Closing out 2025, here are the top five blog posts at k0nr.com during the year. Some people may see this as a lazy way to create one more blog post this year without much effort, and they would be right. These posts are the top five most viewed this year, but may have been written earlier.

Top Five Blog Posts

Leading the list is this blog post…a perennial favorite that seems to make the top five each year. This particular article is tuned for Colorado, but also provides a link to an article covering the topic for the USA.

Choose Your 2m Frequency Wisely

In second place, this article from Sept 2022 popped onto the list. This post addresses some confusion about the common nomenclature of VHF and UHF.

What Do VHF and UHF Mean?

In the third spot, we have another older article about 2m SSB that just keeps on getting views. I recently updated this article, which was written a long time ago.

Getting Started on 2m SSB

Number four this year is a more recent article about the station I’ve been using for both SOTA and POTA activations, built around the Icom IC-705.

Improved IC-705 SOTA/POTA station

In fifth place is this article describing the RH770 antenna for use with dual-band 2m/70cm handheld radios.

A Better Antenna for Dualband Handhelds

However, there is a newer, better version of this antenna, which I just wrote about in September:

A New 2m/70cm Telescoping Antenna

Editors Choice

Just for good measure, I am including one more notable post. This explains why I strongly favor using VHF and UHF frequencies for SOTA activations. It is all about Height Above Average Terrain.

Height Above Average Terrain

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

73 Bob K0NR

The post Top Five K0NR Blog Posts for 2025 appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Frank Howell (K4FMH), Bill Barnes (WC3B) and Leslie Butterfields (G0CIB) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief, and the episode's feature is Do I need a Thermal Camera?

We would like to thank Sean Borgerson (KK7OVF) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• "Space Sailors" Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators
• ARISS Video Promotes School Contacts Through ISS and Amateur Radio
• New Restrictions for Short-Range UHF Radios in Germany
• Indian Amateurs Help a Woman Lost in Bangladesh
• Dr Bob Whelan, G3PJT - Silent Key
• First HamTV Transmission from ISS Since 2018
• SAQ Grimeton to Transmit CW Message

Hello and welcome to Episode 604 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this deep dive episode, the hosts talk about the Visual Studio Code development environment, including its open source counterparts VSCodium and Code OSS. Topics include, installation, preliminary setup, use cases, plugins and plugin marketplaces, keyboard shortcuts, tips and tricks, code highlighting, debugging, linting and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew

It’s time for The Weekender! This is our departure into the world of hedonism, random topic excursions, whimsy and (hopefully) knowledge. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we’re doing. We’d love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Crew

Ham College episode 131 is now available for download.

Technician Exam Questions Part 18
T5D – Ohm’s Law, Series and parallel circuits.

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YouTube

Celebrating 5 Years of Holiday Spirit on the Air

Now with an AI-Powered Award System!

As the Christmas season approaches, radio amateurs across the world can once again look forward to hearing the cheerful special callsigns PH25XMAS and PH26HNY on the HF bands. These stations will be active during the Christmas holidays and the first week of January 2026, sharing goodwill and season’s greetings over the airwaves.

This year marks the first lustrum (5th anniversary) of the festive XMAS and HNY event calls. To mark the occasion, the organizing team has developed an all-new automated award platform — a creative blend of amateur radio, Python programming, and artificial intelligence. It is called SAVS (Special Award Validation System).

The system will be operational, starting the 6^th of December 2025. Until then a page is showing a count-down timer to the first date of operation and first opportunity to check the award eligibility.

A Fully Automated Award System:  SAVS

Participants who have made QSOs with PH##XMAS and/or PH##HNY stations between 2021 and 2026 can check whether they qualify for a commemorative certificate.

• The platform automatically searches remote and local ADIF logs (PH21XMAS–PH26HNY).
• Operators whose callsigns appear three or more times in the logbooks across the past four years and this year are eligible for an award.
• After entering your callsign on the Entry Page, the system validates your QSOs, displays the results, and — if qualified — instantly generates a personalized PDF certificate for download.

Behind the scenes, a Python Flask server performs the validation, integrates with QRZ.com for data verification, and generates your award PDF with just one click.

Open Source and AI-Assisted

The entire system was created with the help of AI tools and is released as a fully open-source project on GitHub: https://github.com/PA3EFR/SAVS_XMAS_HNY

Every element — from log validation to PDF generation — runs autonomously, demonstrating how classic ham radio activity can harmoniously combine with modern coding and machine learning.

Join the Celebration

So this festive season, when you hear “CQ from PH25XMAS” or “CQ from PH26HNY”, don’t hesitate to call back!

You might not only exchange warm holiday greetings, but also earn yourself a special place in the logs — and a beautiful award to commemorate it.

📡 Brought to you by Radio Scouting Fellowship PA3EFR/J