lundi 6 décembre 2021

• ICQ Podcast Episode 365 – The Right Tool for the Job
  In this episode, I joined Colin Butler, M6BOY; Martin Butler, M1MRB; and Ed Durrant, DD5LP to discuss the latest amateur radio news. We discussed: Using an Arduino to Upgrade a 1970s Ham Radio New Law Hits AIS Beacons 10-year-old Radio Ham Launches his 3rd High-Altitude APRS Balloon US Virgin (...)
  
  

mercredi 1er décembre 2021

• Operating notes: Homebrew keys, callsign fun
  Homebrew cootie key cuts through QRN, QRM A couple of days ago, I worked a guy who said he was using a homebrew sideswiper, or cootie, key. I looked him up on QRZ.Com, where he featured a photo of his key (see right). After seeing this photo, I tweeted: Just worked a guy using this […] The post (...)
  
  

dimanche 28 novembre 2021

• Amateur radio videos: ARRL Foundation, CW Academy, “brain” transplant for the IC-245
  RATPAC: ARRL Foundation Mike Ritz, W7VO, Northwest Division Director and member of the board of the ARRL Foundation, discusses the foundation and the grants that it makes. Master Morse Code with CWops Joe Fischer, AA8TA, headmaster of the CWops’ CW Academy, joins the All Portable Discussion Zone (...)
  
  

mardi 23 novembre 2021

• A Wikipedia for ham radio?
  I and co-author David Sawicki, WA3DS, just finished the Ham Radio Reference. The book contains an extensive glossary of amateur radio terms, as well as some operating aids, Part 97 rules, and technical information. The book is available in both PDF and Kindle versions. Yesterday, I sent copies (...)
  
  

dimanche 21 novembre 2021

• From the trade magazines: Impedance matching, AM flutter, DIY AI
  Back to Basics: Impedance Matching By Lou Frenzel, W5LEF The term “impedance matching” is rather straightforward. It’s simply defined as the process of making one impedance look like another. Frequently, it becomes necessary to match a load impedance to the source or internal impedance of a (...)
  
  

samedi 20 novembre 2021

• Amateur radio in the news: Defib donated to radio club, Chickasaw hamfest (video), KI1M SK
  Defib donation for radio club Transmission is loud and clear between the Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club and the La Trobe University Student Paramedic Association. The LASPA raised funds for an AED device back in 2019, and finally got the chance to deliver it last Wednesday. BAREC (...)
  
  

mardi 16 novembre 2021

• Nominate someone for the CWops Award for Advancing the Art of CW
  CWops is pleased to announce that it is now accepting nominations for the prestigious CWops Award for Advancing the Art of CW for the year 2022. The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals, groups, or organizations that have made the greatest contribution(s) toward advancing the art or (...)
  
  

lundi 15 novembre 2021

• Golden anniversary of the microprocessor
  I used to marvel at the changes that occurred during the lifetime of my grandparents. Born in the early 1900s, they saw the rise of the automobile, the invention of radio and television, and our first attempts at computers. Now, at the age of 66, I’m beginning to marvel at the changes that have (...)
  
  

vendredi 12 novembre 2021

• Operating notes: Tell operators when they’re off frequency, working DXpeditions, repeater crawl
  Tell operators when they’re off frequency Hams can sometimes be hesitant to notify others when their signal isn’t quite up to snuff or when they’re off frequency. After a recent contact, I’ve decided that I’m always going to mention this to someone that I’m in contact with. What happened is that a (...)
  
  

mercredi 10 novembre 2021

• Book for professional engineers helps amateurs be more successful, too
  I’m going to steal an idea from my friend, Steve Leibson. He recently wrote a book review of Designing Electronics That Work by Hunter Scott, and I found the book so good that I thought I’d write a review of my own. TL;DR: This is a great book, and what makes it even greater is […] The post Book (...)
  
  

mardi 9 novembre 2021

• QSLs: KB5EBB, W2AEW
  Normally, I only post QSLs from stations whose call signs spell words. I’m breaking that rule today because the first card is from W2AEW, Tek application engineer, YouTuber, and all-around ham radio celebrity. As you can see, his QSL card shows a screen shot of a Tek scope displaying his call (...)
  
  

lundi 8 novembre 2021

• ICQ Podcast #363: The Lost Tribe, the Pied Piper and the Executive
  In this episode, I joined Martin Butler (M1MRB), Edmund Spicer M0MNG, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Leslie Butterfield G0CIB to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. We discussed: VP0 New Prefix Laboratory Test Model of ‘Sputnik 1 EMC/EMI’, 1957. The starting bid on this puppy is €85,000! You can (...)
  
  

dimanche 7 novembre 2021

• Adventures in Linux
  Nearly three years ago now, I retired the cheap HP 2000 laptop I was using in the shack with a refurbished HP Elite desktop computer. It has proven to be a very good buy, easily powering the SmartSDR software that runs my Flex 6400 and all the other software that I’ve thrown at it. I […] The (...)
  
  

mercredi 3 novembre 2021

• Amateur radio in the news: Two views of the same story
  Recently, the Marin Radio Communications Volunteers team got some press. The first story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, while the second appeared in the Marin Independent Journal. It’s interesting to compare the two stories. If you were a member of the team, which one would you prefer? (...)
  
  

dimanche 31 octobre 2021

• Will we finally see some action on amateur radio rules?
  In Zero Retries 0016, Steve, N8GNJ writes: We May Soon Have a Fully Empowered FCC Those of us watching the FCC for other than Amateur Radio purposes have been puzzled by President Biden’s seeming indifference to date that a lot of activity at the FCC is stalled because there are only four FCC (...)
  
  

jeudi 28 octobre 2021

• ARRL Clean Signal Initiative on the horizon
  In recent message to his Northwest Division membership, Mike Ritz, W7VO, described a program that he’s trying to get the ARRL to take on—the Clean Signal Initiative. He writes: ARRL CLEAN SIGNAL INITIATIVE— After a few months gathering support from the amateur community for the project, the ARRL (...)
  
  

mardi 26 octobre 2021

• ARDC on the ICQPodcast
  I’m not a presenter on Episode #362 of the ICQPodcast, but this episode’s feature is my interview of ARDC Executive Director Rosy Schechter, KJ7RYV; Grants Manager Chelsea Párraga, KF0FVJ; and Outreach Manager John Hays, K7VE. In the interview, we talk about some of the cool grants that ARDC has (...)
  
  

lundi 25 octobre 2021

• Operating notes: Still getting faster, working Africa, broadcaster in the 30-meter band
  Still getting faster Tonight, I had a couple of 27 wpm QSOs—one with Joe, K7JOE, and the other with Mitch, WB0GKH. These were nice contacts. Both of these operators have a nice fist, which made copying so fast easier. And, at 25+ wpm, a CW contact is almost as fast as a phone contact. It’s […] (...)
  
  

jeudi 21 octobre 2021

• Amateur radio in the news: Quietest place in America, PSU students to launch satellite, Hams to the rescue in India
  The Quietest Place in America There’s an area in West Virginia that regulates the use of cell phones, wireless internet, and other devices that use electromagnetic waves, and it’s considered the quietest place in the United States. The reason why the town of Green Bank has a National Radio Quiet (...)
  
  

dimanche 17 octobre 2021

• RATPAC presentation: Helping People Have Fun with Amateur Radio
  Last Wednesday, I gave this presentation to the Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee, also known as RATPAC. RATPAC hosts Zoom presentations twice-a-week. On Wednesdays, the presentations are on general amateur radio topics, and on Thursdays, the presentations are on amateur (...)
  
  

samedi 16 octobre 2021

• Getting hooked up to Reverse Beacon
  I love the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) and have often thought about becoming one of the spotters in order to give something back. One of the things holding me back was that I needed to install CW Skimmer. Last December, I tried to get CW Skimmer working with my Flex 6400. Unfortunately, I (...)
  
  

dimanche 10 octobre 2021

• ICQ Podcast Episode 361 – High Power Battery Box
  For Episode #361, I joined Martin Butler (M1MRB), Edmund Spicer M0MNG, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Ruth Willet KM4LAO to discuss the following: Radio France International Splatter “Untenable”. You wouldn’t think that a major broadcaster would be guilty of putting out a bad signal, but apparently Radio (...)
  
  

mercredi 6 octobre 2021

• Amateur radio in the news: Clubs celebrate 80th anniversaries, MI sisters get their tickets
  In November 1941, the Muskegon Area Amateur Radio Council was established. 80 years later, the membership continues to grow and fill the ham radio airwaves. Amateur radio group marks 80 years of community service during disasters PITTSBURGH >> After eight decades of providing emergency (...)
  
  

mardi 5 octobre 2021

• ARRL says stats need updating, number of new hams declining in UK, IARU to hold workshop on the future of #hamradio
  Over the past couple of days, there has been three news stories related to the future of amateur radio. The first, Data on Number of Radio Amateurs Worldwide Needs Updating, is kind of an odd story, if you ask me. The first paragraph reads: The oft-cited figure of 3 million radio amateurs (...)
  
  

lundi 4 octobre 2021

• Amazon experimenting with amateur radio?
  Here’s’ an interesting post on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Blog: Amateur radio meets edge computing to keep disaster response teams connected. The post describes how the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Disaster Response team, “conducted a field testing operation designed to replicate a (...)
  
  

jeudi 30 septembre 2021

• Operating notes: Bands heating up, IC-2820H, CW Skimmer
  The bands finally seem to be heating up. I’ve managed to make European contacts nearly every day for the past week. Just last night, I called CQ on 40m just before 0000Z and got a reply from an LZ3. He was S5 here, but since I wasn’t expecting a DX call, I had to get […] The post Operating notes: (...)
  
  

mardi 28 septembre 2021

• Random stuff: Circuits for kids, replace a 555 with a PIC microcontroller, HF sports net
  Circuits for kids A reader writes: I wanted to thank you for putting together your links page. My daughter MaryAnne’s Girl Scout troop is currently working on their ‘Think Like an Engineer’ Badge as part of the STEM series, and the radio schematics resources on your page helped us a bunch! (...)
  
  

dimanche 26 septembre 2021

• Videos for newcomers: Repeater 101, CTCSS for the Baofeng UV-5R, Understanding CTCSS and DCS
  I’ve gotten a couple of inquiries from new hams lately about using repeaters and programming their radios. So, I did a little searching for YouTube videos, and came up with the following: Repeater 101 for new Amateur Radio Operators In this presentation Bob Schmid, WA9FBO, of the Northern (...)
  
  

mardi 21 septembre 2021

• Why aren’t more hams using GNU Radio?
  For the past day and a half, I’ve been attending the GNU Radio Conference 2021 in my capacity as Content Manager for ARDC. There’s a lot of stuff that’s flying over my head, but I’m learning a lot as well. One idea that I can’t shake is why more hams aren’t using GNU Radio. There are […] The post (...)
  
  

dimanche 19 septembre 2021

• Cool #hamradio stickers?
  I have space on my work laptop for a few cool ham radio stickers. Any suggestions? Anyone have one that they’d like to send me? (hint, hint) The post Cool #hamradio stickers? appeared first on KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog.
  
  

samedi 18 septembre 2021

• Operating notes: DX ragchew, new ham’s first contact, bands heating up
  DX ragchew A couple of days ago, I had a rare experience—a ragchew with a DX station. Wolf not only told me about his station, but a little bit about his town and the area he lives in. As you can see from the photo at right, it’s quite a lovely place. How can you […] The post Operating notes: DX (...)
  
  

mercredi 15 septembre 2021

• ICQ Podcast Episode 359 – Teaching ham radio classes online
  In this episode, I joined Martin Butler M1MRB, Leslie Butterfield G0CIB, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the news. We discussed the following: Radio Amateur Told to Remove His Antenna. This story has been covered before, but we have some interesting comments about the ARRL (...)
  
  

lundi 13 septembre 2021

• My Findlay Hamfest Haul
  A little after 5:30 am (uggggh) Sunday morning, I piled into Thom, W8TAM’s car for the trek to the Findlay (Ohio) Hamfest. We had a lot of fun on the way down, discussing the state of the hobby and our own projects. Despite a detour, which added about 15 minutes to our trip, we arrived […] The (...)