Amateur Radio Mic Fright and GOTA Stations
Mic fright is a general term for anxiety leading to freezing, choking, and/or hesitating when speaking into a microphone. The physiological response of worrying about saying the correct thing to […]
An Amateur Radio Blog by DX Engineering Technical Articles
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EMCOMM / Technical Articles
EMCOMM: A Look at Break Tags and Prowords Used During Emergency Communications
Break Tags Break Tags are a method of getting attention and establishing message priority. They have been used with great success in large public/emergency services nets. There are seven common […]
FT8 / Technical Articles
Is There a Place for FT8 in the Ham Radio Contest World?
Some types of automation have long been accepted in contesting: keyers, DVKs, keyboard CW, auto-repeat CQ, history files, and decoders for RTTY. Other types of automation have not been accepted […]
Technical Articles
Going on Vacation? Great Options for Bringing Ham Radio Along for the Trip (Part 4)
Summer’s not over yet, so if you’re still planning on taking ham radio along with you on your well-deserved vacation, we’ve got some more ideas for getting the most out […]
Technical Articles
Powdered-Iron Cores: How Do They Compare to Ferrite?
In an earlier OnAllBands article (“What Is Ferrite, Anyway?”) I explored the use of ferrite cores for chokes, baluns, and other amateur radio applications. In recent years, ferrite-core components like […]
EMCOMM / Technical Articles
EMCOMM: ITU/NATO Phonetic Alphabet and Numbers
Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Numbers are mostly pronounced […]
Technical Articles
How to Check Rotators from the Ground
If you have ever stood at the base of a tower, looking forlornly upward, wondering “What’s WRONG with that [adjective] rotator?!” you are not alone. That simple piece of gear […]
Technical Articles
Feeding End-Fed Antennas
“End-fed” antennas, in particular the “End-Fed Half-Wave” (EFHW), are all the rage these days, particularly for portable operation. Throw a string over a tree branch, haul up one end, connect […]
FT8 / Technical Articles
FT8: What is JTAlert Software and How Can it Help with FT8 Mode?
So you’re getting the hang of this FT8 thing. You have almost all of the states and are just a few countries away from DXCC. You are learning these callsigns […]
Technical Articles
A Change of Scenery: Portable Operating for Every Ham
The convenience of having a ham station at home is tough to beat. Being able to work stations at any time of day or night, without worrying about the cold […]
