I finally confirmed Cuba with the receipt today of a card from CO6RD, via his QSL manager AD4C. I hadn’t had much luck going through the QSL bureau, so when I saw that CO6RD had a U.S. QSL manager, I shipped off a card and an SASE and received a quick reply. Thanks!
I got more [...]

On the Elecraft mailing list, there was some talk about the term “Elmer,” which in amateur radio parlance is someone’s mentor. I thought that the term was of ancient vintage, but apparently, it was coined as recently as 1971.
According to Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, The term first appeared in QST in a March 1971 “How’s [...]

I’m not much of a microwave guy, but the article “Mattel makes a real radar gun, on the cheap” on RF Design Line looked intriguing to me. Designed to measure the speeds of Hot Wheels model cars zipping around a track, it emits and detects a pulsed 10.5 GHz microwave signal. It seems to me [...]

If you’ve been around electronics for any length of time, you don’t think of op amps as RF devices, but the times they are a changing. The RF Design Line article, “RF Design with Operational Amplifiers” shows which op amps to use and how to use them.

Field Day 2007 is tomorrow!
I really love Field Day. It’s like the perfect amateur radio event. You do, however, have to prepare for it. I actually work on it all year ’round, mostly finding and recruiting CW ops for the station I captain.
The week before the event, I start getting the equipment ready. I take [...]

Here’s another great idea for GOTA stations that’s gaining traction on the ARRL PR mailing list—instead of calling “CQ Field Day,” call “CQ GOTA.” Maybe, just maybe, hams answering that call will take the time to speak slowly and use plain language, giving the GOTA station operator every opportunity to have a great experience.
Dennis, KG4RUL, [...]

I think one of the good things about Field Day is the Get on the Air (GOTA) station. Its purpose is to introduce newcomers to HF and get those that have been off the air for a while back on the air. At the ARROW Field Day, we try to get as many people to [...]

A while back, I commented on a QSL I’d received from the club station of the UBA, the Belgian equivalent of the ARRL. I noted:
One factoid really struck me. The UBA says that 95% of the licensed amateurs in Belgium belong to the UBA. As a point of reference, less than 25% of licensed amateurs [...]

On the HamRadioHelpGroup, a new ham asked:
I was wondering if there are any .wav files out there that can help one identify different kinds of noise and interference. I get all kinds of crazy sounds of my radio. Some sound like they may be data, others sound like someone is broadcasting a truck engine. Any [...]

The June 2007 issue of the Flying Pigs’ Bacon Bits Quarterly (BBQ) is now online. Articles include:

Harbor Freight 45W Solar Panel “Kit” — By Rich Arland, W3OSS
Hams Are Cheap! by yours truly, FP #1171
Hamming It Off the Grid – By Dennis Ponsness, WB0WAO, FP #347
Building the SW-40+ — By Dan Lautenschleger, AB9ME FP#1570
Run For the [...]