Podcasts about yaesu ft

En este episodio más corto y relajado —grabado fuera de casa, en modo vacacional— comparto algunas ideas y novedades frescas del mundo de la radioafición: Te cuento sobre la maleta tipo flight case que quiero armar para llevar el Yaesu FT-100 junto al ATU-100 de N7DDC, ideal para salidas portables sin renunciar a un shack funcional. Te menciono cómo EA9ADD se inspiró en el episodio anterior y se lanzó a experimentar con modulación AM en la banda de 17 metros. ¡Así da gusto ver cómo el podcast se convierte en radio real! Y también te hablo del Diploma conmemorativo por el Centenario de la IARU, con los indicativos especiales AO1IARU al AO9IARU y AO100IARU en el aire gracias a URE ¿Nos apoyas para que podamos seguir haciendo este podcast? Puedes apoyarnos en QRP con 1,99€ al mes o un poco más de potencia en QRO, con 5,99€ al mes aquí: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/apoyar/ Enlaces del episodio: • EA9ADD experimentando en AM https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G2ttDoA3URc • La web del IARU 100 URE https://iaru100.ure.es/ Envía tus preguntas, propuestas de temas o lo que quieras: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/contacto/ O en nuestro canal de Telegram: https://t.me/cqenfrecuencia Y no olvidéis de visitar nuestra web: https://cqenfrecuencia.com No olvides el like, subscribirte y/o darle a la campanita para no perderte ningún episodio de nuestro podcast! Nos encontrarás también en Spotify y Youtube.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I received a question in relation to the Bald Yak project. If you're not familiar, "The Bald Yak project aims to create a modular, bidirectional and distributed signal processing and control system that leverages GNU Radio." I know that I've said that several times now and I suspect I'm going to say it several more times before we're done. I was asked about a specific radio and if this project could make it use a frequency that the supplied software didn't cover. The answer is deceptively simple and if you know me at all, you know what's coming: "It depends". As with many things, what it depends on is not fixed. I'll come back to the question, but I'm making a diversion past a magical place, the local hardware store. You can buy everything you need to build a house with the caveat that some assembly is required. GNU Radio is similar for building a signal processing system, but, wait for it, some assembly is required. In the context of GNU Radio this means that you'll need to collect all the bits and wire them together, fortunately you're unlikely to need Personal Protective Equipment or access to a First Aid Kit, unless of course the idea of playing with computers gives you palpitations, in which case I'd recommend that you go see your doctor. One of the less obvious things you'll come across with GNU Radio is how to bring signal processing into the physical realm, in other words, how do you get a signal into your computer, known as a "source", and get it out, called a "sink". The ability to talk to physical hardware arrives in roughly three different ways. Let's call them, "native", "library", and "abstraction". Native access requires that GNU Radio already knows about the hardware out of the box. Library access requires that the hardware manufacturer has provided software libraries, also known as drivers, allowing GNU Radio to communicate, and finally, abstraction is where a third party has written a library that knows how to talk to hardware from different manufacturers. The distinction between these is almost arbitrary, for example abstraction might require a driver from a hardware manufacturer. Similarly, because all this software is open source, native can include software from other projects, like the RTL-SDR blocks from Osmocom, Open Source Mobile Communications, and UHD blocks written by Ettus Research, which in turn can be seen as an abstraction. As I said, some assembly required. I will point out that this provides a great deal of flexibility, albeit at the cost of complexity, there's still no such thing as a free lunch. At this point you might shake your head and run away. I get that, it can be daunting. Before you do, consider the scenario where you have a working system and you upgrade your hardware. In a GNU Radio world you'll need to figure out how to configure the new hardware and then all your other stuff will continue to work. The alternative is upgrading each of your applications to connect to your new radio and in doing so, run the risk of making your old radio obsolete, even if you are collecting them .. let's say for posterity rather than hoarding .. because radio amateurs never hoard anything .. right? Back to the original question. Can GNU Radio make a radio use frequencies that the software that came with the radio cannot? As I said, "it depends". First of all, the hardware needs to actually be able to support the frequency. Then someone needs to have written a library to use that frequency, then GNU Radio needs to be able to use that library. That said, the chances of that happening are much higher than the chance of the hardware manufacturer rolling out this feature within your lifetime. Before you start yelling at me, yes, this is manufacturer dependent, some provide open source tools, many still don't. There are alternative ways to access different frequencies. The PlutoSDR is a computer and radio in a box. You can connect to it, change some settings and have it access a whole lot more frequencies. In some ways it's like adding or removing jumpers on a traditional circuit-board. Another approach is to use an up- or down-converter. Essentially a piece of hardware connected between antenna and radio that translates frequencies to different bands. A down-converter allows you to use the 23cm band on a radio that's only capable of 70cm. Similarly, an up-converter allows your 70cm radio to hear HF signals. If you see a symmetry here, you didn't imagine it. You need both to transmit and receive, sold together in the same box as a transverter. Just so we're clear, the radio is still using the 70cm band, but the RF coming in and out of the antenna connected to the transverter is on a different band entirely. It's why my Yaesu FT-857d has three menu options, 89, 90 and 91, to adjust the display to show the actual RF frequency. As an aside, you could use this functionality if your radio is off frequency by a known amount. As I've said before, GNU Radio is a powerful tool. It contains many different moving parts, the system is complex and unwieldy, but with it comes the promise of doing some amazing stuff. The whole point of the Bald Yak project is to make this all accessible to the wider amateur community, not just computer geeks and software radio nerds. If you have questions, feel free to drop me a line. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

I'll be giving away some HF radios for the first part of 2025. For January, it is a brand new Yaesu FT-891. Sign up for the February Giveaway here - http://hamradio2.com/february25 Ham Radio 2.0 Coffee here - https://hamradiooverland.coffee/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

En este episodio, comparto con vosotros una experiencia reciente que me ha llevado a replantearme cómo elegir un equipo VHF. Después de que mi querido Yaesu FT-100 dejara de entregar potencia en VHF y UHF, comencé un camino lleno de reflexiones, pruebas y decisiones para encontrar un reemplazo ideal. ¿Qué es mejor: un equipo monobanda o bibanda? ¿Qué factores realmente importan al elegir un equipo? ¿Y qué pasa con los equipos chinos, tan populares pero con sus propias limitaciones? Hablaremos de: • Mi proceso para decidir que un monobanda VHF era la mejor opción. • Los diferentes equipos que consideré y cómo tomé la decisión final. • Por qué evitar ciertos equipos económicos y qué implicaciones tienen las espurias y la calidad de construcción. • La importancia de reflexionar sobre lo que realmente necesitas en tu estación. Además, al final del episodio, toco un tema importante para la comunidad de oyentes: cómo disfrutar del podcast sin interrupciones publicitarias, las opciones disponibles para escuchar en nuestra web o feed RSS, y un agradecimiento especial a los mecenas y a la gran comunidad que hemos construido juntos. Si estás pensando en mejorar o ampliar tu equipo de radio, este episodio está lleno de ideas prácticas y reflexiones que te serán útiles. ¿Nos apoyas para que podamos seguir haciendo este podcast? Puedes apoyarnos en QRP con 1,99€ al mes o un poco más de potencia en QRO, con 5,99€ al mes aquí: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/apoyar/ Notas del episodio: - El video de EA3GRN sobre las interferencias de los equipos chinos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOhiCf0pH8w - Video de Ham Radio Crusader sobre las interferencias del Hiroyasu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_e_nxQ81fI&t=375s - Lo que le ha pasado a mi Yaesu FT-100 ☹ https://www.radcomms.net/FT100D_repair.html Envía tus preguntas, propuestas de temas o lo que quieras: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/contacto/ O en nuestro canal de Telegram: https://t.me/cqenfrecuencia Y no olvidéis de visitar nuestra web: https://cqenfrecuencia.com No olvides el like, subscribirte y/o darle a la campanita para no perderte ningún episodio de nuestro podcast! Nos encontrarás también en Spotify y Youtube.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the past weeks, actually, probably more accurately years, I've been carrying around an idea. It's been bubbling away and I've been trying very hard to make it solidify into something that I could explain and then hopefully attack. Today I woke up with a hunger to do some radio and ultimately tell you about it. To get to a point where my Aha! moment emerged, I need to provide some history. Traditional radio activities involve variations on a radio plugged into an antenna with the operator talking into a microphone or torturing a Morse key. If you want to operate digital modes, you essentially have two choices. You can use a rare radio with in-built digital modes or, more commonly, connect a computer to the radio via an audio interface, which essentially replaces the operator with a computer. This implies that the radio is physically connected to the computer and in the same room. What if you don't want either? There's another aspect to this. Modern SDRs or software defined radios, tend to use the network to get information from the antenna to the user. The network can transport the radio signal, but also control signals, to change things like frequency and mode, and if the radio supports it, bands, antennas and other fun stuff like filters. There are ways to control a traditional radio across the network with so-called CAT commands, or Computer Assisted Tuning. This same technology can be used to connect a logging tool, so it knows what frequency and mode to log when you make a contact. What CAT control lacks is audio. Said differently, although some solutions exist to send Morse code, you cannot use CAT to listen to the radio, or speak into a microphone. This isn't an issue if the radio and you are in the same room, but if they're not, then things get tricky. And as a final piece of background information, a traditional radio is based around audio, that is, the information going between you and the radio, or a computer and the radio, is limited to audio. This represents about 4 kHz of signal. In other words, if you're tuned to 28.500 MHz, then a traditional radio can "hear" the radio signal between 28.500 and 28.504 MHz, sufficient for a single audio signal, but even a simple digital radio, a $50 RTL-SDR using a USB cable, can handle 2.4 MHz, plenty to cover all of the 10m band between 28.0 and 29.7 MHz with room to spare. I've been looking for something, anything, that brings these two vastly different worlds together for a number of reasons. I've spoken previously about some of these. For example, I do not want to physically connect my traditional radio, a Yaesu FT-857d, to my computer because I do not want to have the potential of stray RF coming into my computer. I'd also love to be able to run the same decoding and control tools for various radios, the Pluto SDR, several RTL-SDR dongles, my 857 and other radios as they come into my shack from time-to-time. Then there's the signal processing side of things. I'd love to be able to learn how to decode Morse and eventually other modes using a computer. I also want to be able to use a voice-keyer during a contest so the whole house doesn't ring from the sound of me calling CQ Contest, or CQ DX for hours on end. I've been making inroads into this. I managed to get rigctld to work across the network using Docker containers at both ends. I attempted to get audio working, but that has so far been a dismal failure, despite assistance on several fronts. This morning I stumbled on the idea of using "GNU Radio" for both. I even came across some examples where two so-called "flow-graphs" can talk to each other across the network. Now at this point you're either going to be nodding your head, or you're going to be asking yourself what gibberish I just spouted. If you're already nodding your head, stand-by, if not, GNU Radio is a software toolkit that provides signal processing blocks that you can link together to create simple or sophisticated systems to manipulate signals, like those that come from radios, or radio telescopes, or mobile phone base stations, radar, ADS-B, or whatever else you can imagine. It's widely used in academia, government, industry, research, and of course by us, hobbyists. A collection of blocks and links is called a flow-graph and in essence it's a program or if you like, an App, that you can run. It comes with a tonne of examples and tutorials, including one where one flow-graph can manipulate another, either on the same computer, or somewhere on the Internet. What this means is that you could build a flow-graph that can talk to a Yaesu FT-857d and one that can talk to a Pluto SDR, or an RTL-SDR, or any other radio, and use that to talk to a flow-graph that understands how to deal with audio, CAT and anything else you might want to. It means that for the first time in years I can at least imagine a unified world where my 857 isn't a boat anchor when compared to my Pluto SDR. Of course they don't have the same functionality, but at least I can handle their signals in the same way. Unlike the path I was previously on, where I was attempting to cobble together several tools whilst attempting to avoid a headache from banging my head against the wall, today I can use one toolkit to build Apps that run on pretty much anything with a CPU and see the fruits of my labour. I'm working on a proof of concept and when I've got it to show-and-tell, I'll put it up on my GitHub page, cunningly named after me, VK6FLAB. A final observation. Amateur radio means different things to different people at different times. For me, today, it's about software and GNU Radio. Tomorrow it is just as likely to be about something else. What is possible depends entirely on your imagination, so get playing, either on-air, or on-line, whatever gets you smiling and remember, the impossible happens immediately, miracles take a little longer. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

I picked up the DigiRig DR-891 sound interface, which is specifically made for the Yaesu FT-891 radio. The FT-891 doesn't have its own built-in sound card, so this interface is a great step towards making the FT-891 plug-n-play. Let's take a look at how to set this up and how simple it is to make FT8 contacts from POTA with this DigiRig.Today's video is sponsored by Ham Radio Prep - save 20% off of all course with code jason20Links to items in video:DigiRig DR-891 - https://digirig.net/product/digirig-dr-891/p/1/Yaesu FT-891 - https://amzn.to/3ASD8NVReel POTAable Antenna - https://reelefhw.com/Panasonic FZ-G1 Toughpad - https://amzn.to/4cF3lwVBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

GB2RS News Sunday the 15th of September The news headlines: The RSGB is looking for its next Youth Champion Success for an RSGB member at the IARU ARDF Championship Today is the last chance to book early bird tickets for the RSGB Convention The RSGB is looking for its next volunteer Youth Champion. This could be one role or split between people who focus on different aspects of it. The Youth Champion will work closely with RSGB Board Liaison Ben Lloyd, GW4BML and the RSGB Outreach Team to ignite interest and develop links with schools, universities, Scouts, Guides and the general public. They will also help to support current young amateurs and motivate them to try new things within amateur radio after they gain their license. This role needs someone proactive, good at building relationships with young people, and passionate about inspiring the next generation of radio amateurs. For the full role description go to rsgb.org/volunteers  and if you would like to apply or find out more, contact Ben Lloyd via gw4bml@rsgb.org.uk The 24th IARU Region 1 ARDF Championships in Bulgaria saw an RSGB member on the podium. David Williams, M3WDD took the silver medal position in the M60 category of the 144MHz Classic five-transmitter race at the Championships held at Primorsko, Bulgaria earlier this month. David had come so very close to winning being only 14 seconds behind the winner Jozef Simecek of Slovakia. There were four races altogether. The week of competition started with the Sprint race on 80m followed the next day by the 2m five-transmitter Classic race for the M60 category in which David did so well. A well-earned rest day followed and after that came the 80m five-transmitter race. The week ended with the Foxoring event, a combination of direction finding and orienteering, again using the 80m band. You can see the results in full, and read more about ARDF, at rsgb.org/ardf Don't forget that the RSGB Convention early bird price ends today, Sunday the 15th of September. There's a range of great presentations planned, a fantastic microcontroller workshop to take part in, as well as all the fabulous social opportunities to enjoy like the Gala Dinner. Go to rsgb.org/convention to find out more and book your tickets. Have you ever tried LoRa? Or Node Red? Have you used the Raspberry Pico for coding or played a Morse game with an Arduino? These are just some of the great activities on the RSGB's website that are available for National Coding Week which begins this Monday, the 16th of September. Whether you fancy doing something different for a club night or would like to sample something new just for fun, there's an activity to inspire you! You could even try combining your love of amateur radio with the software interests of a young family member. The RSGB is offering nine activities this year so head over to rsgb.org/coding  and get involved. The next Bletchley Park 1940s weekend is taking place on the 21st and 22nd of September. If you are visiting for the event, make sure you drop into the RSGB National Radio Centre where you'll be able to see several World War Two receivers on display. Don't forget that RSGB members can get free entry to Bletchley Park, which also includes admission to the RSGB National Radio Centre. You can access this fantastic offer by logging into the RSGB membership portal via rsgb.org/members and selecting ‘Visit Bletchley Park'. Don't forget that National Hamfest 2024 is coming up on the 27th and 28th of September and promises to be an unforgettable celebration of all things amateur radio. As always, the traders and manufacturers are lining up to bring you the best in amateur radio equipment and accessories. Many exhibitors will be offering exclusive deals, making it the perfect time to upgrade your gear or add new items to your shack. For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit nationalhamfest.org.uk  And now for details of rallies and events The Broadcast Engineering Museum near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is new and a work in progress, so it only opens a few days each year. Today, from 11 am to 4 pm, the Museum is having an open day. The Museum contains a vast collection of historic broadcasting equipment and memorabilia, some restored and working, on display in a former RAF sergeants' mess. Free parking is available on-site. For more information email contactus@becg.org.uk or visit becg.org.uk The British Vintage Wireless Society is holding a swap meet and auction today, the 15th at the Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8JH. Stallholders can gain entry from 9 am. Admission for visitors will be available from 9.30 am for £8. The auction starts at 12.30 pm and hot and cold refreshments will be available all day. For more information visit bvws.org.uk or email Jeremy Owen, G8MLK at secretary@bvws.org.uk The  East Midlands Ham and Electronics Rally is taking place on Saturday the 21st of September. The venue will be Beckingham Village Hall, Southfield Lane, Doncaster, DN10 4FX. The doors will be open for visitors from 9.30 am until 4 pm and admission will cost £3 per person. Disabled access will be available from 9.15 am. For more information, including booking and contact details, visit g0raf.co.uk/rally Weston Super Mare Radio Society Radio and Electronics Rally will take place on Sunday the 22nd of September from 10 am. The venue will be The Campus Community Centre, Worle, Weston super Mare, BS24 7DX. For further information and to book a table email westonradiosociety@gmail.com Now the Special Event news To celebrate the G-QRP Club's 50th anniversary special callsign G5LOW, and all its regional variants, will be QRV until the 30th of September. In addition, several overseas stations will be joining in with the event. For more information, including details of commemorative certificates that will be available for chasers, visit tinyurl.com/GQRP50 Advance notice now that during October and November, special callsign PZ5JT will be back on the air from Surinam during the jungle training of the Royal Dutch Army and Marines. The station is operated by personnel from the signal regiment and they will be working on the 40, 20, 17, 15 and 10m bands using SSB. Operators will be using in-service military L3Harris radios from different locations and will welcome your call. Now the DX news Carl Gorse, 2E0HPI will be operating from multiple locations for the Parks On The Air scheme around the Lancashire area from tomorrow, the 16th, to Friday the 20th of September. He will be using Yaesu FT-857d and Xiegu G90 transceivers with 20W. Listen out for Carl on all bands from 160 to 10m using FT4, FT8 and SSB.  Maxim, OH7O will be active as 3D2YY from Viti Levu, OC- 016, on Fiji until the 19th of September. He will operate mostly SSB and some slow CW on the 40 to 10m bands, and possibly the 80m band, from different locations around the island. See QRZ.com for more information. Now the contest news Today, the 15th, the 70MHz Affiliated Societies Contest runs from 0900 to 1200UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The Worked All Europe DX SSB Contest started at 0000UTC on Saturday the 14th and runs until 2359UTC today, Sunday the 15th of September. Using SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Today, the 15th, the UK Microwave Group 24 to 76GHz Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using All modes on 24 to 76GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, today, the 15th, the IRTS 70cm Counties Contest runs from 1300 to 1330UTC. Using SSB and FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Irish stations also give their county. The IRTS 2m Counties Contest is also taking place today, the 15th, from 1300 to 1500 UTC. Using SSB and FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Irish stations also give their county. Also today, the 15th, the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group Sprint PSK63 Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using PSK63 on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is your serial number. Tomorrow, the 16th, the RSGB FT4 Contest runs from 1900 to 2030 UTC. Using FT4 on the 80 to 10m bands, the exchange is your report. On Tuesday the 17th, the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130 UTC. Using all modes on 1.3GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 19th, the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130 UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Sunday the 22nd, the Practical Wireless 70MHz Contest runs from 1200 to 1600UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 12th of September 2024 Last week showed that HF conditions are improving as we head into the autumn. With a solar flux index still above 200, there was plenty of DX available to work. CDXC members reported working VP6WR on the Pitcairn Islands, KH8T on American Samoa and 3D2USU on Fiji, which is not a bad catch for early September. A little closer to home, 9A168TESLA in Croatia has been popping up for short periods celebrating the 168th anniversary of the birthday of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla. Watch DX Summit closely for operating times. The daylight maximum useable frequency, or MUF, over 3,000 kilometres remains above 28MHz on the whole, although a raised Kp index tends to reduce this. Geomagnetic conditions remained relatively calm with the Kp index below 3 all week. That changed on Thursday the 12th as material from a coronal mass ejection, or CME passed the ACE spacecraft in the early hours. The solar wind speed increased to more than 500 kilometres per second and the Bz swung south. On Thursday the 12th, the Kp index was 5 and the Met Office Space Weather department was forecasting potentially unsettled conditions for this weekend, ending today the 15th. At the same time an X-class flare occurred, with lowered MUFs due to increased D-layer absorption. Two large coronal holes on the Sun's surface are also now Earth-facing and threaten to add to the solar wind this weekend. According to NOAA's predictions, the solar flux index should stay in the 210 to 225 range next week, although a large number of spots are about to rotate off the Sun's visible disk. This may be compensated by an active region that's about to rotate into view. This has been emitting C-Class and lower-level M-flares and could potentially be the same region that produced several energetic eruptions off the far side of the Sun over the past week. Time will tell. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The heavy showers at the end of last week produced some good rain scatter, but no QSOs in the UK were noted due to the showers not coinciding with GHz contests and few suitable home stations were active to take advantage of them. After a gradual build-up of pressure over this weekend, ending the 15th, high pressure is suggested by most models during the coming week. However, there is some uncertainty about the position of the high.   Currently, models are favouring the north of Britain and this means that in the south, although still on the edge of high pressure, there could be a brisk northeasterly breeze, which may weaken the inversion prospects. It's not clear if the Tropo will be functioning in time for the 70MHz Affiliated Societies Contest today, the 15th, but should be helpful for the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest on Tuesday the 17th and the 70MHz UK Activity Contest on Thursday the 19th. Solar conditions are still likely to offer the chance of the occasional elevated Kp index, which is a good sign of possible aurora. It will be interesting to see how things evolve this weekend, ending the 15th, as a series of expected CMEs are due to reach Earth.  The amateur bands between 10m and 2m are the ones to check as well as looking out for ‘watery' sounding signals on the HF bands. Remember it doesn't have to be dark for radio aurora, so don't wait for dusk before checking. Meteor scatter is mainly down to random activity in the coming week. However, with the September Epsilon Perseids stream still active until the 21st, having peaked on the 9th, conditions may be slightly enhanced. For EME operators, Moon declination is negative but rising and going positive again on Wednesday the 18th. Moon visibility windows will continue to rise while path losses decrease as we approach perigee on Wednesday the 18th. 144MHz sky noise is moderate for the whole of next week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

There are new HF Radio Bag Inserts for the Explorer Backpacks from Gigaparts. Now you can choose from a laptop sleeve, or from bags for the Icom IC-7300, Yaesu FT-891, Yaes FT-991a or Yaesu FT-817/818. Coming soon there will be a new IC-705 bag which is larger than the original, so you will be able to add a Peovi (or similar) cage to the 705 and have it fit into the new bag.SPONSOR: Save 10% on all M&P Coax at this link - https://hr2.li/cables Find all Explorer Bag options at this link - also save 5% with code KC5HWB - https://hr2.li/gigapartsAffiliate links can earn commissions on qualifying itemsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

The Yaesu FT-60R has to be one of the longest radios available for purchase. First released in 2004, the FT-60R is still for sale, 20 years later! Yes, this is a Ham Radio, but this rugged two way radio has a wide enough receiver that it could be used as a conventional only scanner radio. While it lacks some of the bells and whistles that most scanner radios have, this radio has enough going for it that the losses can be overlooked. Today's review is broken down into 3 parts.   A general summary review, a amateur radio review, and a scanner radio review. ====================================

Foundations of Amateur Radio Walking into your shack is often a joyous experience. You take a moment to smile at your setup and, at least mentally, rub your hands in glee anticipating some fun. Well, that is how it is for me, but recently it's been less of that and more of an audible groan at the accumulated cruft that makes it nigh on impossible to sit down, let alone achieve anything fun. It's not as bad as it could be. I'm forced to keep my station at least operational to host my weekly net, but if that wasn't there, it would have been overtaken by anything and everything finding a flat surface to put stuff on. It got to the point where I had to move some radio equipment off my desk, just so I could pile more stuff onto it. So, on Tuesday I finally had enough. It was a pretty normal day, waiting for others to get stuff done, deadlines be damned, but I took one look at the shack and snapped. This has happened before and I suspect that it will continue to happen throughout my life, but that day I'd crossed the line. Before I share what I achieved, I should mention a couple of other things. If you've been here for a while you'll know that I am an unashamed computer geek. Software Defined Radio, or SDR, appears to have been invented just for me, embedded computers, digital modes, networking, data analytics, Linux, Docker, you name it, I'm there. Mind you, this isn't new. It's been true for nearly forty years now, ever since I set foot into my high-school computer lab where I found myself looking at a bank of Apple 2 computers. Then I bought the first computer in my class, a Commodore VIC 20. Life was never quite the same. This to tell you just how much computing features in my day-to-day. I have a long term plan to use embedded computers like for example a Raspberry Pi to essentially turn my analogue Yaesu FT-857d into a networked SDR. The idea being that I use my main computer to do the processing and the Pi to control the radio and feed the audio in and out across the network. I want to make it so that you can use any traditional SDR tool with such a radio, and if I get it right, any other radio. For more context, I'm getting more and more deaf. I swear my SO is speaking softer each day and hearing tests tell me that audio above 2 kHz is pretty much gone. I have been playing with audio signal processing with a view to tailoring the audio coming from my radio into something more audible to me. On Tuesday I had an ah-ha moment. I could keep waiting until I got all that done and then set-up my shack just so, or I could embrace the analogue nature of my gear and use the mixing desk I have to feed the audio through its on-board audio processing and at least improve my audio experience today, rather than some nebulous future time. Finally, I purchased a peg board some time ago for the specific purpose of strapping my coax switches to so I would not have to contend with coax all over my desk whilst trying to remember which switch did what when I finally had a moment to play. All this came together in a new version of my shack, albeit an alpha pre-release, to be treated with extreme caution, if you break it, you get to keep both parts and it will kill a kitten without notice. To get started, I removed all non-radio stuff from my desk. Including half a dozen computers, a dozen patch leads and adaptors left over from the harmonics testing project, there were monitor cables, USB cables, a variety of power supplies and a stray binder with empty pages. I found all the radio gear that I really wanted to have on my desk, placed it where I could actually use it and figured out how to connect the audio output from each radio to the mixing desk which also found a home. Then I jumped on the RF side of things. Getting started was the hardest part. I decided that it would make sense to split the peg board in two, one half for HF, the other for VHF and UHF. I have two coax switches that I use as the entry point onto the board. They're each fed with the antenna coax and each have one port connected to the other. The idea being that during a thunderstorm I can connect the two antennas to each other and isolate the rest of the shack. It won't protect against an actual direct hit, but all charge being built up should dissipate between the two antennas. Feel free to give me suggestions on how better to do this in a shack located on the second floor of a house in Australia. Note that the rules for grounding across the world are drastically different, so don't assume that your laws apply in Australia. The HF coax side has a strapped down Bias-T which powers the SG237 antenna coupler that's outside. Then there's a switch so I can connect HF to a radio or to a beacon, which I also strapped to the peg board. On the VHF side there's just a second coax switch to select between two radios, but only one is currently connected. I plan to strap my PlutoSDR to the other port. I powered everything up and couldn't trigger the local repeater. I got out my handheld and tried. That worked fine. I could even hear it on my main radio, but it wouldn't trigger. No SWR issues, I could hear local broadcast stations, but still couldn't trigger the repeater. It took an embarrassingly long time to discover that I had managed to feed the HF antenna into the VHF/UHF side. The SWR was fine because it was triggering the SG237, so, fun. On the audio side I can now change the compression of a signal, change the low, mid and high frequencies and if I feel inclined change the balance between my ears. Microphone is via the hand microphone, for now. There's no CAT control at the moment and I still need to plumb in the push to talk, or PTT, foot pedal. I also need to move the peg board so RF cables aren't dangling in the breeze, but overall, a massive improvement and best of all, I turned on my radio and it wasn't even Saturday morning. So, what's your excuse for procrastinating? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio At a recent local HAMfest we set-up a table to measure second and third harmonic emissions from any handheld radio that came our way. The process was fun and we learnt lots and in due course we plan to publish a report on our findings. When we received a handheld, we would disconnect the antenna, and replace it with a short length of coax and connect it to a spectrum analyser. We would then trigger the Push To Talk, or PTT button and measure several things. We'd record the actual frequency and how many Watts that the transmitter was producing and then record the power level in dBm for the base frequency, double that frequency and triple that frequency. In other words, we'd record the base, second and third harmonics. This resulted in a list of numbers. Frequency and power in Watts are obvious, but the three dBm numbers caused confusion for many visitors. The most perplexing appeared to be that we were producing negative dBm numbers, and truth be told, some positive ones as well, we'll get to those in our report. How can you have negative power you ask? As I've discussed before. A negative dBm number isn't a negative value of power, it's a fraction, so, -30 dBm represents 0.000001 Watts and you'd have to admit that -30 dBm rolls off the tongue just a little easier. What we measured and logged was the overall transmitter output and at specific frequencies. As I've discussed previously, if you transmit using any transceiver, you'll produce power at the intended frequency, but there will also be unintended or unwanted transmissions, known as spurious emissions. The International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, has standards for such emissions. In Australia the regulator, the ACMA, uses the ITU standard for radio amateurs, but I should point out that this might not be the case where you are. It's entirely possible, and given human diversity, probable even, that there are places where there are more stringent requirements, so bear that in mind. I'll state the standard and then explain. For frequencies greater than 30 MHz, the spurious emission must not exceed the lesser of 43 + 10 * log (power) or 70 dB. That might sound like gobbledegook, so let's explore. First thing to notice is that this is for transmissions where the transmitter is tuned to a frequency greater than 30 MHz, there's a separate rule for frequencies less than 30 MHz and the ITU also specifies a range of different limits for special purpose transmitters like broadcast radio and television, space services, and others. Second thing is that the spurious emissions are calculated based on total mean output power. This means that your spurious emissions are considered in relation to how much power you're using to transmit and it implies that for some transmitters you can be in compliance at one power level, but not at another, so keep that in mind. The phrase "the lesser of", means that from a compliance perspective, there's a point at which power levels no longer determine how much attenuation of spurious emissions is required. You can calculate that point. It's where our formula hits 70 dB, and that is at 500 Watts. In other words, to meet the ITU standard, if you're transmitting with less than 500 Watts, you're subject to the formula and if you're transmitting with more than 500 Watts, you're required to meet the 70 dB standard. It means that, at least in Australia, spurious emissions for amateurs are dependent on transmitter power because the maximum permitted power is currently 400 Watts for an amateur holding a so-called Advanced License. Now I'll also point out explicitly that the emission standards that the ITU specifies are for generic "radio equipment", which includes amateur radio, but also includes anything else with a transmitter. One thing to mention is that spurious emissions aren't limited to the second and third harmonics that we measured, in fact they're not even limited to harmonics. If you're using a particular mode then anything that's transmitted outside the bandwidth of that mode is considered a spurious emission and there are standards for that as well. As an aside, it was interesting to me that in many cases amateur radio is treated separately from other radio services, but the ITU considers our community just one of several spectrum users and it's good to remember that the entire universe is playing in the same sandbox, even if only some of it is regulated by the ITU and your local regulator. So, let's imagine that you have a handheld radio that has a total mean power output of 5 Watts. When you calculate using the formula, you end up at 50 dB attenuation. In other words, the spurious emissions may not exceed -13 dBm. So, if your radio measures -20 dBm on the second harmonic, it's compliant for that harmonic, but if it measures -10 dBm, it's not. I should also point out that this is for each spurious emission. About half the radios we tested had a second harmonic that was worse than the third harmonic. So, what does this mean for your radio? I'd recommend that you start reading and measuring. You'll need to measure the total mean power, and the signal strength at the base frequency and the second and third harmonic. I will mention that surprises might happen. For example, the Yaesu FT-857d radio I use every week to host a net appears to be transmitting with a power level that doesn't match its setting. At 5 Watts, it's only transmitting just over 2 Watts into the antenna, but at the 10 Watt setting, it's pretty much 10 Watts. You also don't need a fancy tool like we were using. All these measurements are relative to each other and you could even use a $20 RTL-SDR USB dongle, but before you start transmitting into its antenna port, make sure you have enough attenuation connected between the transmitter and your dongle, otherwise you'll quickly discover the escape velocity of the magic smoke inside. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

My Kenwood TS940 Power supply issue, I got my old FT450 back, and a stain on my shirt.

Today I welcome Doug, N4HNH, onto the channel. He runs the channel @n4hnhradio and does some really good videos about receiver performance on many models of Ham Radio. Today we compare the new FT-710 AESS from Yaesu to it's older brother, the FTdx-10. Doug has a more detailed breakdown of this comparison on his channel, but you will want to get the highlights and main differences from this video.Let me know what you think in the comments!

Here are the links for today's video:Orange Hamfest - https://www.qsl.net/w5nd/index_files/HAMFEST%20INFO/hamfest%20info.htm Greater Houston Hamfest - https://houstonhamfest.orgQSO Today Ham Expo - https://qsotoday.vfairs.com/en/registration-form?utm_source=HR20R&L Daily Deal - https://hr2.li/5fsa3Bridgecom Giveaway - https://www.bridgecomsystems.com/pages/big-game-giveawayChatt Radio - https://hr2.li/chattradioVHQ Hexbeams - https://hr2.li/vhqhexEd Fong Antennas and Ham Radio 2.0 MERCH - http://shop.hamradio2.comArrowhead Tactical Apparel - http://hr2.li/goddwSAVE 15% with Coupon KC5HWBGigaparts - http://hr2.li/gigapartsSave 5% with Coupon KC5HWBNEW GMRS RADIO! - Wouxun KG-935G Plus - http://hr2.li/6w52lLAST BATCH of Yaesu FT-818 Radios - https://qrper.com/2023/02/last-batch-of-new-yaesu-ft-818nds-list-of-retailers-and-pricingAffiliate links can earn commissions from qualifying items.

I bought a Japanese version of the Yaesu FT-818 QRP HF Ham Radio from eBay last month - let's unbox it on today's livestream and compare it to the US model.

I found a "used, without box" Yaesu FT-818 on eBay for $86. Do you think I will ever get it?$86 FT-818 - https://ebay.us/On2YNzMy FT-818 - https://ebay.us/j209BdYOUR FT-818 - https://ebay.us/YPXmPo

Foundations of Amateur Radio If you've ever been in the market for a new radio, and truth be told, who isn't, you'll find yourself faced with a bewildering array of options varying from obvious to obscure and everything in between. At the obvious end of the scale are things like price, bands and transmit power and at the other end are things like Narrow Spaced Dynamic Range, which you'll find explained by Rob NC0B on his sherweng.com website where he's been publishing receiver test data for many decades. One of the more subtle options you'll need to consider are handheld, mobile or base radio. This is harder than you might think, since radios are increasing in functionality every time you wake up and if you look long enough, you'll discover that they're getting smaller at the same rate. Once upon a time you could just look at the size of a radio and define it as belonging in one or other category, but that's no longer a useful distinction. For example, my PlutoSDR is a tiny device, fits in my pocket, but there's no way I'd consider it a handheld, or even a mobile radio. You might think that a bigger box has more stuff inside, costs more and performs better. For example, the Drake R-4C receiver and companion T-4XC transmitter require external power and were once rated by the ARRL as very good. In reality the Drake R-4C performed terribly in a CW contest, incidentally, that was what caused Rob to start testing radios in 1976. That receiver and transmitter manage to cover 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m and together weigh in at 14.3 kg. They're considered a base radio. The Yaesu FT-817, runs on batteries, weighs in at just over a kilogram and can be carried with a shoulder strap. It comes as a single device and covers many more bands than the Drake transmitter and receiver do, it would be considered a mobile or even portable radio. Obviously it would be hard to jam a Drake into your car or strap it to your belt, but does that mean that you cannot use an FT-817 as the base radio in your shack? In case you're curious, the slightly beefier brother to the FT-817, the mobile FT-857d, is sitting on my desk as my current base radio. Has been for years. So why do manufacturers continue to make this distinction between handheld, mobile and base radio? One look at the nearest radio catalogue will tell you that it's not based on either performance or price, not even close. You can buy a handheld with more functionality for the same price as a mobile radio and that same is true when you compare a mobile radio to a base radio. Radios vary in price from $20 to $20,000. A cynical person would suggest that pricing is based around extracting the most money from your pocket, but a more charitable explanation might be that physical size dictates things like the number of buttons you can fit on a radio, how many connectors can be accessed before the radio flies off the desk from the weight of the coax hanging off the box, how big is the display and other such limitations. I'm not being glib when I use the word charitable, since much of modern transceiver design revolves around software which can pretty much fit in any box. Using external computers, neither buttons nor a display are needed, leaving external connectors, which if we're being really honest could all fit in a box that would fit in your pocket. At this point you might wonder if handheld, mobile or base has any meaning at all. As I said, in most cases it doesn't. There's really only one place left where this matters, and that's when you have access to strictly limited space and power if you need to put the radio in your pocket or cram it into your car. For your home shack, the distinction is unhelpful for most, if not all, amateurs. Don't believe me? The Yaesu FT-710 currently ranks fourth on Rob's Sherwood Engineering Receiver Test Data List. It's a quarter the size of the top radio and it's sold as a "Base/Portable Transceiver". Yaesu calls it "Compact". It might not fit in the dashboard of my car, but it will fit on the folding table we use during field days. That isn't an exception either. The Elecraft KX3 is the smallest radio on the first page of Rob's Receiver Test Data list. It fits in your pocket. Before you start collecting statistics for each radio, I should point out that the more you know about this hobby, the harder this process becomes, so be careful. That said, if you have a massive list of anything to choose from, a new amateur radio, pet food, car, what to have for dinner, whatever, here's a process that will guarantee a result. It works by eliminating one item at a time until you're left with your preference. To start, grab the first two items on your list and pick the best one between the two. Ignore everything else, just those two items. You're going to fret about the definition of "best", but don't worry, since every time you do this, you'll have a different idea. All you're doing is saying, all things being equal, between these two options, which one do I prefer. No need to describe why, just pick one. In picking one, you've removed one option from the list. Now, compare the winner to the next item on the list, again, ignore everything else and pick one and remove the other. Keep doing this until you run out of items. You'll end up with the single option that wins, for whatever reason, from the entire list. Now, about that radio. All I need is the next paid project. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1244 - New Year's Edition Release Date: December 31, 2022 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Fred Fitte, NF2F, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, Will Rogers, K5WLR, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:18:13 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1244 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service: 1. Department Of Homeland Security Auxiliary Communications (AUXCOMM) Training Course Announced 2. Representative Bill Johnson of Ohio Introduces Bill to Eliminate Private Land Use Restrictions on Amateur Radio 3. Alaskan Experiment Fired Two Second RF Chirps To A Near Earth Asteroid 4. Yaesu FT-818 and FTM-400 Will Be Discontinued 5. Radio Society of Great Britain Is Planning Events For The Upcoming Coronation of King Charles III 6. U.S. Schools Selected For International Space Station Contacts In 2023 7. Slow Scan Television Unit on International Space Station Is Inoperable - Astronauts Stranded Due To Meteoroid Strike 8. The Four Meter Band Is Granted To Swiss Amateurs 9. German Amateurs Gain Temporary Authorisations 10. Ohio DX Group Honors Mentors Who Inspire Other Hams 11. The DX Ultra Marathon For 2023 Gets Underway 12. Amateur Radio Population Grows On Prince Edward Island Following Storms 13. Radio Stations Shut Or Power Down At Night, Because Of The Laws Of Physics 14. Registration is open for the January 7, 2023 Ham Radio University online webinars 15. New Years means it is time to update your club information with the league 16. Representative Lesko introduces a bill in Congress to replace the symbol rate limit with a bandwidth limit 17. A group of Marines gain radio experience and become licensed amateur operators 18. Direct to full license exam is now available in the United Kingdom 19. Upcoming conventions and operating or upcoming contests. Plus these Special Features This Week: * Technology News and Commentary with Leo Laporte, W6TWT, will talk about how China wants to redesign the internet, with a one new special feature...And he'll talk about donating that old computer you have, and trying new flavors of Linux. * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News * Tower Climbing and Antenna Safety w/Greg Stoddard KF9MP, will have some general antenna mounting tips to help you grow that aluminum farm in your yard. * Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will try to answer the question, What Is A Volt? * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Bill Continelli, W2XOY - The History of Amateur Radio. Bill returns to his series, The Ancient Amateur Archives, this week, Bill takes another back to November 1963. The year that pitted hams against hams, and hams against the ARRL. Bill will talking about the introduction of Incentive Licensing. ----- Website: https://www.twiar.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/twiar RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2 Automated: https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, changed weekly) ----- Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news. Air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less. This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more. This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area. You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio! This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com. Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on Twitter! Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space! Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.

This Comet CF-416 allows you to use 2 radios into 1 antenna, or in this case - 2 ports from my Yaesu FT-847 into one antenna.Link: https://www.gigaparts.com/comet-antennas-cf-416b.html

Here are the links for today's video:

Foundations of Amateur Radio Having been able to call myself an amateur for over a decade, it might come as a surprise to you that it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I thought about attenuators for the first time. They're a curious tool and once you come across them, you'll never be quite the same. Before I dive in you should know that an amplifier is an active tool that makes things bigger and an attenuator is a passive tool that makes things smaller. To look at, attenuators are diminutive to say the least. The ones I have in my kit look like barrel connectors, a male and female connector and seemingly not much else, but looks can be deceiving and I'll mention that shape isn't universal. The purpose of an attenuator is to reduce the power of an RF signal by a known amount, preferably without distortion or any impedance mismatches. When you go out hunting and gathering, your choice of connector is the first obvious selection, but soon after you'll be asked for a frequency range, an impedance, a power level and an attenuation level, so let's take a look. I have some attenuators with N-type and SMA connectors. There's options for every connector under the sun, so consider what you're using with your gear and remember to think about your measuring equipment connectors as well. In my case my shack is pretty much SMA the whole way, but a friend had some broadcast N-type attenuators and I was unable to resist. The next thing is impedance. In my case 50 Ohm, but there's options for other choices like 75 Ohm for TV based attenuators. The purpose of an attenuator is to reduce power. It does so by converting power into heat and more power handling means more heat. Too much heat and the attenuator starts letting out the magic smoke, so consider how much power your RF source is generating. Putting out 5 Watts? Then make sure that you don't connect a 1 Watt attenuator to that radio. Now for the attenuation level. It's described in dB or decibel. At first the numbers look bewildering, but pretty soon you'll be familiar with how it hangs together. A 3 dB attenuator will halve the signal, so a 10 Watt signal will be reduced to 5 Watts and a 200 mW signal will be reduced to 100 mW. If you have a 6 dB attenuator, it will halve again, so 10 Watts becomes 2.5 Watts and 200 mW becomes 50 mW. A 10 dB attenuator is a little more than 9 dB, so you could try something along the lines of a bit more than half again, but you don't need to. 10 dB attenuation is essentially moving the decimal point. A 10 Watt signal with 10 dB attenuation becomes 1 Watt. A 200 mW signal becomes 20 mW. If you have a 20 dB attenuator, it moves the decimal point two places, 10 Watts becomes 0.1 of a Watt, or 100 mW and 200 mW with 20 dB attenuation becomes 2 mW. You can connect two attenuators together and combine their values by adding them together. For example, combining a 10 dB attenuator with a 3 dB attenuator makes for 13 dB attenuation which moves the decimal point and then halves that. All that's fine and dandy, but what's the point? Well, imagine that you want to measure the actual power output of your radio. If you were to pump the minimum power level of my Yaesu FT-857d into a NanoVNA you'd blow it up, but if you added say 20 dB attenuation, that 5 Watt would become 0.05 Watts or 50 mW which is half the power rating of the NanoVNA. If you're not confident that your radio is actually putting out 5 Watts, you could add 30 dB attenuation and have a safe margin at an expected output of 5 mW. I mentioned that attenuators don't all look like an innocent barrel connector. That's because if you have to attenuate something with higher power levels, you'll need a way to dissipate heat, in much the same way as a dummy load has cooling fins, higher power attenuators can come with cooling fins too. On the inside of this contraption is a simple circuit made from three or four resistors which combine to attenuate your signal. If you're inclined to build your own, there are plenty of online calculators to be found that show how to put an attenuator together. One thing I've skipped over is the frequency range. Most of us are having fun with HF, VHF and UHF, generally below 1 GHz, so most attenuators will be fine, but if you are playing at higher frequencies you should take note of the frequency range specified for the attenuator. While on the subject of frequency range. You can easily measure the actual performance of an attenuator using a NanoVNA. Connect Port 1 to Port 2 through your attenuator and using the magnitude trace you can see just how much attenuation it provides. Be sure to set the intended frequency range and calibrate without the attenuator before measuring. Now that I know about attenuation, I cannot imagine a life without, but to be fair, I was in blissful ignorance for more than a decade, so this might not apply to you, yet, but one day perhaps you'll find yourself thinking about adding some attenuation to your tool kit. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

EvoSec Defensive Pistol and Combatives and Weapons Integration - 16 hr course 19-20 Nov 2022 in Tulsa Oklahoma.  Gear and Mindset show 9 Eric and Aaron talk Emergency Comms.  They also talk Low Ready to keep you from legal trouble in a no shoot yet and no shoot scenario and more.  Good All around Quick Reference Guide for Ham Radio and preparing you for obtaining your license. Ham Radio 2021 For Technicians, Extras and General License : A 2021 Quick Reference Guide to Obtaining License and Setting up your Amateur Radio Station (Paperback) - Walmart.com Study App Eric used to study, prepare and take practice tests which led to easily passing both the Technician and General Amateur Radio license exams.  HAM Test Prep Lite: Technician on the App Store (apple.com) Excellent Free Source for all your practice needs:  HamExam.org: Free Amateur Radio Practice Tests with Flash Cards MURS Radios Motorola RMM2050 MURS Two Way Radio (buytwowayradios.com) Inexpensive yet decent quality MURS radios for being on a budget: Amazon.com: BTECH MURS-V1 MURS Two-Way Radio, License Free Two-Way Radio for Manufacturing, Retail, Personal, and Business : Electronics HF Radios Eric's Yaesu 857D is now discontinued, but the replacement is very reasonable: Yaesu FT-891 Yaesu FT-891 HF/50MHz All Mode Mobile Transceivers | DX Engineering Eric's Main Rig Yaesu FT-991A Yaesu FT-991A HF/VHF/UHF Multi-Mode Transceivers | DX Engineering Inexpensive but decent solar charger for ham radio batteries Amazon.com: SOLPERK Solar Panel Kit 20W 12V, Solar Battery Trickle Charger Maintainer + Upgrade Controller + Adjustable Mount Bracket for Boat Car RV Motorcycle Marine Automotive : Everything Else DMR Newer Preferred DMR radio – Anytone AT-D878UVII Radio GigaParts.com Please subscribe and share our podcast with friends and family.  Visit our website for bios, future events and info at www.evosec.org  Like, follow and share us on Facebook and Instagram @evosecusa Origin/Jocko Fuel – Bringing back American manufacturing, producing the best Jiu-Jitsu Gis on the market, Jeans, rash guards, and world class supplements to help you on the path.  Use EvoSec10 at checkout for 10% off, this helps us greatly.  EVOSEC Originusa.com AFFILIATE LINK Tenicor – www.tenicor.com 

Today we have our hands on the newest HF radio from Yaesu, the FT-710 AESS, and I've invited John back onto the livestream to walk us through some menus and talk about the features of this new radio. Bring your questions and join us for the livestream!Purchase link: http://hr2.li/1qyad

Join me tonight for the GIVEAWAY of a brand new Yaesu FT-710 AESS HF Radio. I don't have this radio yet, but it is on order. Once received, I will do a couple of videos with it, then ship it to the winner.

Show Notes (contains affiliate links): First Impressions of the Yaesu FT-710   On this week's episode of Ham Radio Crash Course, a podcast roughly based on amateur radio but mostly made up of responding to emails from listeners, hosted by Josh Nass - KI6NAZ and his reluctant wife, Leah - KN6NWZ, we talk about ham radio adjacency, preparedness purchases people regret and first impressions of the Yaesu FT-710.    Have a drink with us! Today, we're drinking…  Yuengling Hershey's Chocolate Porter from Russ! Thank you so much!    Josh has a short tip with the Ham Radio Minute: Ham Radio Adjacency Is Getting Wild   Join the conversation by leaving a review on Apple Podcast for Ham Radio Crash Course podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ham-radio-crash-course/id1400794852 and/or emailing Leah@hamtactical.com. Leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts will help Ham Radio Crash Course reach more hams and future hams and we appreciate it!   Preparedness Corner: Preparedness purchases to think twice about. https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/xjl35q/what_is_a_purchase_you_regret_lets_help_others/ Email Correspondent's Tower: We answer emails with ham radio questions, comments on previous podcasts, T-shirt suggestions and everything in between.   Links mentioned in the ECT:    Ken's Chinese Painting suggested channel: https://youtube.com/user/blueheronarts   Don's link about LiDAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lGi4wMdQQ&t=960s   Logan proves that SD is the worst airport to fly into: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtomXqoDgsI   Ham Solo's Will It Antenna Video: https://youtu.be/SkwNXXs1umA   Charlie suggest helping with Alaska post Typhoon Merbok aid: https://alaskacf.org/funds/western-ak-disaster-recovery-fund/   Nathan suggests the Big E! https://www.thebige.com/ http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-takes-center-stage-at-the-big-e Show Topic: First look at the FT-710.  Thank you all for listening to the podcast.  We have a lot of fun making it and the fact you listen and send us feedback means alot to us!   Want to send us something? Josh Nass  P.O. Box 5101 Cerritos, CA 90703-5101 Support the Ham Radio Crash Course Podcast: Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/hoshnasi Shop HamTactical: http://www.hamtactical.com Shop Our Affiliates: http://hamradiocrashcourse.com/affiliates/ Shop Our Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/hamradiocrashcourse As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.   Connect with Us: Website...................► http://hamradiocrashcourse.com YouTube..................► https://www.youtube.com/c/HamRadioCrashCourse Podcast...................► https://hamradiocrashcourse.podbean.com/ Discord....................► https://discord.gg/xhJMxDT Facebook................► https://goo.gl/cv5rEQ Twitter......................► https://twitter.com/Hoshnasi Instagram.................► https://instagram.com/hoshnasi (Josh) Instagram.................►https://instagram.com/hamtactical (Leah)  

Show Notes (contains affiliate links): Leah Reacts to the KX2, 705, 599 and 818.    On this week's episode of Ham Radio Crash Course, a podcast roughly based on amateur radio but mostly made up of responding to emails from listeners, hosted by Josh Nass - KI6NAZ and his reluctant wife, Leah - KN6NWZ, we talk about why you should just bring it with you, Kansas disaster research and Leah's hot takes on 4 of Josh's radios.    Have a drink with us! Today, we're drinking…  Crime   Josh has a short tip with the Ham Radio Minute: Just Bring It.    Join the conversation by leaving a review on Apple Podcast for Ham Radio Crash Course podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ham-radio-crash-course/id1400794852 and/or emailing Leah@hamtactical.com. Leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts will help Ham Radio Crash Course reach more hams and future hams and we appreciate it!   Preparedness Corner: $20MM Kansas disaster research https://www.wibw.com/2022/06/14/20-million-headed-kansas-research-better-natural-disaster-responses/ Email Correspondent's Tower: We answer emails with ham radio questions, comments on previous podcasts, T-shirt suggestions and everything in between.   Links mentioned in the ECT:    Doug's Amish Paradise Suggestions: https://essenhaus.com/   https://www.thebluegate.com/   Midwest Reprap: https://www.facebook.com/midwestreprapfest/   How to pronounce folk: https://youtube.com/shorts/Z-tBgR0IsHU?feature=share Show Topic: Leah reacts to the Elecraft KX2, Discovery Lab599, Yaesu 818 and Icom 705.  Thank you all for listening to the podcast.  We have a lot of fun making it and the fact you listen and send us feedback means alot to us!   Want to send us something? Josh Nass  P.O. Box 5101 Cerritos, CA 90703-5101 Support the Ham Radio Crash Course Podcast: Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/hoshnasi Shop HamTactical: http://www.hamtactical.com Shop Our Affiliates: http://hamradiocrashcourse.com/affiliates/ Shop Our Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/hamradiocrashcourse As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.   Connect with Us: Website...................► http://hamradiocrashcourse.com YouTube..................► https://www.youtube.com/c/HamRadioCrashCourse Podcast...................► https://hamradiocrashcourse.podbean.com/ Discord....................► https://discord.gg/xhJMxDT Facebook................► https://goo.gl/cv5rEQ Twitter......................► https://twitter.com/Hoshnasi Instagram.................► https://instagram.com/hoshnasi (Josh) Instagram.................►https://instagram.com/hamtactical (Leah)  

Members of our community share a review of the Yaesu FT-4XR. The purpose of the 30 Days feature is to provide an honest review system in which members of our community are randomly chosen to test ham radio or ham radio adjacent products.WebsiteContactDiscordFacebookYouTubeSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christiancudnik)

Foundations of Amateur Radio After weeks of attempting to get some noise, any noise out of my PlutoSDR I have finally cracked it. Not sure if cracked it refers to my sanity or the outcome, but beeping was heard from the Pluto on my radio, so I'm doing victory laps around the house, all conquering hero type affair, complete with whooping and hand waving. In the end it all came down to serendipity and truth be told, I know it beeps, I've heard it beep, it does so on a predictable frequency, but why it exactly works is still a mystery that has yet to be discovered since the documentation I have isn't sharing and the example code I have contradicts what I'm seeing. For context, a PlutoSDR, or Pluto, is a very capable software defined radio, perfect for experimentation. I've talked about it before in the context of using it as a receiver. My most recent efforts involved coaxing my Pluto out of a corner after it sat there sulking for weeks. Turns out that not only was my USB power lead broken, which caused the blinken lights to stay off. When I finally figured that out, I discovered that one of the two wireless dongles I'd purchased together was Dead On Arrival. After a frustrating morning with the manufacturer who wouldn't take my word for it that swapping out the two identical units would not require installing the driver, something about Windows Device Manager on my Linux computer, I went back to the store who happily swapped out the faulty device on the spot. Mind you, the Pluto still isn't talking to my wireless network, but at least it's not the dongle anymore. I plugged the Pluto into the back of my main workstation and discovered to my surprise that in addition to showing up as a thumb-drive, which I knew about, it also turned up as a network device, which I didn't know about. It's been a while since I powered this up to play, so I updated the firmware which fixed some annoying issues and started to explore. The aim of my quest was to create a proof of concept beep from the command-line on the Pluto. If you're not familiar with this. The Pluto is running a flavour of Linux. You can connect to its command-line and run commands from inside the hardware. This is important because for most radios, of both the analogue and software kind, you generate the information somewhere, like Morse Code, a WSPR signal, your voice, what-ever and then you send that to the radio. On an analogue radio it's likely to go across an audio cable of some sort and if you have a software defined radio, it's likely to travel from your computer across a USB or network cable to the radio to get processed. This is different in that there is no such signal coming across the USB link. The link is used as a network cable to ssh into the radio where you can generate whatever you want. In my case Morse. If you're not familiar with ssh, think of it as a keyboard connection to a remote computer. My script, hacked together as it is, more on that shortly, takes a string, like say "CQ DE VK6FLAB" and processes that character by character. It converts each into the equivalent Morse code dits and dahs and then uses those to turn on a test tone for an appropriate amount of time. So, to send "CQ", the script changes that into -.-. --.- and then turns on the transmitter for three units, off for one, on for one, off for one, on for three, off for one, etc. This is Morse code at its very simplest, the software equivalent of holding down a Morse key for the correct amount of time and then releasing it. I disparagingly called it hacked together, because it's using the in-built busybox command shell that comes with the Pluto. If you're familiar, the actual shell is called ash, or Almquist shell. It's strictly limited in functionality, no arrays, minimal redirection, all very basic. Perfect for what I want to do, but not so much if you want to write software. After working around the lack of arrays, one of the things that caused me the most problems was to discover just how to setup the Pluto to actually do this. I found a couple of examples online that pretended to work, claimed to be doing what they said they were, but nothing was heard on my local analogue radio. At one point I heard clicks, but no beeping. After spending literally hours testing, scanning up and down the radio dial with my Yaesu FT-857d, I stumbled on a tone that stopped when my test script stopped. I started the script again and the tone came back. When it ended, the tone stopped again. I finally had a relationship between a tone on the PlutoSDR and the frequency on my radio. So, with all manner of funky offsets in my code, subject to me understanding the how and what of them, I can now beep to my hearts content. Of course I've shared my efforts on github, cunningly called Pluto Beacon. Have a look and tell me what I did wrong. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the topics I've been talking about lately is the idea that we might be able to measure the performance of your radio in some meaningful way using equipment that can be either obtained by any amateur, or by introducing a process that allows results to be compared, even if they have been generated differently. Recently I came up with a tool that automatically generates a spectrogram of an audio recording. That on its own isn't particularly interesting, but it's step one in the processing of an audio signal. In addition to the spectrogram, I also created a tool that generates a tone frequency sweep, think of it as a tone that changes frequency over time, let's call it a sweep. If you combine the two, you can generate a spectrogram of the sweep to give you a starting point or baseline for comparison. You can build on that by using your radio to transmit that sweep and record the result using a receiver. In my initial experiments, I used an RTLSDR dongle to receive the audio with some success and a boatload of spectacular harmonics, but I wanted to find a better, more accessible way to do this and during the week I realised that my Yaesu FT-857d that's sitting in my shack, is connected to a perfectly functional antenna and with a few settings it could do the job perfectly. One of the biggest issues with my RTLSDR setup was squelch. That is the difference between what is a legitimate transmission and what is noise. Set it too high and you hear nothing, set it too low and you hear everything, including background noise. Since the VHF or 2m noise levels are quite high at my location, or QTH, I normally have the squelch completely closed. This is fine if you're normally using a strong repeater, but if you're attempting to receive a weak hand-held, that's never going to work. As any self-respecting amateur I was dragged down the path of last resort to read my user manual where I discovered that in addition to CTCSS, a way to transmit a tone to open a repeater, there's also a setting called Tone Squelch or on my radio TSQ, which will keep my radio squelch closed, unless it hears the CTCSS tone from another radio. Truth be told, I had to read a different user manual to discover how to actually set the CTCSS tone on my handheld to test, but that's just adding insult to injury. It has been a while since I read any manual, even though I try to get to it once a year or so. I blame it on the lack of field-day camping. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, combining all this, the spectrogram generator, the sweep, CTCSS, and adding a Raspberry Pi with some website magic, if you're interested, an AWS S3 bucket, I now have a service that listens on a local frequency, opens the squelch if it hears the correct CTCSS tone, records the incoming signal until it stops, then generates a spectrogram from that audio and uploads it to a web site. None of this is particularly complicated, though I did have some bugs to work through. I've published the code as a branch to my existing frequency-response project on github and I've asked my local community to experiment with what I have on-air before I start doing more far reaching experiments. For example. If I were to tune my radio to a local repeater output frequency, rather than the simplex one I'm currently on, I'd be able to record and generate spectrograms for each transmission coming from that repeater. If that repeater was connected to the internet, using AllStar, IRLP, Echolink, DMR or Brandmeister, or even all of them, the global community could send their audio to my recorder and it could generate a spectrogram on the spot. If using that repeater, you played a sweep into your microphone, or used your digital audio interface to play the sound, you could then compare your signal path against others and against the baseline response. One of the issues with doing this is that much of the audio that travels across the internet is pretty munched, that is, it's compressed, frequencies are cut-off, there's all manner of interesting harmonics and the value of the comparison appears limited at best. Once I have my multi-band HF antenna, which I'm told is still being built, I intend to set this contraption up on HF where we can do point-to-point recordings and we end up having a direct comparison between two stations who transmit into my frequency-response software. I should add some disclaimers here too. At the moment I'm only using FM. The intent is to get this to a point where I can compare any mode, but when I move to HF, I'll likely start with Single Side Band and go on from there. One other annoyance is that any user needs to configure CTCSS to make this work, which is yet another hurdle to overcome, not insurmountable, but I like to keep things simple when you're starting to learn. Also, the harmonics still show, even on an analogue radio, so there's plenty more to discover. In the meantime, what kinds of things can you think of to use this for? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

On This episode of Who Moved My Freedom, It's FreeForAll Monday. I am joined by Walter Keller of Safety Harbor Firearms. It's Valentine's Day, I got my Amateur Radio Technician License, Trump really was spied on, Walter pulls out lots of Gorn, I show off Lola's new Yaesu FT-65 handheld radio and my Icom ID-52A and much more!

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I've spoken about measuring the frequency response of your radio and what the benefits of doing so might be. Today I've got some progress to report and some initial discoveries. Again, this is preliminary, but then all of this hobby is experimentation, so that should come as no surprise. Let's start with the mechanics of what I'm doing and a "duh" moment I need to confess. The aim of this process is to transmit a known audio signal, receive it, record it and create a spectrogram from it. This allows us to compare the original spectrogram against the received one and show just how the audio path has been affected by getting the audio into the transmitter, the processing by the transmitter, the propagation between the transmitter and receiver, the artefacts introduced in the receiver and any recording device. To begin this process I started off with an audio file of my voice. That wasn't very helpful, since it's a complex signal and comparing my voice before and after is a non-trivial process. At some point I intend to come back to voice before and after comparison, but that's on the shelf for now. The audio that I'm using is a frequency sweep, lasting 5 seconds. That is, there's a tone that changes frequency from DC to 5 kHz. When I looked at the spectrogram of that, it shows as a curve with time against frequency. It occurred to me that I could make two of those sweeps at the same time to measure distortion, so I added a reverse frequency sweep from 5 kHz down to DC. Now I've got two crossing lines showing in my spectrogram. To transmit this audio, I'm using the same tool I use to automatically call CQ during a contest. Every so many seconds I transmit this audio into a dummy load and at this point I should mention that my "duh" moment was that I was attempting to transmit into an antenna and record from a dummy load, rather than transmit into a dummy load and record from an antenna. I still cannot believe that I did that. Moving on. The recording is done using an RTLSDR dongle. In the current initial version I'm using a tool called rtl_fm to tune the dongle to the same frequency as my transmitter. I send the audio from there to the same tool I used to generate the original audio, SoX, that's Sierra, Oscar, X-Ray, and have it detect the silence between each transmission and record each into a new file. If I leave it running, every time I transmit something, SoX will create a new audio file. I'm saying that quite quickly, but getting the squelch and silence detection working in my noisy environment took most of a day and it's specific to my station, today. I'll have to figure out how to make this smarter, but for now I have some data. A spectrogram is generated for each audio file and then we can compare pictures. What was sent, audio wise, and what was received, audio wise. To be clear, I'm not sending images, I'm sending audio and comparing the spectrograms of this audio. I will also note that I'm currently using FM as the mode. I intended to do this with SSB, but the amount of effort to get the squelch right has left me with a future project to achieve that. The code itself is pretty rudimentary, but I've uploaded it to my github page. I've also added the pictures to my project website, which you can find at vk6flab.com. One initial observation, one that I don't yet understand, is that what I sent and what I received don't look the same. My pretty curves in the original audio come back with spectacular harmonics all over the place, very pretty to be sure, but not quite what I was expecting, let's call it an educational challenge. Before I forget, just because I'm using a Yaesu FT-857d, a Raspberry Pi, an RTLSDR dongle, an antenna and a dummy load, doesn't mean that you need to. Essentially, what this does is generate a special audio file, transmit it, receive it, record it and generate a spectrogram. You can play the audio from your own computer if you have digital modes set-up, or from your mobile phone if not. Recording can be something sophisticated with off-air monitoring, or it can be a recorder held in front of your receiver. One final note. You can change settings on both the transmitter and the receiver to see what they do in relation to the audio, so experiment. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio A little while ago I mentioned in passing that I was considering implementing a parrot repeater to help determine how your radio is performing. Discussion afterwards revealed that not everyone had the same picture in mind, so I thought I'd share with you some of what I'm considering and why. Most of the modern radio landscape revolves around hooking a computer up to some type of radio frequency capable device. Commonly it's the audio and control signals that travel between computer and radio, but there are plenty of examples where raw data makes the journey, like in the case of an RTL-SDR dongle. That journey is increasingly made using USB, the cable, not the sideband, and limits are based around the maximum speed that a Universal Serial Bus has. Essentially the amount of data that you can process is limited by how fast your computer can talk to the radio. For my parrot repeater, I'm imagining a device that can receive RF from any radio and process that signal to determine what the centre frequency is, the deviation, stability, the mode, what ever parameters I end up being able to determine, a whole other discussion on its own. In response, the idea is that the device generates a report and either presents that using text to speech, or as a web-page, or both. Using traditional methods, this would involve a radio, a computer, some software, connections between the radio and the computer, not to mention power for both the computer and the radio, an antenna and perhaps an amplifier. The picture I have in mind is not anything like that. I'm imagining a single device that takes power and does all I've described inside the one device. No external computer, no audio cables, no control cables, no hard drives, not anything, just a PlutoSDR and a power source connected to an antenna or two. You might think that's fanciful. As it happens, we already have some of that today. When I run dump1090 on my PlutoSDR, it presents itself to the world as a website that I can visit to see which aeroplanes are within range, where they are exactly on a map, what messages they're sending and where they're going. All of the processing is done inside the PlutoSDR. All I have to do is give it power and an internet connection. This is possible because the PlutoSDR is essentially a computer with RF. It runs Linux and you can write software for it. Unlike my Yaesu FT-857d, which also has a computer on board, rudimentary to be sure, but a computer none the less, it cannot be altered. I cannot load my own piece of software, launch a web browser and point it at my Yaesu, not without connecting an external computer that in turn needs to be connected to the radio. I might add, that this is is how many repeaters work and how devices that implement AllStar and Echolink manage to make the jump between the Internet and the world of RF. If your eyes are not lighting up right now, let me see if I can put it in different terms. The PlutoSDR has the ability to access signals between 70 MHz and 6 GHz. It can do so in chunks of 56 MHz. Said differently, if you were able to consider all of the amateur HF spectrum, from zero to 54 MHz, you could fit all of it inside one chunk of 56 MHz that the PlutoSDR is capable of. You couldn't send it anywhere, since you're limited to how fast a USB cable is, but you could technically process that inside the PlutoSDR itself. To get the PlutoSDR to see the amateur HF bands you could connect it to a transverter, in much the same way that today many 2m handheld radio owners use a transverter to get to 23cm, except in this case, we're going the other way. In order to actually use this massive amount of information, you're going to need to do some serious signal processing. Accessing 56 MHz of raw data is hard work, even if you don't have to get it across a serial connection. As it happens, the PlutoSDR also comes with an FPGA. As I've mentioned previously, it's like having a programmable circuit board, which can be programmed to do that signal processing for you. It has the capability to massage that massive chunk of data into something more reasonable. For example, you might be able to use it to extract each of the amateur bands individually and represent them as an image that you might show to the world as a waterfall on a web browser. Now to be clear, I'm not saying that any of this exists just yet, or fits within the existing hardware constraints. I'm only starting on this journey. I'll be learning much along the way. No doubt I'll be using existing examples, tweaking them to the point that I understand what they do and how they work. I've already been talking about some of this for years. As you might have discovered, this adventure is long with many different side quests and at the rate I'm going I'm confident that this represents the breadth and depth of what amateur radio means to me. So, if you're wondering why I'm excited, it's because the amateur radio world of opportunity is getting bigger, not smaller. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

During our 2021 DXpedition to Costa Rica, the 12 meter band was open and I was able to make several good contacts while using the Yaesu FT-891 and the BuddiHex Hexbeam. Take a look!

Show Notes (contains affiliate links): Rig Comparisons   On this week's episode of Ham Radio Crash Course, a podcast roughly based on amateur radio but mostly made up of responding to emails from listeners, hosted by Josh Nass - KI6NAZ and his reluctant wife, Leah - KN6NWZ, we talk about doing rig comparisons, preparedness cookware, and Josh gets really excited about Dave Canterbury.    Have a drink with us! Today, we're drinking… homemade mead. Here's a link to a great mead making kit: https://amzn.to/3jLWqsa   Josh has a short tip with the Ham Radio Minute: Do rig comparisons feature to feature before buying.    Join the conversation by leaving a review on iTunes for Ham Radio Crash Course podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ham-radio-crash-course/id1400794852 and/or emailing Leah@hamtactical.com. Leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts will help Ham Radio Crash Course reach more hams and future hams and we appreciate it!   What We Used This Week:  Josh recommends Olight Baton 3: https://amzn.to/3ixDMox   Leah recommends cast iron: https://amzn.to/3ADRKvf   Ham Radio Crash Course A-store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/hamradiocrashcourse   Preparedness Corner: Leah talks about baseline fitness.    Email Correspondent's Tower: We answer emails with ham radio questions, comments on previous podcasts, T-shirt suggestions and everything in between.   Links mentioned in the ECT:    Chris talks about his tablet alternative. Phone: https://amzn.to/3lWix1S And talks about and off grid map app: https://osmand.net/   John talks coffee and recommends http://www.home-barista.com/ and a amateur astronomy website: http://www.astrobin.com/   Tank radio calls us out on how to pronounce a certain city's name: https://youtu.be/FkCSo4u3DVM   General License Prep: Leah continues her General studies. It's not advisable to study while drunk.    Show Topic: Yaesu FT-891 vs Xiegu G90 showdown.    Radioddity link: http://radioddity.refr.cc/hoshnasi   Thank you all for listening to the podcast.  We have a lot of fun making it and the fact you listen and send us feedback means alot to us!   Want to send us something? Josh Nass  P.O. Box 5101 Cerritos, CA 90703-5101 Support the Ham Radio Crash Course Podcast: Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/hoshnasi Shop HamTactical: http://www.hamtactical.com Shop Our Affiliates: http://hamradiocrashcourse.com/affiliates/ Shop Our Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/hamradiocrashcourse As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.   Connect with Us: Website...................► http://hamradiocrashcourse.com YouTube..................► https://www.youtube.com/c/HamRadioCrashCourse Podcast...................► https://hamradiocrashcourse.podbean.com/ Discord....................► https://discord.gg/xhJMxDT Facebook................► https://goo.gl/cv5rEQ Twitter......................► https://twitter.com/Hoshnasi Instagram.................► https://instagram.com/hoshnasi (Josh) Instagram.................►https://instagram.com/hamtactical (Leah)

Foundations of Amateur Radio For much of the past month I've been attempting to articulate what Open Source Software is, why it's important, how it's relevant to our hobby, how it works, how software is different from hardware and why you should consider if the equipment you buy comes with source code or not. I'm finding it difficult to separate out the issues since they all hang together in a cohesive clump of ideas and concepts. So, let me go sideways to set the scene. There is a movement that asserts the right to repair our own things and to ensure that manuals and diagnostic tools used by manufacturers are made available to the public. For many radio amateurs that might sound quaint and obvious, since for much of the hobby that kind of information was not only available, it was expected and assumed to be available. You can get the circuit diagram and testing procedures, the alignment process and the list of required test equipment for most if not all amateur transceivers today and truth be told, if that testing gear isn't available, we tend to build or scrounge our own. Compare a Yaesu FT-857d and an Icom IC-7300. They're radios from different generations, use different technologies, are made by different manufacturers and come in different packaging. Both radios have user manuals, circuit diagrams and documented testing and alignment processes, but they're not equivalent even if they look the same. The 857 is constructed from discrete components and circuits. There's a microprocessor on-board, the source code is not available and updates are issued by the manufacturer if and when it sees fit. Its function is to control and sequence things, selecting band filters, switching modes, updating the display and control serial communications. While integral to the functioning of the radio, the microprocessor itself is used for command and control only. Inside the 7300 you'll also find discrete components. There are circuits, filters and the like and while individual components have reduced in size there are many of the same kinds of functions inside the radio as you'll find on an 857. The microprocessor inside the 7300 is more advanced than the one inside the 857. The source code is also not available and updates are issued by the manufacturer when it sees fit. If that was all there was to it, I would not have spent a month attempting to capture this. Suffice to say that looks are deceiving. The microprocessor inside the 7300 does the exact same things as the 857 with one minor difference. It now also forms part of the signal input and output chain of the radio itself. Let me say that again. The computer that is the heart of a modern radio is an integral part of the signal processing of the radio. Where in a traditional radio the microprocessor was switching circuits on and off to process the signal, the modern solution is to do all the signal processing using software inside the microprocessor itself. If you want to get technical, an FPGA is doing much of the signal processing, but that too is driven by software. Where previously you had access to the circuit diagram that would show you what was being done to the signal, today you have a magic black box that does stuff completely outside your control. If you want to know how an SSB or FM signal is decoded on the 857, the service manual will helpfully point you at two chips which provide those specific functions. It describes how the signal comes into the chip and how the signal is processed once it leaves the chip and if you need more, you can look online to find the specifications for each chip to see precisely what they do and how they work, complete with equivalent circuits and specifications. On the other hand if you wanted to know the same information for the 7300 you'd be out of luck because if you dig deep enough, following the signal path, eventually you'd end up inside the microprocessor where software is making that happen. There's no description on how this works, what the circuit equivalent characteristics are, there's no way to change how it works, no way to set parameters, no way to see inside and no way to experiment. This is a problem because it means that you've got a solution that's no longer operating in the spirit of amateur radio. It's not open for experimentation, it's not subject to review, there's no way to test, no means to improve, no way to do anything other than what the manufacturer decided was appropriate. For example, if I wanted to modify the FM pass-band width on an 857, I could update the FM demodulation circuit by replacing a couple of components. On a 7300, I could not because there is no circuit. The FM demodulator is described in software that I don't have access to and Icom has decided that the FM pass-band is fixed. If the software was open however, I could add this function and make it available to anyone who would like to experiment. At this point I'd also like to observe that the Icom user manual states that inside the IC-7300 it uses open source "CMSIS-RTOS RTX", "zlib" and "libpng" software, so Icom is benefiting from open source efforts, but not sharing their own. This is not an Icom only problem, this is a specific issue around open source versus closed source and while you might think that the right to repair and open source is something that's not relevant to you, I'd like to invite you to consider what the implications are for our hobby. Are we going to go down the road of button pushers, or are we continuing our role as inventors and experimenters? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The activity of amateur radio revolves around experimentation. For over a century the amateur community has designed, sourced, scrounged and built experiments. Big or small, working or not, each of these is an expression of creativity, problem solving and experimentation. For most of the century that activity was accompanied by the heady smell of solder smoke. It still makes an appearance in many shacks and field stations today, even my own, coaxed by an unsteady hand, more and more light and bigger and bigger magnification, I manage to join bits of wire, attach components and attempt to keep my fingers from getting burnt and solder from landing on the floor. I've been soldering since I was nine or so. I think it started with a Morse key, a battery and a bicycle light with a wire running between my bedroom and the bedroom of my next door neighbour. In the decades since I've slightly improved my skill, but I have to confess, soldering isn't really my thing. My thing is computers. It was computers from the day I was introduced in 1983 and nothing much has changed. For reasons I don't yet grasp, I just get what computers are about. They're user friendly, just picky whom they make friends with. When I joined the amateur community, it was to discover a hobby that was vast beyond my wildest imagination, technical beyond my understanding and it was not computing. Little did I know. Computing in amateur radio isn't a new thing. For example, packet radio was being experimented with in 1978 by members of the Montreal Amateur Radio Club, after having been granted permission by the Canadian government. In 2010 when I came along we had logging, DX-clusters and the first weak signal modes were already almost a decade old. Software Defined Radio has an even longer history. The first "digital receiver" came along in 1970 and the first software transceiver was implemented in 1988. The term "software defined radio" itself was 15 years old when I joined the hobby and truth be told, it's a fascinating tale, I'll take a look at that at another time. When I started my amateur journey like every new licensee, I jumped in the deep end and kept swimming. From buying a radio, to discovering and building antennas, from going mobile to doing contests and putting together my home station, all of it done, one step at a time, one progressive experiment after another, significant to me, but hardly world shattering in the scheme of things. Now that I've been here for a decade I've come to see that my current experiments, mostly software based, are in exactly the same spirit as the circuit builders and scroungers, except that I'm doing this by flipping bits, changing configurations, writing software and solving problems that bear no relation to selecting the correct combination of capacitance and reactance to insert into a circuit just so. Instead I'm wrestling with compilers, designing virtual machines, sending packets, debugging serial ports and finding new and innovative ways to excite transceivers. For example, today I spent most of the day attempting to discover why when I generate a WSPR signal in one program, it cannot be decoded by another. If that sounds familiar, that was what I was doing last week too. This time I went back to basics and found tools inside the source code of WSJT-X and started experimenting. I'm still digging. As an aside I was asked recently why I want to do this with audio files and the short answer is: Little Steps. I can play an audio file through my Yaesu FT-857d. I can receive that and decode it. That's where I want to start with my PlutoSDR experiments, so when I'm doing this, I can use the same audio file and know that the information can be decoded and that any failure to do so is related to how I'm transmitting it. Back to soldering irons and software. In my experience as an amateur it's becoming increasingly clear that they're both the same thing, tools for experimentation, with or without burning your fingers. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio A little while ago I was gifted a new radio, well, new to me. A Kenwood TS-480HX. It's an all mode HF transceiver with 6m. Does 200 Watts, but you know me, I'm into QRP, low power, so I first had to figure out how to dial the transmitter down to 5 Watts and that was after figuring out how to feed the dual power supplies from one source and have the fuses work as expected. When I received the radio, I took stock of all the bits that it was packed with, all complete, all the accessories, even the user manual was laminated. The previous owner, Walter VK6BCP (SK) whom I never met was an amateur after my own heart. I've talked about how he meticulously documented his alterations to a power supply for example. Previously I've taken this radio on holidays to operate portable in a field day. The experience was underwhelming, in that I didn't hear anyone and nobody responded to my CQ calls. At the time I put it down to a poor antenna and unfamiliarity with the radio, despite reading the manual, well, at least scanning it. Today I finally set some time aside to do some more testing. I decided that the first step would be to actually set it up in my shack, next to my trusty Yaesu FT-857d and see how it performs in comparison. So, I plugged everything in, found a coax switch so I could switch the antenna between the two radios and learned that the audio connector that I've been using for digital modes on the Yaesu is actually compatible with the Kenwood. Now I need to make another adaptor for this radio, but in the meantime I can move the audio plug between radios when I swap. In doing this I learnt a few things. One is that there's plenty of scope for things to break. For example, I was reaching over the desk to plug a connector into the coax switch when I leaned on the keyboard and touched the space bar. This caused the radio that I was working on to start its tuning cycle without an antenna connected. Fortunately I was using 5 Watts and I caught it within seconds, so no white smoke this time around. It does remind me to turn off the radio when fiddling with connectors though. I'm embarrassed to report that I thought I'd learnt that lesson already, nothing like a refresher course in transmitter safety and dumb things not to do in the shack. Then there was the thing about using remote control. In my naivety I thought that the connector that the Yaesu uses for computer control is also used on the Kenwood. Turns out that it isn't. Fortunately I read the manual before plugging that in. The Yaesu has a specific digital mode with individual gain and filter characteristics, which seem to be completely lacking on the Kenwood. I'm still attempting to learn the differences in receive performance between the two. I started this process by running WSJT-X and listening to WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reports and testing how both radios decode things. I cannot yet do this side-by-side, but for now I can swap and see signals coming in on either radio. This is not the first time I've put a different radio on my desk to see how it works and it's not going to be the last time. What I'm looking to achieve is to swap over from the Yaesu to the Kenwood in my shack, so I can put the Yaesu back in the car and have a mobile shack operating again because I have to admit, I do miss that. What kinds of testing regimes to you have when you're trying out a new radio? I'd love to hear your thoughts. My email address as always is cq@vk6flab.com. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The landscape of remotely operated amateur radio is changing by the day. Once the territory of home brew DTMF decoders and remote controlled radio links, now more often than not it's a Raspberry Pi with an internet connection, or some variation on that. Before I continue, I must point out that amateur regulations vary widely around the globe, especially in this area. It appears mostly due to the rapidly changing nature of remotely operated radios. For example, most, if not all software defined radios are technically remotely operated. You run software on your computer, the radio is connected to a network, you twiddle a setting on your computer and the radio responds. The computer is not part of the radio, but without it there's not much radio to be had. There's no need for both to be in the same room, let alone the same building. Similarly, a Kenwood TS-480 and a Yaesu FT-857d are both radios that have a removable face with knobs and a display. The main body of the radio is a nondescript box with sockets for power and antenna, connected to the face essentially via a serial cable that can be a few centimetres long, or a few meters. There's solutions like RemoteRig that replace this serial cable with a virtual cable, allowing you to put the face in one location and the body in a different one, connected to each other across the internet. With the introduction of Starlink internet, a low earth orbit satellite based network, a connection to the internet can be made anywhere on earth, making it possible to have your station sitting somewhere far away from interference, powered by batteries and solar panels and connected to the internet. You might not even need to go to satellite based internet, the mobile phone network in many places is often more than sufficient for making such a station viable. If you're a member of a radio club, you might consider your club station. Often this station is the work of many volunteer years effort with multiple radios, antennas, filters and the like and often it sits idle most of the time, only getting fired up during club meetings or the weekend. What if you connected that station to the internet and offered it as a service to your members? Depending on license requirements, you might consider amateurs who have limited ability to build a shack but would love to be on air making noise. A remote club shack might be just the ticket for getting them on air. It could even become an income stream for your club. You might be able to offer access to trainees, or let them monitor the station without transmit ability whilst they're preparing for their license, or you might operate a 48 hour contest in shifts, all using the same transmitter, but from the comfort of your home. The landscape is full of different solutions, like RemoteRig, which I've already mentioned, RigPi Remote Station Server is a tiny computer that controls your radio and allows you access via a web browser or remote desktop connection. There's Remote Hams, a ready made solution for putting your shack on air with access control and remote management. You can connect specific radios, like the Elecraft K3 Remote System, or a Flex Radio Maestro, there's even web browser remote control projects like Universal Ham Radio Remote by Oliver F4HTB, each making it possible to get on air and make noise using a radio in a different location across the internet. All of the solutions I've named make it possible to fully use your radio, that means CW, SSB, FM, antenna control and the like. You can use it for FT8 or RTTY, the choice is yours. The interface might be the face of your radio, a special console, computer, phone or a tablet and you can operate it wherever and whenever the mood takes you. No longer do you need to have a shack in your home with coax snaking through the walls to an antenna whilst dodging the local authorities, or fighting the engine noise from your car. You can make the ultimate shack anywhere without taking up space in your home or car. One final comment. This is a moving feast. The level of functionality is increasing by the day. For me this journey started with a steel toolbox in my garage with a radio inside it and coax running from the box to my antenna. I have operated my radio and hosted my weekly net like this. The radio in the garage, me in my office connected via Wi-Fi over a virtual serial cable. You don't need to start this in the middle of nowhere, six hours drive over the back roads to fix a problem, you can start this project today at home. Where on this journey are you and what issues have you come up against? Let me know. My address as always is cq@vk6flab.com I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the past little while I've been experimenting with various tools that decode radio signals. For some of those tools the signals come from space. Equipment in space is moving all the time, which means that the thing you want to hear isn't always in range. For example. The International Space Station or ISS has a typical orbit of 90 minutes. Several times a day there's a pass. That means that it's somewhere within receiving range of my station. It might be very close to the horizon and only visible for a few seconds, or it might be directly overhead and visible for 10 minutes. If it's transmitting APRS on a particular frequency, it can be decoded using something like multimon-ng. If it's transmitting Slow Scan TV, qsstv can do the decoding. I've done this and I must say, it's exciting to see a picture come in line-by-line, highly recommended. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, has a fleet of satellites in a polar orbit that lasts about 102 minutes and they're overhead at least every 12 hours. You can use something like noaa-apt to decode the images coming from the various weather satellites, or a python script and I'll talk about that at some point. There is a growing cloud of cube satellites with interesting telemetry. They're in all kinds of orbits and you can attempt to receive data from each one as it's in sight. Keeping track of what's where and when is a full time job for plenty of people. As a radio amateur I'm happy to defer to the experts who tell me where a piece of equipment is and when I'm likely to be able to receive a radio signal from the transmitter I'm interested in. Previously I've mentioned in passing a tool called gpredict that does this heavy lifting for me. It presents a map of the world and shows what's visible at my location and when the next acquisition of signal for a particular satellite might occur. It talks to the internet to download the latest orbital information. It also has the ability to control a rotator to point your antenna, not that I have one, and it can update the transmit and receive frequency of your radio to compensate for the Doppler effect that changes the observed frequency as a satellite passes overhead. All this works with a graphical user-interface, that is to say, you have a screen that you're looking at and can click on. Whilst running gpredict, you can simultaneously launch the appropriate decoding tool for the signal that you're trying to receive. If you have a powerful enough computer, you can run multiple decoding tools together. You'll have separate windows for controlling the radio and antenna, for decoding APRS, SSTV, NOAA and if you're wanting to do sunrise and sunset propagation testing using WSPR, you can also run WSJT-X or any other decoder you're interested in. There are some implications associated with doing this, apart from needing a big enough screen, needing considerable computing power and burning electricity for no good reason, the signal that comes in from your radio will be fed to all the decoders at the same time and all of them will attempt to decode the signal, even when you know that this serves no purpose. That's fine if you don't know what you're listening to, but most of the time you know exactly what it is, even if the software doesn't. Manually launching and quitting decoders is one option, but what if the next ISS pass is at 3am? Aside from the computing requirements, so far this works fine with a standard analogue radio like my Yaesu FT-857d. The only limitation is that you can only receive one station at a time. If you replace the analogue radio with an RTL-SDR dongle, you gain the ability to record and decode simultaneous stations within about 2.4 MHz of each other. Another option is to use an ADALM Pluto and as long as the stations are within 20 MHz of each other, you can record and decode their signals. If you're not familiar with a Pluto, it's essentially a computer, receiver and transmitter, all in a little box, the size of a pack of cards. This is where it gets interesting. The Pluto doesn't have a screen, or a keyboard for that matter, but it's a computer. It runs Linux and you can run decoders on it. I've done this with ADS-B signals using a tool called dump1090. You'll find it on my GitHub page. One of the sticking points in decoding signals from space was the ability to predict when a satellite pass occurs without requiring a computer screen. Thanks to a command-line tool called "predict", written by John, KD2BD and others I've now discovered a way to achieve that. My efforts are not quite at the point of show-and-tell, but I've got a Docker container that's building and running predict on its own and using a little bash script it's telling me when the ISS is overhead. You'll find that on GitHub as well. My next challenge is to do some automated decoding of actual space signals. I'm going to start with the ISS, predict and multimon-ng. I'll let you know how I go. What space signals are you interested in? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Many thanks to SRA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:On December 17, 2014 it was announced that diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba would be restored and an exchange of prisoners between the two countries would occur. This is the Radio Havana Cuba broadcast from that day. It was recorded December 18, 2014 at 0159 UTC on 6000khz using a Yaesu FT-857 in Hugo, MN.Program Details:00:00 Sign-on01:25 News - Prisioners released in exchange, US and Cuba announced discussion to normalize relations, Complaint filed in relation to Bush era torture programs, Talaban attack in Afghanastan, Jeb Bush running for US President12:00 Address from Cuban President Raul Castro18:50 Commentary on ISIS24:10 Sports29:45 Cuban Music34:25 News 39:00 Mailbag51:15 Arts RoundupStarting time: 0159 UTCFrequency: 6 MHzRX location: Hugo, MNReceiver and antenna: Yaesu FT-857 and wire loop around the perimeter of the attic

Foundations of Amateur Radio For decades I've been playing with every new piece of technology that comes my way. In amateur radio terms that's reflected in, among other things, playing with different antennas, radios, modes and software. One of the modes I've played with is slow scan television or SSTV. It's an amateur mode that transmits pictures rather than voice over amateur radio. A couple of months ago a local amateur, Adrian VK6XAM, set-up an SSTV repeater. The way it works is that you tune to the repeater frequency, listen for a while and when the frequency is clear, transmit an image. The repeater will receive your image and re-transmit it. It's an excellent way to test your gear and software, so I played with it and made it all work for me. In 2012 I was part of a public event where local schools participated in a competition to have the opportunity to ask an astronaut on board the International Space Station a question as part of the City of Light 50th anniversary of John Glenn's first orbit. The event was under the auspices of a group called Amateur Radio on the International Space Station or ARISS, an organisation that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020. Assisting with the logistics behind the scenes first hand and the amount of equipment used I'd gained a healthy respect for the complexity involved. The ISS has several radio amateurs on orbit. Among their on board activities are plenty of amateur radio friendly ones. In addition to ARISS, you'll also find repeaters, voice, packet and other interesting signals if you listen out for them. In previous years I've made abortive attempts at using my station to listen and transmit to space, with varying degrees of success. On a regular basis the ISS transmits SSTV using amateur radio. Often you'll find a series of images that commemorate an activity. During the final week of 2020 astronauts on the ISS celebrated 20 years of ARISS by transmitting a series of images on a rotating basis as the ISS orbits the earth. One of my friends made a throwaway comment about listening to the international space station and decoding slow scan television. I'd heard about this event on various social media outlets but put it in the too hard basket. Based on what I'd seen during my ARISS event, my own trials, and what local amateurs have been playing with in the way of interesting cross polarised antennas, rotators and the like, I'd decided that this was a long term project, unachievable with my current station. My station consists of a dual-band vertical antenna for 2m and 70cm on my roof at about 2m above ground level. The radio is my trusty Yaesu FT-857d. Connected to a Debian Linux laptop running three bits of software, rigctld, gpredict and qsstv. With a high level of apprehension I fired up my station, tuned my radio, updated the orbital information and radio frequencies and waited for the first acquisition of signal from the ISS. Imagine my surprise when a picture started appearing on my screen. It's a lot like the days of 300 baud dial up, getting a picture from some remote computer back in 1985. With that I managed to receive several of the images by just letting it run for the next couple of days. I'm glad my friend made their comment, because it spurred me into action to try for myself. I'll be the first to admit that the image quality isn't broadcast ready, or that I made mistakes, or that I should have started listening at the beginning of the week rather than the last few days, but all that is just noise because I can report that it works and I have the pictures to prove it! I now have most of the image series, number 2 is missing and I only have part of number 1, but there are some beauties among the 35 images I captured. I've published them on my project website at vk6flab.com, for you to have a look at and use as inspiration for your own seemingly impossible task. This leaves me wondering what else I can hear from overlying spacecraft using this set-up. What have you heard and what equipment were you using to make that happen? Are there any impossible tasks that you've avoided? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio My radio shack consists of two radios, identical, well, in as much as that they're the same model, a Yaesu FT-857d. Their memories are different, their microphones are different, but both of them are connected via a coaxial switch to the same VHF and UHF antenna. One of them is also connected to a HF antenna. Let's call these two radios alpha and bravo. Alpha is used to host F-troop and play on the local repeater. Bravo is used to do HF stuff. It's also connected to a computer via a serial cable, called a CAT cable, Computer Assisted Tuning, but really, a way to control the radio remotely. The audio output on the rear of the radio is also connected to the computer. These two connections are combined to provide me with access to digital modes like PSK31, WSPR and SSTV, though I haven't actually yet made that work. The computer itself is running Linux and depending on what I'm doing on the radio some or other software, often it's fldigi, a cross-platform tool that knows about many different digital modes. The computer is also connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, and is used to see what various reporting websites have to say about my station, things like propagation, the DX cluster, an electronic way of seeing what other stations can hear, then there's solar radiation information and other neat tools. This shack is pretty typical in my circle of friends. I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated table with my shack on it, for others they're lucky to have a shelf in a cupboard, or at the other end of the spectrum, a whole room or building dedicated to the task. The level of complexity associated with this set-up is not extreme, let's call it in the middle of the range of things you can add to the system to add complexity. In case you're wondering, you might consider automatic antenna switching, band switches, band filters, amplifiers, more radios, audio switching, automatic voice keyers. If you look at the world of Software Defined Radio, the hardware might include many of those things and then add a computer that's actually doing all the signal processing, making life even more complex. At the other end of the complexity scale there's a crystal radio. As I've been growing into this field of amateur radio it's becoming increasingly clear that we as a community, by enlarge, are heading towards maximum complexity. There's nothing wrong with that as such, but as a QRP, or low-power operator, I often set-up my radio in a temporary setting like a car or a camp site. Complexity in the field is not to be sneezed at and I've lost count of the number of times where complexity has caused me to go off-air. It occurred to me that it would be helpful to investigate a little bit more just what's possible at the other end of the scale, at the simple end of complexity if you like. So, I'm intending, before the year is out, supplies permitting, to build a crystal radio from scratch. I realise that I have absolutely no idea what I'm getting myself into, no doubt there will be more complexity that I'm anticipating, but I'm getting myself ready to build something to be able to look at it and say to myself, look, this is how simple you can get with radio. I'm currently too chicken to commit to making the simplest - legal - transmitter, but if you have suggestions, I'll look into it. Just so you know, simplicity is an option. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio It's the morning after the day before. I've been calling CQ for 24 hours and for the first time in my life after a contest I still have my voice. That in and of itself is novel. I also don't have ringing ears, that's a blessing. I have learnt heaps and had fun doing it. I made contacts and I heard stations across the globe and I did it all from the comfort of my shack chair. Before I dig in and expand, the contest I just completed ran for 24 hours. I didn't sit at my radio for all of it, nor was my radio on for all of it. I managed to have lunch, dinner, desert, breakfast and morning tea. I snuck in a few naps and I managed to help with bringing in the shopping. My station did not transmit unattended at any time in case you're wondering. My setup consisted of a little 11 year old netbook computer running the current version of Debian Linux and the heart of this adventure, the software called fldigi. The computer is connected to my Yaesu FT-857d via three cables, well, two and a half. A microphone and a headphone lead that combine into the data port in the back of the radio. The other cable is a USB CAT cable, a Computer Assisted Tuning cable, that plugs into the CAT port on the back of the radio. I also used an external monitor to have my main contest screen on and used it to display the main fldigi window. My license class allows me access to a selected number of amateur bands, 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm. I managed at least one RTTY contact on each band. As I described previously, my radio is set to use Single Side Band and the audio from the radio is fed via the microphone socket on the computer into fldigi that processes the information. Similarly, when I transmit, the audio is generated via fldigi and leaves the computer via the headphone socket and goes into the radio as a Single Side Band audio signal. The information in the audio is all RTTY, a digital mode that I've described previously. The software is using Audio Frequency Shift Keying, AFSK, simulating the switching between the two RTTY frequencies. On my screen I have a waterfall display that shows all the signals that are happening within the 2.3 kHz audio stream that's coming from the radio. Fldigi is also decoding this in real-time and showing each decode as a virtual channel in a list. Click on a channel entry and your next transmission will happen at that frequency. If you've ever used WSJT-X this will sound very familiar. That's the mechanics of what I've been doing. So, what did I learn in this adventure? Well, most of Australia goes to sleep at night, at least the ones that do RTTY. I have evidence of exactly one station on-air, and that was only because they were named in the DX Cluster, which by the way this contest allows as assistance. Since then I've found logs from at least two more stations. Local contacts did happen during the more civil hours and in total I managed ten of them. You may think that's not much for say 12 hours of work, but that's 5 Watts QRP, or low power, RTTY contacts, in an actual contest, on a new antenna, from my shack, dodging thunderstorms and learning to use filters and levels. You might not be impressed, but I'm absolutely stoked! During the midnight-to-dawn run, on 40m, when there were double points to be had, which I missed out on, I did manage to hear several stations across Europe, 14,000 km away, which means that I can pretty much count on global coverage with my current setup. Sadly they didn't hear me, too many competing stations, but I'm sure that with practice I'll manage to contact them too. The software crashed once. That's not nice. It seems to have a habit of corrupting one of the preference files, which prevents it from starting up. That's also not nice. I hasten to add that I don't yet know the source of this. It may well be a dud-hard-disk sector on my ancient laptop, rather than the software, so I'm not assigning blame here. Getting started with fldigi is an adventure. It's not point-and-click, nor plug-and-play, more like running a mainframe whilst cranking the handle, but when you get it to fly there's lots to love about this tool. Other things that worked well were that I'd spent some preparation time getting the keyboard macros right. These are pre-defined bits of text that you send as you're calling CQ and making a contact. They're a whole topic in and of themselves, so I'll skip past the detail and just mention that I was very happy with the choices I made, gathered from years of voice-only contacts, reading RTTY contest information and looking for exchange details. From a technical perspective, I used both contest modes, "Running" and "Search and Pounce". Running is when you call CQ, Pouncing is when they call CQ. The running was by far the most successful for me. I'm not yet sure if that was a reflection on how much I still have to learn about levels. One thing that I can say with confidence is that there's absolutely nothing like having a wall of RTTY signals to learn how to make sure you're actually decoding something useful. I spent a good couple of the wee hours tuning my levels. I would like to thank the stations who came back to my call and for those who tried without me noticing them. I had a blast. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio When I came across amateur radio nearly a decade ago I did a course, passed my test and got licensed. At that point I didn't have any equipment, didn't know about any, hadn't touched anything, other than the radio in the classroom, and had no idea about what to buy and how to choose. So, instead I asked the friend who introduced me to the hobby, Meg, at the time VK6LUX, what radio to get. I asked her what was the second radio she ever got because I figured that I'd get very disappointed with the first one in short order. She explained that there were plenty of brands to choose from and that each had their own champions. Just like the perennial choice between Ford and Chevrolet, Apple vs Microsoft, Tea vs Coffee, you'd end up with one radio and be told by someone in a different camp that you chose the wrong one. Her advice, which is just as solid today as it was a decade ago, was to buy something that people you knew had, so whilst you're learning there'd be someone nearby who could help. As a result I bought a Yaesu FT-857d for precisely that reason. I still have it and it has a sister, another FT-857d, bought when I needed to broadcast the local news when one of the local volunteers went on holiday. For most beginners their journey is similar. They buy their first radio and generally that sets the tone for what comes next. In the decade that I've been around amateur radio I've had the opportunity to play with about 30 or so different radios. For some that playing consisted of picking up the microphone and making a QSO, a contact, and not much else. For others it consisted of sitting with the radio for a full contest, 48 hours, with sporadic sleep, dealing with pile-ups where there wasn't time to breathe, but plenty of stuff to learn about filtering. Then there were the radios that came to my shack for a visit, those at various clubs and plenty of outings where I was able to sit down and figure out how stuff works. On the surface that's all fine and dandy. A radio is a radio, you pick up the microphone and hit go, off to the races. Then you need to figure out how to set the volume, change frequency, change bands, read what the mode is and how to change it, tune the thing, set up a filter, change the pre-amp, operate split. For some radios this was easy, consisting of a channel button and a microphone push to talk, for others there were no buttons, just a big Ethernet socket, then there were the radios with a hundred buttons, some so small that you missed them on first glance. I've used solid-state radios, valve radios, software defined radios and virtual radios, each with their quirks and idiosyncrasies. Every time I operate a new radio I learn something about that radio, but I also learn something about my own radio. I can begin to hear differences, observe how easy or hard it is to do something, a missing feature on my own radio, or the one I happen to be operating at the time. In my travels I've seen plenty of radio amateurs who only have a passing understanding of their own radio, let alone any other radio. I completely respect that this might be enough for you, but I'd like to point out that this might be a missed opportunity. I remember vividly sitting in the middle of a bush-camp with my own radio powered by a battery connected to a hap-hazard dipole antenna strung between two trees attempting to hear a station discussing her global circumnavigation by sailing boat and being frustrated with my ability to make it work. A friend who was sitting nearby asked if they could have a go and within seconds he was able to use the filters and offsets to make the station pop out of the noise. It's with the image of Kim VK6TQ in mind, the person who knew my radio better than I did, that I'd like to urge you to play with any radio you come across, no matter how trivial or different. One day it will mean the difference between making a contact or not. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

The Yaesu FT-65R has been called a Baofeng Killer. Today I do an unboxing of this radio and go through the menus. This is a nice little dual band radio with a simple menu and limited features, but it has some good potential.R&L Link: https://tinyurl.com/y4aafzvoAmazon link: https://amzn.to/2CK2WOR

The Yaesu FT-65R has been called a Baofeng Killer. Today I do an unboxing of this radio and go through the menus. This is a nice little dual band radio with a simple menu and limited features, but it has some good potential.R&L Link: https://tinyurl.com/y4aafzvoAmazon link: https://amzn.to/2CK2WOR

Foundations of Amateur Radio The day came to pass when all my set-up and configuration was going to culminate in the moment of truth when I enabled TX on my WSPR mode station. Before I tell you of my experience, I should give you a little bit of background. A few weeks ago I managed to erect a HF vertical at my home or QTH. That in and of itself was news worthy, well at least to me it was, since it was the first time since I became licensed in 2010 that I had actual real all-band HF capability at home. Last weekend I ran some RG6, yes, 72 Ohm Quad Shield, low-loss coaxial cable, from my antenna, through the roof, into my shack. I was thrilled. Immediately set about getting my HF station up and running. This involved installing WSJT-X, a tool that allows you to do weak signal work, perfect for when you're a low power or QRP station like me. I've previously reported using WSPR, Weak Signal Propagation Reporter on a Raspberry Pi and a dongle, but this time I was using my Yaesu FT-857d. Reports were coming in thick and fast. Managed to hear stations on all the bands I'm allowed on, 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm. Managed to make it report online and update the various maps around the place. Brilliant! Now I wanted to do the next thing. Transmit and see who could hear me and how far my beautiful callsign might travel on 5 Watts. So, after some abortive attempts, I configured the levels correctly, made sure that my antenna coupler, an SG-237, was tuned and hit "Enable TX" on the screen of my computer. Dutifully my computer did what was expected, turned on the transmitter and happily made the fan run on my radio for two minutes at a time. I tried 80m, 40m and 15m. All worked swimmingly. Then I looked on the map to see who had heard me. Nobody. Nothing. Nada. Niets en niemand. I could hear N8VIM using 5 Watts, 18649 km away, but nobody could hear me, not even the station VK6CQ who is 9 km from me. So, what's going on? Turns out that I'm not using a "standard" callsign. That's right, my VK6FLAB, authorised by the World Radiocommunication Conference 2003, implemented by the Australian regulator, the ACMA in 2005 and issued to me in 2010 isn't a standard callsign. Seems that the deal-breaker is the four letter suffix, FLAB, that's killing my attempts at making contact. Now I know that there are moves under way, not quite sure what stage they're at, to allow Australian amateurs to apply for any three-letter suffix and keep that regardless of their license level, but that to me doesn't really solve the underlying issue, where a perfectly legal callsign isn't allowed to be used by one of the most popular modes today. I've lodged a bug report on the WSJT-X mailing list, but to accommodate this callsign will probably require a fundamental change in the way the WSPR mode and likely several other JT modes will work, not to mention the databases, the maps, API calls and other fun things like logging. Technically I could have figured this out back in September 2019 when I was first allowed to use digital modes with my license, but I didn't have an antenna then. In case you're wondering. I also investigated using a so-called extended, or type-2 message, but that allows for an add-on prefix that can be up to three alphanumeric characters or an add-on suffix that can be a single letter or one or two digits. I could use something like VK6FLA/B, but I'm sure that the owner of VK6FLA would be upset and using VK6/F0LAB might have a French amateur yell Merde! at me when they spot their callsign being transmitted from VK6. One suggestion was to upgrade my license. What's the fun in that? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was getting ready to go out when rain started pelting down. Not unexpected in this part of the world at this time of year but inconvenient for my plans. I didn't particularly want to carry an umbrella and the thought of wearing a rain hood brought back memories of water trickling down my back. For reasons I'm not quite sure of, my eye fell on my hat on its hook at the door. The hat I wear in the heat of summer to keep my brain from frying, the hat I use whilst camping with my amateur radio friends, the hat I've worn whilst loading massive hay bales with a tractor and the hat I've worn swimming in the Ord River - well, a descendent, third generation if I remember correctly. I shook my head in disbelief, after donning my raincoat, put my trusty Akubra Territory on my head and stepped out into the rain. Perfect. Kept me dry, kept my glasses clear and no drips down my back. You may well wonder what this has to do with radio and that's a fair question. I will preface this with a disclaimer that you might not have this set-up in your shack just now, but perhaps it will inspire you to get started. I've been talking a lot about Software Defined Radio, and I do believe that it represents the future for our hobby, but that doesn't mean that my traditional radio, in my case a Yaesu FT-857d, is headed for the scrap heap just yet. As you might know, with some preparation you can connect your radio to a computer and control it. You can also connect both the send and receive audio to a computer using a variety of techniques which I probably should get into at some point. Assuming that you have, and I realise you might not yet have done this, but assuming for a moment that you have made this all work, you can use this to do things like JT65, FT8, PSK31, SSTV and hundreds of other modes. One thing I did during the week was use this set-up to listen to noise. Seriously, that's what I did. I picked a spot on the band with nothing but noise. No discernible signal and fired up the application WSJT-X, it's the tool you use for many weak signal modes. As an aside, as a tool, it is also helpful in getting your digital mode levels set correctly. One of the windows in WSJT-X is the waterfall and spectrum display. On it you can see the signal as it is right now and how it's been in the past. If you turn on one of the filters on your radio, you can see the display change. You can literally see what gets filtered out. On my radio I've got the standard filter, as well as a 2 kHz and a 300 Hz Collins filter. Using this technique, you can specifically see what each filter does. If I turn on the built-in Digital Signal Processor, the DSP, I can see what the adjustments do, as well as the impact of the mode on the filter. And how the various settings interact. For example, until I saw this display, I didn't know what the "DSP HPF CUTOFF" and "DSP LPF CUTOFF" specifically did and how they interacted with the other filters. Similarly what "DSP BPF WIDTH" did and how. I also didn't know that even if you set both the high and low pass filter frequencies to the same value, you still have a usable filter, even if you might think that nothing could get through. Now I do realise that your radio may not have those specific settings, but I am confident that if you pick a spot on the band, set up a frequency display and waterfall, you'll discover things about your radio that you hadn't before. I also realise that you can hear some of this by just playing with filters, but seeing it on the scope adds a whole other dimension to the experience. Just one example is to see how a narrow filter interacts with the in-built DSP, something that's difficult to hear, but easy to see. If you have a Morse beacon to hand, you can also see how various frequency shifts work and the impact of selecting filters in relation to that signal. No need to just listen to the beacon with just CW mode either. Have a look at it using SSB. Using something for an unexpected purpose can give you many great rewards. As for the hat, really, I hadn't used my hat to ward off the rain until then; you live and learn. What have you discovered recently? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day it occurred to me that my callsign had been away from HF for months, probably longer. I didn't really want to think about how long it had been. I moved QTH over two years ago and ever since I've been working on a new antenna set-up. You know the kind, you shouldn't rush this. Anyway, having just had a camp-out with some friends for a portable contest, where I gleefully had fun with the station callsign, I thought it was time to actually do what I keep advocating to anyone who stands still long enough, to get on air and make some noise. So I did. You know that feeling when the longer you wait, the harder it gets and the more you put it off? That had invaded my thinking and my avoidance. The typical excuses of not enough space, too much noise, no antenna, radio not ready, too hard, all fought their way into prominence. I'd had enough. So, on Saturday I collected all the bits that make up my portable station. It had clearly been a while since I'd used it, since I couldn't for the life of me remember where the head of my Yaesu FT-857d was, that was until I remembered that it had previously been installed in my car, so that's precisely where I found it. The tiny jumper cable between the head and the body was located in my headset bag where I'd stashed it after forgetting it for a contest one year. The microphone was where I'd stored it in the car. The battery was easier, since I'd used that the weekend before. Pulled out a table, a chair and set about putting my station together right there in the driveway. I'd been meaning to test an antenna that to all intents and purposes was doomed to fail, a long-wire on the ground. I didn't have an un-un or a balun, but I did have my trusty antenna coupler, so I used that. One end of the antenna, twelve and a half meters going one way, the other half going at a right angle. That pretty much solved that. Then for the final touch, I turned the radio on. All worked and I set about figuring out what I could hear. Across all the NCDXF beacons and bands I could hear the local beacon about 30km away. I have mentioned the NCDXF before, but in short, the Northern California DX Foundation has since 1979 coordinated the installation and maintenance of a collection of transmitters that 24 hours a day, every three minutes transmits on a staggered schedule across 5 different bands. It's called the International Beacon Project. For funding, the NCDXF relies on donations from people like you and in Western Australia the WA Repeater Group maintain the beacon, VK6RBP. Each transmission consists of a callsign, a beep at a 100 watts, a beep at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts. You can hear the beacons on 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m. Their purpose is to determine what propagation is like across the world on each of the bands, in pretty much real time. It was the impetus for me to start learning Morse Code - in case you're wondering, no, I know, I'm still at it. On my wire on the ground antenna the local beacon on the 10m band was by far the strongest. I also had a listen on 80m and 40m and even found two stations in deep discussion about something or other. Didn't manage to catch their callsigns, but good readability, not so much in the way of signal strength. I called up a friend on 900 MHz, in case you're sceptical, yes I hold a licence for that, so do you, it's cunningly encapsulated in a sophisticated portable battery powered multifunctional gadget made of electronics and glass. He was in the middle of repairing some damage sustained to his G5RV Jr. antenna during our latest adventures - Hi Glynn - and afterwards we had a go to see if we could in fact hear each other. I was using 5 Watts, he something like 70 Watts. Neither of us could hear the other, even though we're a similar distance from each other as the beacon. Not yet sure if it was his radio acting up, or mine for that matter. I then started down the digital modes path. Installed a PSK31 decoder and set about programming my radio for the traditional PSK31 frequencies. Didn't hear anything, didn't decode anything, but had a ball none the less. You might think to yourself right about now what the point of all this was if I didn't make any contacts? The answer is simple, I got outside, in the sun, soaked up some Vitamin D and played radio, just like the weekend was intended for. My next adventures are likely going to involve the same antenna and a vertical for transmit to see how that goes. You don't need an excuse to get out and play and when you do you might not make any contacts, but that's not really the point of playing, is it? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio A while ago I set up a WSPR, or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter at home. Before I go into the details, WSPR is an amateur radio protocol that allows stations to transmit their callsign, location and power level and for receivers around the globe to decode those and upload the results to a central database. It's a great way to see what you can hear and what propagation is like. A couple of months ago the regulator changed the Australian License Conditions Determination, the rules of engagement around amateur radio and now all licensed amateurs in Australia can even set-up a transmitter although I haven't yet. Receiving is plenty of fun and anyone can do that. Initially I used a piece of Windows software to track the contacts but to me it was like ordering a courier with an 18-wheeler to pick up a postage stamp. I looked around an found a piece of software that runs nicely on a single board Raspberry Pi computer. The software is called rtlsdr_wsprd, it's a mouthful, but it works nicely on a Pi with an RTL SDR dongle. The dongle I have is capable of using all HF frequencies up to 1766 MHz, so I can technically hear the 23 cm band, though I haven't actually heard any stations there. I created a list of all the published WSPR frequencies and I listen to a frequency for fifteen minutes, pick another frequency at random and do it again, all day, every day. My log for this installation goes back about eight months and I get about a hundred contacts every month or so. You might think that's a lot of contacts, but really it's not. The antenna is indoors, it's under a metal roof and while it's on the second floor, it's far from ideal, but it works surprisingly well. What have I learned from this experience? I've heard 36 different stations, across 11 countries and 23 grid squares, the furthest was G0CCL, a club station in Cambridge in the United Kingdom which was transmitting on 20m with 5 Watts. I heard it 14750 km away. There are plenty of other things that I can extract from this. The most popular band is 20m, it accounts for nearly 70% of the contacts I heard. Surprisingly, I am also hearing contacts on 80m, as well as on every other amateur band that my receiver can hear. The 6m band is pretty popular too, nearly 13% of the stations I heard. For my receiver, between 4am and 6am in the morning was the best time to hear something, together they account for just under 20% of the contacts. Locally the worst time is 8am in the morning. From the data I've collected, April and May were the most active, accounting for nearly 70% of the contacts. I must point out that the log is not continuous, there's gaps when the logging station wasn't switched on and when I was switching antennas and locations, so using the statistics I've given you here for your own station are probably not going to work quite the same. The WSPR mode isn't perfect. It will happily decode rubbish and report on that, so I've manually filtered out the bogus information, like for example a grid square XI97LK, or callsign 3KE/21XWK, where neither the location or the prefix are real. I can tell you that I was surprised that my station can hear 80m on the little telescopic rabbit-ear antenna supplied with my dongle. That same antenna is also fine at hearing 6m, so I'm pretty happy with that. One thing that this little experiment reveals for me is that a cheap dongle is a perfectly fine way to start playing with a limited budget. It offers the opportunity to explore the RF spectrum using modern tools and techniques. Much of what I describe is absolutely possible with a traditional radio. Originally I had my station set-up like that. It consisted of my Yaesu FT-857d, a 12 V power supply, a CAT cable, an audio interface and a computer. In stark contrast, my current set-up consists of two things. A Raspberry Pi with an RTL SDR dongle plugged in. While this set-up cannot transmit, neither could I at the time. Since then there have been advances in both. There are all-band WSPR transmitters for a similar cost to a Pi and a dongle. Power it up, configure it and you're good to go. I'm eyeing off that as a future project, since it's perfect to use to see what bands are open for your station at any given moment. If you've never had a go, you should. I've documented how my monitor station works and you can find it on the projects page on my website at vk6flab.com. WSPR is a really nice way to get into many different aspects of our hobby and the barrier to entry is your imagination. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

In this extra content that accompanies the YouTube video of my trip to the glamping pod, I get to share the comforts with you of stopping overnight and operating radio. We get to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Peak district as well as operate amateur radio. I discuss my enjoyment of using the Yaesu FT 897 radio.

Foundations of Amateur Radio A question that occurs more often than you might think is one related to powering your radio. It comes in a few different flavours, like: "I want to install a radio in my car, how do I power it?", or "I want to operate portable, what's the best way to power my radio?" or "What power-supply should I buy?" There are many more versions of this, but they all come down to the same underlying challenge. I spoke about sizing a battery a couple of years ago, but that's not the only consideration. If you look at the power specifications of my Yaesu FT-857d, you'll see 13.8V DC +/- 15%, Negative ground, 1 Amp on Receive and 22 Amp on Transmit. Based on this I purchased two 26 Amp Hour batteries and a 45 Amp variable power supply. My amateur license restricts me to 10 Watt and I tend to operate using 5 Watt. On receive the actual draw, specified in the documentation at 1 Amp doesn't go above 0.5 Amp in typical use. Transmit, specified at 22 Amp doesn't go above 3.6 Amp at 5 Watts and at 10 Watts it's still only 4.5 Amp, so my 45 Amp power supply is slightly overkill, by a factor of 10. By the way, that's an FM carrier on 2m. Different modes and bands have different current draw. I should make mention of the duty-cycle, that is the difference in time spent transmitting and receiving. A 100% duty-cycle means that you're transmitting all the time, 50% means half the time and 25% means that for every minute of transmission, you'll spend three minutes listening. There is more to the duty cycle, in brief, AM, FM and RTTY are 100% duty cycle modes, CW is a 40% mode and SSB has a duty cycle of 20%. So if you're listening half the time on SSB, your duty-cycle is only 10%. At this point you should at least understand that what the manufacturer says on the box and what your radio actually does is entirely dependent on your use case. I have no doubt that there is a way I can operate my radio so it draws 22 Amp. I'm not quite sure how, but I'm sure it's possible. Sizing aside, there are other things you need to consider. If you're in a car, do you wire the contraption directly to your car battery, or to a secondary battery? Should it be connected directly, or via the accessory switch? Should you get a DC to DC power supply, or some other technology? Also, not all cars are 12V, not all cars have their body as earth and the thicker the wire between the battery and the radio, the better. My decision, given that I live in a country where distances are non-trivial, and in a state bigger than Texas, in fact Western Australia is bigger than Alaska, Texas and Minnesota combined, I decided that it would be prudent to make the power supply for my radio completely separate from my car. I have a toolbox in the boot, that's the trunk if your regulator is the FCC, which contains two 26 Amp Hour batteries. I take it out to charge and put it back when I need it. Other solutions include second batteries with disconnect on low charge circuits, manual and automatic ones, direct connect to the main battery and variations on that theme. In shacks I've seen batteries which are constantly charged connected to a radio and dedicated power supplies bordering on being a local sub-station to ensure that enough of the good stuff makes it into the radio and out to the antenna. For portable operation I've seen Lithium in several different flavours, car start boost batteries, mobile phone USB batteries, remote control car batteries, and the like. If you have more than one, bring some red Velcro and use it to mark the flat battery. One of the things you'll really only be able to learn after doing it is finding out what the noise level is that a power supply generates. A battery generally doesn't make noise, but the charger or up-converter might. Inverters are often a great source of HF noise, the cheaper the more noise, so test before you buy. Also, none of what I've said so far considers emergency preparedness, which is a whole other topic for another day. As in any technical situation, in theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice they're not. Be prepared to do some real world tests, see what your friends are doing and see what you can take-away from that. My purchase of a laboratory variable 45 Amp power supply was excessive, but it's likely to outlast me. The two 26 Amp Hour sealed lead acid batteries are very heavy, but I avoid carrying them as much as I can and so far, seven years later, they still last most of the weekend during a contest. There's not a one-stop solution for power, just like there isn't one for picking a radio. How do you power your radio? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

John Jacobs, host of the Field Radio Podcast, returns join in a discussion of basic DIY HF antennas.  We talk some of the most common and easiest to build antennas such as Dipoles as well as how to build them and where to scrounge for materials!  We also talk about our plans for our respective shows in light of Cale’s recent archiving of Ham Radio 360. We share the details of the Digilent Analog Discovery 2 package (and discount code!) with the audience! Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/hamworkbench Contact us! - http://hamradioworkbench.com/contact New FaceBook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hamradioworkbench/ John Jacobs W7DBO, host of the Field Radio Podcast Field Radio Podcast - http://fieldradiopodcast.org/ Field Radio Podcast YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/c/FieldRadioPodcast Field Radio Podcast Twitter - https://twitter.com/FieldRadioPod The Ham Radio 360 Archive - http://hamradio360.com/ Keep up with Cale Nelson K4CDN at the 6 Arrows Radio Network - http://6arn.com/ The EXCLUSIVE Digilent Ham Radio Workbench Analog Discovery 2 Package - https://store.digilentinc.com/ham-radio-workbench-bundle/ Use code HamRadioWorkbench2018 to save $100 (view cart to add code before checking out) The new BayNet DMR Talkgroup is 31075 The new Yaesu FT-818 (the next generation FT-817 QRP Radio) - https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/0818.html KF7IJZ Demonstrates Kirchoff’s Current Law as it applies to portable power boxes for charging and discharging at the same time - https://youtu.be/uA_WEykbGE4 Powerwerx Panel Mounts - https://powerwerx.com/panel-mounts Julian - Survival Tech Nord - http://oh8stn.org/ https://www.youtube.com/user/SurvivalTechEU Stuart KB1HQS - http://kb1hqs.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSkFZt2bfUZ-w3xNxUANFVw KF7IJZ’s ICOM IC-7300 Voice Keyer Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCWsfxDHJw Comms to Go Portable Power Solutions - http://commstogo.com/ HF Dipole antenna Calculator - http://www.kwarc.org/ant-calc.html (or divide your frequency by 468 as a starting point for a half-wave HF dipole) Where does 468 come from? by KB6NU - http://www.kb6nu.com/468-ham-radios-magic-number/ DIY End Fed Antenna - http://www.earchi.org/proj_homebrew.html Bell Labs demonstration on Impedance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovunOxlY1k RigExpert Antenna Analyzers - https://rigexpert.com/antenna-analyzers-comparison-table/ DIY Dipole Center Insulator from W6LG - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5OqrvyjTgs RF-Parts for RF connectors - https://www.rfparts.com/ The Wireman for high-quality antenna wire - https://www.thewireman.com/antennap.html ARRL’s The Doctor Is In Podcast on Antenna Wire - http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DoctorPodcast/2018/January_18_2018_-_Antenna_Wire.mp3 ARRL’s The Doctor Is In Podcast on End Fed Antennas - http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DoctorPodcast/April%2027%20-%20End%20Fed%20Antennas.mp3 ARRL’s The Doctor Is In Podcast on Feed Line - http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DoctorPodcast/November%2023%202017%20-%20Coax%20vs%20Balanced%20Lines.mp3 NVIS Antenna Build Example - https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/instructions/WP-NVIS-Rev3.pdf Mag Loop - http://w8mrc.com/docs/presentations/Magnetic%20Loop.pdf Making a high quality “Ugly” Balun - http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html Knot Tying is an invaluable skill for outside antenna work Knot Books https://www.amazon.com/KLUTZ-Book-of-Knots-Toy/dp/1338106422/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1519540475&sr=8-15&keywords=knot+book https://www.amazon.com/Tying-Pro-Knot-Cards-practice-carabiner/dp/0922273294/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519540512&sr=8-1&keywords=knot+book W4EDF erecting a 3 painter’s pole multi-band dipole by himself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6RGiFkdMM Small Loop Calculator - http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/small-transmitting-loop-antenna-calculator.aspx VK3YE DIY Small 40M Magnetic Loop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv_RnLpZ9gw

If you haven't done so, please take our survey!  http://survey.hamradioworkbench.com/ George is down with the Flu, so Mark “Smitty Halibut” Smith KR6ZY guest hosts this week.  We debrief on Winter Field Day and talk about the battery projects on KF7IJZ’s workbench and the antenna project on KR6ZY’s workbench.  Finally we share additional sessions from BayCon 2018.  First Pieter Noordhuis KK6VXV talks about developing software for working GOES Weather Satellites.  Finally, Tim Fairbairn AF6TF talks about Summits on the Air (SOTA). Smitty KR6ZY Twitter - https://twitter.com/smittyhalibut YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/SmittyHalibut New Ham Radio Workbench Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hamradioworkbench/ Winter Field Day - https://www.winterfieldday.com/ New Digilent Analog Discovery 2 Bundle Exclusive for Ham Radio Workbench listeners!  The regular price would be $339, but Digilent is offering a discount code for $100 off!  The bundle includes: Analog Discovery 2 BNC Adapter Board 2 BNC Scope Probes Mini Grabbers Extra Set of Fly Wires Follow @HamWorkbench on Twitter or watch the new FaceBook groups for the link and code to appear sometime between February 15-16!  Full details will be shared in our next episode as well. Rumor of a new Yaesu FT-818 radio - https://fccid.io/K6603770X30 Commentary on the desired features of an FT-817 Replacement - http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2016/06/ft-817-upgrade/ Chinese HF QRP Radios Xeigu X5105 - https://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=X5105 Xeigu X1M - http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=302&category_id=65 Xeigu X108 - http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=346&category_id=65 Elite Power Solutions 40 Ah Prismatic LiFePO4 Battery - http://www.batteryspace.com/lifepo4-prismatic-battery-12-8v-40ah-512wh-10c-rate---un38-3-passed-3-2vx4-dgr.aspx KF7IJZ Battery Box Design Videos Part 1 - Philosophy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJjl7r9DnQE&index=2&list=PLYdpm7CC0KkLlfmG2U03RZ6Zlg66jE-Y2 Part 2 - Bill of Materials - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_bZ-ZuM5Sg&index=1&t=16s&list=PLYdpm7CC0KkLlfmG2U03RZ6Zlg66jE-Y2 EEVBlog - Kirchoff’s Laws - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBfAEeEzDlg EEVBlog - Mesh and Nodal Circuit Analysis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-2yXiYmRI Powerwerx Panel Mounts - https://powerwerx.com/panel-mounts 20m Moxon Antenna build. Moxon page: http://www.moxonantennaproject.com/ Moxon Calculator: http://w4.vp9kf.com/moxon_calculate.php “Crappie Poles” Fiberglass masts: https://www.ebay.com/itm/253027304815 “Super Antenna” 18ga wire: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332542983769 Balun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poqG0IfY8z4 (this is 1 of 5 in the video series) Original this kit is based off of: http://setxac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1-1-Hombrew-Air-Core-Balun-Goran-SM2YER.pdf BayCon 2018 Presentations - http://www.bay-net.org/articles.html  

Happy Thanksgiving! George, Jeremy and John pulled me up to the barn just in time to get a shopping show together for your Holiday Listening pleasure!  Actually, we'd planned this all along-knowing that so many of you enjoy the insight and conversation between friends. This is our 4th Shopping Show and it's always the highlight of our yearly podcasting adventures. While we have a load of fun doing these shows;  it's our hope we can help you make informed choices regarding big and small purchases this Christmas Shopping Season! Handi-talkies, Mobiles, Portables and Packables all get time in this episode along with some insight on budget and starter gear.  There's room for everyone, even if you're still stuffed full of turkey! So, take us along as you brave the crowds for overnight shopping!  Plug us in one ear while you're forced to sit through another lame 3-hour Commercial..I mean Thanksgiving Parade.  Share us with the in-laws, you know they love hearing about your 'weird' radio hobby!  Whatever-just don't miss out on this episode! We're all Thankful for the time you spend with us and truly hope you and your family enjoy the brightest of Seasons! 73 Y'all Cale, George, Jeremy and John   Show Notes and Links in order mentioned- Handi-Talkies:    4: 39 ICOM IC-92AD - (discontinued) Wouxun HT (UV1D-UV6D) Yaesu FT-60 Yaesu FT-65 Kenwood TH-6Fa - (discontinued) Yaesu FT-2DR Kenwood TH-d74a Kenwood TH-d72 - (discontinued) Kenwood TH-20ka Wouxun KG-UV8d W7DBO HT Go-Bag EMCOMM & HT Go-Bag Show (fo time rewind) VHF/UHF Mobile Rigs:    23:00 Yaesu FT-8800 (discontinued) Kenwood TM-v71a (*still our pick for best all-around dual-band!*) Tytera TH-8600 (Low Power Small Mobile "fun radio for 100 bucks") ICOM ID-4100 ICOM ID-880H (discontinued) Yaesu FTM-3200 (system fusion) Yaesu FTM-3100 (analog) ICOM ID-5100 BTech UV-25X4 Kenwood TM-d710g Yaesu 8900 Yaesu 7900 Yaesu FTM-450XDR Portable 10' Tripod for field expedient VHF/UHF Antenna Deployment - Mobile HF Radio:     48:41 ICOM IC 7300 ICOM IC 7200 ICOM IC-706MkIIg (discontinued) Elecraft KX3 Kenwood TS-480sat Kenwood TS-480HX ICOM IC 7100 Yaesu 857 Little TarHill II Antenna K4CDN TS850 *For Sale* KJ6VU 7100 Portable Portable/Field Radio Gear:      1:12:30 Elecraft KX2 Elecraft KX3 Yaesu FT 817nd Yaesu FT 991A Yaesu FT 450 Elecraft KXPA (100w amp) Elecraft PX3 (panadapter) Yaesu FT 891 ICOM IC-718 OH8STN (Julian: Survival-Tech-Nord) KB1HQS (Stuart: NPOTA Supreme Champion) Good Finds:     1:35:20 West Mountain Radio Battery Analyzer Wago Wirenut/Connector (big combo pack/best deal) Wago Wirenut/Connector (little combo pack/good deal) Shark RF Open Spot Diamond Discone D220R Gigaparts: Hytera DMR Radios (682 and 382) Airspy Mini Airspy R2 Spyverter R2 Airspy HF+ Alinco DR-135tMkIII Kantronics KPC3 TNC Kenwood TM-281 Kenwood TM-231 (discontinued)  Kenneth Finnegan @KWF  Budget Buys:     1:51:15 Swap.QTH.com (caveat emptor) IC-V8000 IC-7800 Stocking Stuffers:     1:56:10 Power Poles RF Adapters Coax Airspy Mini TYT MD 380 Hot-spot ARRL Handbook Raspberry Pi USB/SoundCard Baofeng 888 Baofeng UV82 N9TAX Roll-Up J-pole Browning BR1035 (NMO mag antenna) Browning BR180 (NMO Dual-band antenna) Arrow J-pole Packtenna Mini Signal-Stuff HT antenna (25% off till Cyber Monday) Goal Zero Light a life mini Goal Zero Luna Heil HTH Headset Merry Christmas Y'all! cale

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I have a confession to make. Looking back it's clear that once your brain goes down a certain path, it's easier to follow the path than to find an alternative one. When I was growing up, above my bed, bolted to the wall were two brackets. On top of those brackets, secured with double-sided tape was a radio-cassette player. If you're unfamiliar with what an audio cassette is, don't worry, this is about the radio side of things and is from the days when Digital Music was not in wide use like it is today. I used this radio to listen to local stations, both on the AM and FM broadcast band, and I managed to even get to the beginning of the FM broadcast band where the police radio happened to be at the time in the country I was living. As years went by, that radio-cassette player was replaced with a radio tuner, then a combined amplifier tuner and I re-programmed it as I moved around the globe with new local stations filling up the quick select button memories. Over the last year or so it occurred to me that my latest device had been sitting inside a box in the garage for the better part of a decade and that the gap was filled by the radio in my car. I would drive somewhere and turn on the radio and listen to something interesting, or something boring, depending on what the airwaves brought to my antenna at the time. I started wanting to listen to the end of interviews, or rock along to some other happy tune when I got home, but I found the transition to be painful. I experimented with streaming radio, spent hours looking for software and currently the best I can do on that front is to have an App on my phone that streams a local radio station. You're likely by now doing one of two things. We'll get to the second one in a moment. The first one is probably going to be along the lines of "Yeah, so, what exactly has this got to do with Amateur Radio again?" If you're not thinking that, you might be thinking something that only occurred to me last week. "Why don't you use your Amateur Radio and tune that to a local broadcast station?" Indeed, why not? I'd never considered that even though my Yaesu FT-857d can tune from 100 KHz through to 470 MHz, covering most of the Amateur Bands, I'd never considered that it would also allow me to listen to a local broadcast station. It's not that I haven't actually tuned to those stations, or listened to the local Air Traffic Control frequencies, or the local Non Directional Beacons when they still existed, it's that those activities were in the context of Amateur Radio, along the lines of propagation, or interesting signals, not background music, or listening to an interview or a talk-back station. I've not yet gone to the trouble of pre-programming those stations, since my Amateur Radio is sensitive enough to pick up stations that my car cannot hear, but the list of frequencies that I'm tuning to during the day, using AM and FM is growing. Shame I can't get FM stereo from my Yaesu radio, perhaps that's something I should play with at some point. So, my second point is, "Duh, my Amateur Radio is also a radio, that you can listen to other broadcast stations with." Of course, it's a pretty pricey transistor radio, or short-wave radio, if you think of it like that, but if you've got it sitting next to you right now, it's simpler than making streaming radio work. I started this with paths travelled and I'll finish with that. When something like this happens, stop for a moment, celebrate the insight, share it with others and who knows what other things will bubble up. When was the last time your brain surprised you and what do you listen to that's not Amateur Radio? Who knows, I might become a short-wave listener yet! I'm Onno VK6FLAB

In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Dan Romanchik KB6NU, Chris Howard M0TCH and Martin Rothwell M0SGL to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s feature is Yaesu FT-450D review. We would like to thank Grant Porter, KG4SDR, John Boyer KF5FEI, Peter Caffrey, Chris Hayes 2E0XCH, Anonymous from UK and John Baggott K2BAG and our monthly and annual donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate Morse code - The First Social Media Review of UHF spectrum at 410-470 MHz Radio Ham Saved Guns n' Roses Gig Fire Department Installs Shortwave Antenna 10-year-old UK Radio Ham Buildout of Nationwide First Responder Broadband Network Could Drive ARES Changes Portable RF Hacking Tool with a Sub 1GHz RF Transceiver, BLE and USB New 122GHz and 241GHz UK Distance Records CubeSat Workshop Presentations Available

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I managed to achieve a little personal milestone. I heard myself on-air. Before you get all misty-eyed, yes, I've heard myself on-air before - probably on thousands of occasions over the years, but that's not what this was. This was my own transmitter, in my shack, transmitting my voice via SSB and it being received and me hearing it. In broadcast radio this is a common thing. Every radio station I've ever been in pipes the audio from a normal radio receiver into the studio, so you can confirm that your transmission is in fact going to air as expected. There are funny stories associated with experts who decided that they didn't need to wear headphones and promptly broadcast silence because their microphone volume was turned down or not plugged in - gotta love the helpful announcer in the previous shift. So, what was so special about hearing myself this time? Well, for the first time I heard my SSB voice. Not AM, not FM, SSB. I'd tried this before using two radios and a dummy load, but that just ended up in distortion, not much fun. Let me tell you how I managed this and what I learned along the way. Online I found a local Software Defined Radio, or SDR, that had the ability to tune to a frequency that I am allowed to transmit on. That seems pretty straightforward, but in actual fact getting those three things, Online, Local and Frequency all together has proven to be a bit of a challenge. I started listening to the station to see how their signal compared to mine. I have a project sitting on my shelf to put together my own SDR, but that ran into some procurement issues, so I've been limited in my ability to experiment. I started out trying to listen to the local HF beacon, part of the Northern California DX Beacon network. Turns out that the SDR and I can hear that pretty equally. I did notice that there was about a five second delay between what I heard off-air and what the SDR sent to me across the Internet. I don't know if the delay is because the Internet signal travelled back and forth across the country a couple of times, or because this particular SDR has some delays. I tuned the SDR to 28.490 and my radio to 28.490 and after checking if the frequency was in-use started some test transmissions. Nothing was working. No noise, nada. It does help if you plug the right antenna into the radio. Tada, look Ma, it makes noise! I could hear myself. It became clear that there was a difference in what I was expecting to hear and what I actually heard. Playing with different modes didn't seem to make any real difference, so I was a little stumped. I recalled that during a contest I had been advised that I was off frequency, so I played with my Tuning Dial, known as the VFO, and adjusted my frequency to 28.489.50 and there I was, just like I expected. Five second delay and all. At that point I wondered if this meant that the SDR frequency was wrong, or mine, or both - how could I prove it? Some hunting around for suggestions revealed the idea of tuning the SDR to one of the time frequencies, on 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 MHz, better known as WWV and WWH. On these frequencies a 24 hour a day transmission happens that encodes the time. You'll hear a ticking clock, voice indicating time and it has all manner of extra information encoded in the signal. It's used as a time standard but also as a frequency reference. Best results are when you use AM and you can use it to get a sense of propagation between you and Colorado in the United States. Mind you they are using a few extra Watts. Zooming right in I could see that the SDR was indicating that it was bang on frequency, so I'm about 50 Hz off, high as it happens. Which just means that I need to tune a little lower than the frequency I want to be on and I'm good to go. Only I'm not yet convinced. I came across settings on my radio, the TX Carrier Point for USB, menu 18 on my Yaesu FT-857d. Other than various wild guesses by others, I still don't know what it actually does, all I do know is that it was set to 150 Hz. Setting it back to 0 didn't make the problem go away, but it did appear to improve things. Not sure yet if my radio is in need of a doctor, or if I am in need of some instruction, either way I'm sure you or a friend knows and is willing to share. Turns out, I sound just as sexy on SSB as I do on FM. At least my wife thinks so. I'm Onno VK6FLAB.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I look at an antenna and marvel at what it implies. A simple piece of conducting material made into some particular shape and size that harnesses the radio spectrum. I find it fascinating that this can and does exist and my fascination translates into a thing of beauty. I recall being on a camping trip and being introduced by a friend to an antenna that was strung between two trees in the middle of the bush. For some reason that escapes me we needed to lower the antenna and I got to have a look at the feed-point. Let me describe this to you. Picture a ceramic fence insulator. The two legs of the wire dipole are each fed through the insulator at a 90 degree offset, in just the same way as you would install it into an electric fence. Looped around this is a piece of RG213 coax which is soldered onto each leg of the dipole, shield to one side, centre to the other. No traditional balun, but there is a piece of wire wrapped around the coax, holding it all together and I have no doubt that it acts as some form of choke. This thing looks absolutely horrible. It's weathered, it's rough, it's nasty, has spider-webs and other little critters living in the insulator, the soldering is quick and dirty, the shield is roughly attached to one of the legs. If you've been in the Australian Bush and visited a farm there you'll know exactly how rough and ready this antenna is. I seem to recall that its proud owner (Hi Kim) put it up temporarily in a hurry to get on air one day, a decade or so ago. So, what of this ugly mess? It was the best antenna I've used in a long while. It allowed me to make my first QRP contact across the length of Australia into New Zealand. It allowed me to contact the 7130 DX net for the first time and we talked to a globe circumnavigating sailor on this antenna. So, as ugly as this thing is to look at, from an antenna perspective, it's the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while. Now, you need to know something. I saw this antenna nearly four years ago. I have photos of it. Every now and then I go back to those photos and marvel at it. In our hobby we have people from all different walks of life. It's been pointed out on more than one occasion that as a community, the single piece of glue we have is our Amateur License. Of course some of us have more in common than just that, but it would be smart to remember that every member of our community has a different view on aesthetics, a different perspective on what is good and what is bad. I recall coming into a new radio club, I had been an Amateur for less than a month, and bringing along my shiny new Yaesu FT-857d, I was so proud of my acquisition. It was everything I liked in a radio. I'd bought it with hard-earned cash and I was chuffed to show it off. One of the first comments I received was: "Well that's an ugly radio!". Suffice to say that I was unimpressed with that assertion. Their perspective was based on their love of the FT-897, which has a different shape, one that didn't particularly appeal to me. Since that experience I've attempted to subject myself to many different radios. It's become apparent to me that everyone has a different thing they like about their radio. For one it's the layout, for the other the filters, another likes the colour, the price, the number of buttons, the history, its power consumption, the brand, the whatever. Each to their own. I'm pretty sure that I'm also biased. I recall at least two instances where friends of mine purchased a radio that I would not have considered since they lacked a particular feature that I felt was essential. I'm not sure I was gracious in my assessment of their new purchase, but I hope to make amends. In some workplaces there are policies of tolerance in place. There is an assumption that people are going to be together in the same place for long stretches of time with different cultures, different outlooks, needs and desires and different life perspectives. Some employers have attempted to codify this into a workplace diversity policy. It occurs to me that in Amateur Radio, our attempt at doing such a thing is outlined in something we refer to as "The Amateur's Code", written in 1928 by Paul W9EEA. The language is a little stilted, reflecting its origins, but it's an interesting take on what it is to be an Amateur. If you've never heard it, let me share with you the words written by Paul. I should add some disclaimers about gender and country here, but I'll leave the text as it was. The Radio Amateur is: CONSIDERATE, never knowingly operating in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others. LOYAL, offering loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs and the American Radio Relay League, through which Amateur Radio in the United States is represented nationally and internationally. PROGRESSIVE, with knowledge abreast of science, a well built and efficient station, and operation beyond reproach. FRIENDLY, with slow and patient operation when requested, friendly advice and counsel to the beginner, kindly assistance, co-operation and consideration for the interests of others. These are the hallmarks of the amateur spirit. BALANCED, Radio is an advocation, never interfering with duties owed to family, job, school or community. PATRIOTIC, with station and skill always ready for service to country and community. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Yaesu's newest HF mobile radio has some cool new features, but leaves out other options of its predecessors. Let's take a look at the radio unboxing, menus, and see it used on the air.

Yaesu's newest HF mobile radio has some cool new features, but leaves out other options of its predecessors. Let's take a look at the radio unboxing, menus, and see it used on the air.

Series Seven Episode Eighteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) the history of Amateur Radio Exam passes and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) interviews Bill Meara N2CQR. Sotabeam End Fed Tuner Kit Schedule for RSGB Convention released The first Greek microsatellite is a fact! Yaesu FT-991 KW/50/144/430 MHz Transceiver Southend & District Amateur Radio Special Event New Zealand's Prohibited Equipment Notice updated Western Australia gets Summits on the Air 90th Anniversary of first UK-NZ contact

Series Seven Episode Eight of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the recent Kempton Park Amateur / Ham Radio Rally and Martin (M1MRB) reviews the Yaesu FT-252E 2m Handhelad Amateur / Ham Radio. MacLoggerDX Version 5.53 released Important update - 5 MHz Band Ofcom 2300 and 3400 MHz ham radio bands statement Marconi Day - 26 April 2014 U.S. Coast Guard, Liberian tanker, and Panamanian ham operator rescue from sinking sailboat 915-921 MHz Licence Exempt allocation ISS HamTV moves to 2369 MHz