On one of the QRP mailing lists, there was talk about how minimal you could make a QRP transceiver. Several ideas were tossed around, but then Chris Trask, N7ZWY, nailed it.
The Gnat 1 uses a single 2N2222. The parts list includes values for 80m, 40m, and 30m versions, and the documentation even includes a [...]

A couple of news items have been brought to my attention that deal with the relationship between amateur radio and the police. Gets me to thinking about what, if anything, I could do to improve the relationship between the Ann Arbor ham community and our local police forces.

Police Detonate Ham Radio Equipment Mistaken for Bomb, [...]

From the 2/24/09 NIST Tech Beat:
First responders could boost their radio communications quickly at a disaster site by setting out just four extra transmitters in a random arrangement to significantly increase the signal power at the receiver, according to theoretical analyses, simulations and proof-of-concept experiments performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The [...]

I recently took out an old Make: magazine from the local library. It had a lot of cool links. Here are some:

USBCell. These rechargeable, AA batteries plug into a USB port. A two-pack costs £11. Their website says that AAA, C, D, and 9-V batteries are in the pipeline.
Octopart. Type in a part number, and [...]

At the museum today, we got into a discussion of the reason for including both the Upper CW (UCW) and Lower CW (LCW) on the Omni VII radio. The explanation wasn’t on the tip of my tongue, so I decided to research this a bit.
On Icom radios, they call the Upper CW mode “CW-Reverse,” [...]

A thread on the radiokits mailing list recently discussed the Radio Shack Science Fair three-transistor shortwave radio kit. The manual for this kit–and many other P-Box kits–can be found at KA9VNW’s Sparktron website.
This is a cool radio, but another subscriber pointed to another that seems like it would be easier to build. Designed by [...]

Last weekend was a pretty busy one here at KB6NU.
I got started on Friday night, working several stations in the NH QSO Party. I only worked five stations, but it was fun. Then, for some reason, I decided to tune around in the phone band and came across WX4MM, working the YL-OM contest. I [...]

Two quick tips:

Parachute cord. A couple of subscribers to the qrp-l.org mailing list suggested the use of surplus parachute cord to suspend wire antennas. Dale, WC7S, says, “they stretch and allow for icing and frosting.” You can get a 1000-ft. spool for $60.
Cheap electrolytics. While working Harry, K4IBZ, I looked him up on QRZ.Com and [...]

I used to run an Internet bookstore and sold quality control books and ham radio books. I made a few bucks at it, but it wasn’t worth the amount of time I spent doing it, so I closed up shop about four years ago. (Ironically, one of the most profitable parts of this venture was [...]

ShackBox is an all-in-one CD for amateur radio operators. Shackbox claims to include programs that will allow you to:

control rigs and scanners,
design antennas,
design PCBs,
etc., etc. etc.

The feature that attracted my attention is that it will run on Macs. Unfortunately, it only runs on the newer Intel Macs, and I only have [...]