We’re getting better every year as far as being prepared. Two years ago, I’m not sure any of our stations were on the air. Last year, most of the stations were on the air at 1800Z, and the rest were shortly after. This year, all the stations were up and running by 1:30 at the [...]

I have never operated 80m from my home. I have never had the space for a full half-wave dipole, and haven’t really had the motivation to put up anything else. Well, I’ve stumbled across something that may work—the W3EDP antenna.
The W3EDP is an 85-ft. end-fed wire with a 17-ft. counterpoise. Of course, you need an [...]

John AE5X has a great article, “Batteries and QRP” on his nicely-designed website. Using a West Mountain Radio “Computerized Battery Analyzer II” and a Fluke 87 multimeter, he simulated conditions that batteries would normally operate under in portable/mobile conditions. The battery types he tested include:

AA cells of different chemistries,
lithium-polymer rechargeable batteries, and
gel cells.

I’ve written about the C-Pole antenna before. A friend, Mark W8FSA, and I bulit a couple of them for Field Day a couple of years ago. They’re vertical antennas, but don’t require any radials. On Field Day, we’ve found them to be good performers.
In the original article, which appeared in the April 2004 QST, the [...]

For the past several years, my club, ARROW Communications Assn., has been fortunate to have the use of a big hay field at Domino’s Farms. (Yes, Domino’s Farms is home to Domino’s Pizza, one of the two biggest pizza chains in the country.)
One of the cool things about this site is that it’s close to [...]

In amateur radio circles, we often hear of “jump kits” or “go kits.” These kits contain supplies and gear that amateur radio operators will find useful if called upon to provide emergency communications.
They include not only radio gear, but personal items, such as toothpaste and toilet paper. The idea is to have this stuff [...]

This weekend, I didn’t do a heck of a lot of operating, but I did play radio repairman.
The first thing I tackled was the IC-28A. This repair went a lot easier than I thought.
This radio had a push-on/push-off type of power switch that had quit working. You could push the switch and turn it on, [...]

I’m going to be totally honest here. I’m as vain as the next guy—maybe even more so. Why else would I persist in writing this blog and continually look for new things to get even more people to read it?
Having said that, here’s the latest vanity. Now, you can subscribe to an e-mail list that [...]

I’ve written before about my collection of QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words. Now, I’m thinking of another–QSLs from stations whose callsigns are three-letter acronyms. Three of my last four QSOs fall into this category:

K2NPN
VX2FET
WA1UFO

How’s that for a start?

At Dayton, I ran into someone who was in my 2005 General Class license course. I mentioned to her that I’d just passed the Extra Class test, and she asked if perhaps I might teach an Extra Class license course in the future. At that time, I said that I didn’t have any plans to [...]