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ICQPodcast Episode 464 – Q&A Plus
7 September 2025 | by In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Dan Romanchik KB6NU, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief, and the episode's feature is Q&A Plus.
We would like to thank Simon Wilton (G7HCD) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate
- Hurricane Watch Net Marks 60 Years of Service
- Resilience Through Amateur Radio for National Preparedness Month 2025
- Hams Help Sonoma Springs Residents with GMRS
- A Radio Homecoming, One Century Later
- Ocean Washes Away Almost All Expeditioners’ Equipment
- NASA Seeks Volunteers to Track Orion Spacecraft in 2026
- WRTC 2026 Announces PRIME Sponsor!
- Icom Unveils the IC-7300MK2 — The Evolution of a HF Legend!
- Hans Summers, G0UPL Confirmed as the RSGB Convention After-Dinner Speaker
- ESC Announces Updated Version of the Direct to Full Syllabus
- UK National Hamfest Pre-Show Walkaround Video
Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 397
Open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres about 4U1UN: A most wanted entity’s history
4U1UN should be a beacon again.
K3LOE
Phone contest phonetics
Inventing cute phonetics may be amusing, just don’t try it in a contest if you want a good rate.
Pattern and Match
HamXposition Highlights
Saturday was the big day. HamXposition was buzzing with energy, and I was impressed by the number of exhibitors.
QRPer
18 clubs to activate Erie Canal for Parks on the Air
Hams will activate the Erie Canal September 16-25 to celebrate the canal’s 200th anniversary.
Amateur Radio Daily
Satellites without the dish
An 8 turn helix that can be paired with a ground plane to make something that should have useful gain for receiving the geostationary Inmarsat signals with sufficient SNR.
ElMarko says things
ARRL Lab helps Radio Amateurs avoid interfering with US Space Force radar
The ARRL Lab supports the US Space Force’s Phased Array Warning System (PAVE PAWS) early warning radar installations which scan the skies for incoming missiles and space junk.
ARRL
Optimizing VLF antennas
Thanks to software-defined radio, you no longer need huge coils. However, you still need a suitable antenna.
Hackaday
IC-7300MK2: Why a 0.7 A receive draw actually matters off-grid
Its reduced current draw finally makes this legendary HF rig off-grid friendly.
Off Grid Ham
Video
QRP Parks On The Air with the Icom IC-705 + POTA Performer
At Maumee Bay State Park (US-1976), I run a low power POTA activation with my Icom IC-705 and my homemade antenna designed by KJ6ER: the POTA PERformer.
Critical Frequency
Ham Radio without the FCC?
What really happens when you push the FCC too far?
Ham Radio Gizmos
Create keyboard-to-keyboard radio chat rooms
AX.25 radio networking is underutilized in the information age. There’s no reason we can’t create texting/chatroom environments just like we have on our phones and PC’s.
KM6LYW
VK3SRC and VK3CKY talking on FreeDV RADEV1
A few minutes of a typical FreeDV RADEV1 contact on 40m.
Peter Marks
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Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
The Communicator September – October 2025
This publication, "The Communicator" from Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC), serves as a bi-monthly electronic periodical for amateur radio operators. It covers a wide array of topics, including historical figures in radio. This month Jonathan Zenneck and Edwin Armstrong. In this issue we also provide technical explanations of radio propagation phenomena such as the Gray Line and solar indices, and practical guides for amateur radio activities like building antennas. We take a closer look at specific radio equipment (Baofeng, Icom, and Anytone), and engaging in digital modes like FT8.
The Communicator also features emergency preparedness strategies, and the diverse interests and community focus within amateur radio. Furthermore, it touches upon innovative developments like the Linux Handie Talkie (LinHT) and the importance of in-person technical conferences for knowledge exchange.
Now read in over 165 countries, this issue brings you 130 pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and around the globe. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine
Previous Communicator issues:
Search for past Communicator issues
We now have a comprehensive searchable index back to 2007
HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is October 15th.
If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at [email protected]
73,
John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor
The Table of Contents for the September - October 2025 Communicator issue:
- The Unsung Pioneers: Jonathan Senneck 4
- A look at Edwin Armstrong’s contribution to broadcasting 6
- Field Day and Cross-Border Microwave Activity 7
- The Northern California DX Foundation: Decrypting solar indices 8
- Propagation Profile: Exploring the Gray Line in Radio Propagation 10
- News You Can’t Lose: Rescue team locates and rescues 12
- Page13—News You Can Lose: Mystery in Back Yard 13
- Radio Ramblings: Aircraft Radio Systems 14
- Another RFI Tracker 29
- Sniffing RF Noise with an Oscilloscope 29
- A Bridge Too Far... For Now! 30
- An AM Radio Transmitter Suitable for in-home broadcast 32
- ISED Releases New Documents for Amateur Exams 34
- Getting Started: Beginner's guide to the FT8 mode 36
- Using the Baofeng Radio: Your Guide to a Handheld Radio 37
- iCOM Special Interest Group: RFI & Noise reduction - USB cable 38
- WA5VJB’s "Cheap Yagis": Looking for a 1.2 Ghz solution? 41
- RigPi: Probably compatible with your rig 422
- The AnyTone 878 portable receives a major firmware update 44
- Ham TV again from the International Space Station! 46
- After 14 attempts our first circumnavigation of a pico balloon! 47
- The PERformer: 2024 ARRL QST Antenna Design Competition 50
- But, does it PERform? 59
- Ham Radio Outside the box: Testing the “PERformer” 60
- The Zenith Satellite Tracker 62
- Another Simple Morse Code Trainer: It uses only 7 parts 63
- High Altitude RF Adventures 64
- Hamshack Hotline Orphans invited to apply at Hams Over IP 69
- Zero Retries: The Linux Handie Talkie 70
- Ham on a Bike: Snatched a big one working my grey line 75
- Foundations of Amateur Radio: A POTA procedural proposal 76
- Listening to local RF via a web browser 78
- Back to Basics: Understanding decibels in Amateur Radio 80
- Crossword 83
- Danger in St. Elmo 84
- No-ham Recipes: Chili Con Rotini 85
- Profiles of SARC members: Michael Papp WB6GJE 88
- The SEPAR Report: Emergency Program: Net Strategies 92
- A new beam antenna for the OTC 95
- QRT: Building Your Own Antennas 96
- HAM LEFTOVERS... 98
- A look back at The Communicator—October 2015 100
Ham College 128
Ham College episode 128 is now available for download.
Technician Exam Questions Part 15
T5A – Current and voltage: terminology and units, conductors and insulators, alternating and direct current.
George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 396
Icom to release updated IC-7300 MK2 and ID-5200
The Icom ID-5200 is a successor to the popular Icom ID-5100.
GigaParts
Build a miniature hotspot for M17
This may be one of the simplest hotspot builds ever. Works with D-STAR, YSF, M17, DMR, P25, NXDN, and POCSAG.
The Random Wire
QuadNet multi-mode digital network
Supports DMR, D-Star, Yaesu System Fusion/C4FM, and M17.
QuadNet
How To get precise time outside your shack
Often when I decide to do POTA, I just grab my gear and go forgetting to sync my laptop’s time. When I get to the park, my system clock can be 5-30 seconds off which means I can’t do FT8.
Ham Radio Hacks
Progress in the revolution: Sunspot cycle forecast accuracy at Cycle 25 peak
Our goal has been to determine if there is Kuhnian movement (Kuhn 1962) toward a revolution in the long-standing paradigm for the sunspot cycle at the midpoint of Cycle 25.
Dr. Scott McIntosh
My first ever RTTY contact
In February 1984 I borrowed a Creed 444 teleprinter.
QSO365
Installing a permanent remote HF station in the Atlantic Ocean
A structure standing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in fifty feet of water on Frying Pan Shoals, 32 miles off the coast of Southport, North Carolina, in international waters.
OnAllBands
HackTVLive
A Go application that captures live video from your webcam and transmits it as an NTSC analog television signal using a HackRF SDR device.
Sarah Rose
The mysterious shortwave radio station stoking US-Russia nuclear fears
A popular shortwave Russian radio station dubbed UVB-76 has been an enigma for decades.
WIRED
TAP
A Morse alternative mode for the Ham, with no need for training.
SV3ORA
Video
T41-EP Open Source DIY SDR HF radio
The T41-EP is an Open Source, 20W, 7-band HF CW/SSB software defined transceiver designed as an experimenter’s platform.
K5YVY
Interview with ARRL CEO David Minster NA2AA
A discussion about the most recent ARRL board meeting as well as an update on the Huntsville Hamfest.
DX Mentor
Morse Code on 2m and microwave?
Join Di KO6BTM and Ormoo the SOTA Cat on an easy SOTA peak.
KO6BTM
Build a radio to receive pictures from space like it’s 1994
Everything I need to receive weather satellite pictures using software, tools, and components that (probably) would’ve been available to an amateur in 1994.
Old Computers Sucked
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Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
LHS Episode #592: Arch Enemies
Hello and welcome to Episode 592 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts discuss the decommissioning of the POES satellite constellation, the Lab599 TX500MP portable field radio, the release of Debian 13, a new version of Sparky Linux and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.
73 de The LHS Crew
Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].
Laurel Makes SOTA Videos
Joyce/K0JJW and I did a SOTA activation with Mike/KE0PWR on Aspen Ridge (W0C/SP-084). It turns out that Mike’s wife, Laurel, has a YouTube channel, so she shot some video of our adventure. Keep in mind that her channel is not focused on ham radio, but has a more general audience.
Some time later, Mike did a SOTA activation on his own with Laurel capturing the story via video. This was on Wander Ridge (W0C/SP-042), one of my favorite summits near the Continental Divide Trail. Yes, it was windy on top. I made a cameo appearance via 2m FM. Short Buena Viking plug at the end (one of my favorite local restaurants).
And finally, here is another activation with Mike on South Peak (W0C/SR-111), near Weston Pass. In this episode, Mike demonstrates how the signal disappears if you lay the Yagi antenna on the rocks. I make another guest appearance via 2m FM.
Laurel plugs the PBJ Bobo’s, which are now my favorite hiking snack. (I am not addicted to these things. I can stop eating them anytime I want.)
Great job, Mike and Laurel!
73 Bob K0NR
The post Laurel Makes SOTA Videos appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.
Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
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