/2-wave dipole.
KC4LMD

Facebook. What is it good for?
Notable Amateur Radio Facebook Groups.
W2LJ

DX from Bald Ledge
EA5GX Sergio in Spain was calling CQ and we made a quick contact. There was some QSB, but he gave me a 579. Finally, I heard LZ1GU in Bulgaria calling CQ. Harry was strong and he gave me a 569.
amateurradio.com

In Pacific islands, radio remains the most accessible news source
Newspapers are a luxury item. On average, each newspaper in the Pacific will be read by seven people, which helps explain why the daily paper’s print run is so low.
The Saturday Paper

How to

QRV from a new apartment
This mainly amounted to mounting and tuning my 20m hamstick and running cable to the radio. This doesn’t sound like much on paper but it was a lot more engineering than that.
W0EA

Video

Ham Radio fun with tropospheric ducting propagation
This is a sample of stations I worked or heard during a nice tropospheric ducting 2 meter band opening from my location in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
RadioHamGuy

Homemade yagi antenna field test
I demonstrate some local QRM that I have been receiving there, check access to 4 distant repeaters (GB3SC, GB3JB, GB3WH and GB3VA), and have a nice QSO with Andy (G6TRW).
YouTube

Amateur radio enthusiast contacts space station
We live in a world fascinated by space, but very rarely does the ordinary man reach up into the stars for a chat.
CNN

Amateur Radio Parity Act has 93 cosponsors
ARRL Headquarters has forwarded 3,433 letters to 402 individual US House members, seeking their cosponsorship of H.R. 1301.
ARRL

Coming soon: 146.52 MHz in ARRL VHF contests
Brian Mileshosky N5ZGT, ARRL Director of the Rocky Mountain Division, reported that the ARRL has decided to remove the prohibition of 146.52 MHz in VHF contests.
K0NR

Why 30 Meter APRS?
A case study on 30m APRS vs the 2m APRS network.
The Kentucky Packet Network

Comparing RTTY, PSK and MFSK
Using the ARRL field day test message to compare RTTY, PSK and MFSK digital modes.
HamRadio.me

FUNcube Certificate of Achievement and QSL Card
Those who have successfully received telemetry from FUNcube-1 and uploaded it to the Data Warehouse are able to download these documents.
AMSAT UK

Understanding LF and HF Propagation (PDF)
This PDF is a series of features that formed a good introduction to the topic.
G0KYA, G3NYK

Raspberry Pi packet/digital mode open hardware
Ham Radio sound card interface for the Raspberry Pi or other microcontrollers.
Reddit

Android balloon tracker and modem app
Ground tracking app for high altitude balloons, complete with RTTY modem, offline mapping, online distributed listener integration, chase car location reporting and more.
Google Play

Arduino CW decoder
This is arguably the simplest part of the project. I simply downloaded the sketch and uploaded it to the Arduino.
Amateurradio.com

Icom America club station revealed
I’m pleased to report that a number of our employees are regularly getting on the air and we’re looking forward to activating a few contests as well.
Icom

How to

Google Earth with NWS and APRS using KML
I wanted to find an easy way to integrate mapping, radar data, and APRS tracking data for SkyWARN events.
Robert Andrews

Simple one-chip regenerative receiver
You might be surprised that you can convert an audio amplifier to a receiver using just a handful of components.
Hackaday

ARRL Board approves dues hike
The ARRL Board of Directors has approved a $10 increase in the League’s annual dues rate.
ARRL

My first SOTA Activation
It’s OK to screw up. After all, I’m sitting on a slab of granite, with a 5-watt radio, tapping out code on a straight key, on a fricking mountain!
KK4DSD

Working DL8DJM aeronautical mobile
Aeronautical Mobile contacts are pretty rare and the team in the gazebo fell silent as Johannes DL8DJM/AM told us that he was flying from Edinburgh to South Italy, about 100km from Amsterdam at 43,000ft.
Essex Ham

[PDF] The RF telecommunications system for New Horizons
This paper describes the design and development of the RF telecommunications system for the New Horizons mission, NASA’s mission to Pluto.
The Johns Hopkins University

USA Ham Radio License offered in UK
A group of ARRL certified Volunteer Examiners (VEs) will be hosting a USA ham radio exam night.
Southgate

Lunar Eavedropping
In 1969 Larry Baysinger independently detected signals from the Apollo 11 astronauts on the lunar surface.
Jefferson Community & Technical College

Ham fined $22,000 for malicious interference
Operator fined for causing intentional interference with other Amateur Radio communications and for failing to identify.
ARRL

PSAT PSK31 experimental software
Software allows your transmitted signal to drift exactly opposite to uplink Doppler effect.
DK3WN

Pentoo: Linux distro with GNU Radio and HackRF support
Pentoo is a Linux distribution with full support for the HackRF software defined radio and GNU Radio
Pentoo

NVIS
Near Vertical Incidence Skywave is an ionospheric skip operating technique that directs the strongest signals from a station vertically, or upward, rather than toward the horizon.
Ham Radio School

How to

EME on a budget
Moonbounce for the rest of us introduces EME and highlights operational basics and propagation.
hamradio.me

Video

Budget APRS mapping solution and portable battery box
This is one of several “homemade” APRS rigs that I cobbled together over the last year.
K7DCC

Getting started with the HackRF SDR
Shannon starts up the HackRF to show some of it’s capabilities. Follow along and learn about this new software defined radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals!
Hak5

Receiving New Horizons’ signal from Pluto
The 12-15 watt transmission is not a tight beam. As it travels through space, the radio waves spread out, becoming thinner and more diffuse.
CSIRO

Hamvention attendance up slightly in 2015
The official attendance at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention was 25,621. That’s an increase from the official count of 24,873 visitors last year.
ARRL

Q codes quiz
How well do you know your Q codes?
amateurradio.com

Fldigi adds FSQ mode
The FSQ implementation in Fldigi supports the directed, undirected and image modes of FSQ.
Mac Ham Radio

FSQ mode documentation
FSQ, Fast Simple QSO, is an Incremental-Frequency-Keyed mode using an offset differential modulation scheme similar to DominoEX, and Thor.
W1HKJ

More ISS SSTV July 18-19 on 145.800 MHz FM
ARISS SSTV images will be transmitted this weekend to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission.
AMSAT UK

Solar Cycle 25 and beyond
The one bright light is the likelihood of amazingly good low band (160, 80, 40m) conditions for many, many winters.
VE7SL

W4HH’s solar/battery setup
After calculating the Amp-hour load of my low-power radios, I decided to purchase a 12 Amp-hour battery and a solar panel that would put out enough current to charge that battery.
W4HH

Improving on FreeDV 700
Speech coding is the art of “what can I throw away.” Speech codecs remove a bunch of redundant information. As much as they can.
ROWETEL

How to

Working FO-29 semi-duplex
Going by the golden rule of manually tuning for Doppler on satellites, which is always tune the higher frequency, FO-29 can be worked with a semi duplex all mode radio.
AC0RA

Video

Introduction to DMR (Digital Mobile Radio)
Digital Mobile Radio (aka MotoTRBO) – a digital voice mode for VHF/UHF that is becoming more and more popular in Amateur Radio.
HamRadioNow

Ham donates Andy Warhol print to the ARRL
“Myths: Superman 1981” — will be sold at auction and the proceeds used to create “The Dave Bell, W6AQ, Endowment Fund” to benefit the League.
ARRL

Seen any hams on ‘new media’ lately?
What I never hear is any mention of ham radio.
amateurradio.com

HF mobile antenna installs
The single biggest factor with respect to efficiency for any mobile is ground loss, so maximizing this half of the antenna system is essential.
VE6AB

Amateur Radio becomes Primary on 1900-2000 kHz
The FCC action with respect to 1900-2000 kHz reduces the possibility that we might suffer in the future from new radiolocation deployments.
ARRL

Tracksoar: The open source APRS tracker
It has a UBLOX MAX-M8Q GPS receiver for precise high speed location data, with a compact and lightweight chip antenna.
Tracksoar

CQ World Wide VHF Contest
1800 UTC Saturday, July 18 through 2100 UTC Sunday, July 19.
CQ Communications

A “clean sweep” of the 13 Colonies
I guess a few years makes a difference. Back in 2012, as a complete ham radio newbie, I worked about 2-3 of these 13 Colonies stations.
KK4DSD

Fldigi configuration backup generator
Restoring your settings for a new or recovery installation is simple.
Mac Ham Radio

Use SSB for better VHF range on SOTA peaks
For serious VHF work, 75 miles is not that great of a distance but we were running QRP power levels with small yagi antennas.
K0NR

Hacking computers: Using an SDR receiver and a piece of pita bread
Security researchers at Tel Aviv University have demonstrated how to extract secret decryption keys from computers by capturing radio emissions of laptop computers.
Southgate

Lessons from a 10 mile hike
Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. This hike taught me a few lessons that I will carry forward on future hikes.
KC4LMD

Video

How to operate FO-29 using a single Yaesu FT-817
How-to video demonstrating the basic concept of working amateur radio satellite FO-29 semi-duplex using a single Yaesu FT-817 2m and 70cm all mode transceiver.
YouTube