Technical Articles

two half hitches knot tied around table leg
Technical Articles

Ham Radio Tech: Knots & Slings

Antenna and tower work are never far from our minds as hams. Most amateur loads are considered light by professional installers, but they can be heavy enough to cause injuries […]

field day ham radio station
Field Day

Effective Field Day Operating

Operating at Field Day is lot different than operating a home station—and that’s more than half the fun. It’s also one of the main reasons Field Day exists, so that […]

screengrab of a map displayed on a computer
Field Day

Noise Management on Field Day

Here comes Field Day and all of your careful equipment connections and filtering go out the window as the station is disassembled and hauled off to the operating site. Be […]

portable field day ham radio station on a folding table
Field Day

Field Day: Things You’ll Need & Wished You’d Brought

Every Field Day setup is different, depending on location, number of people, access to trees, number of stations operating, and more. Chances are you’ve participated before and have a basic […]

Technical Articles

Tweaking Your Mobile Installation for Best Performance

Going mobile? Installing a ham radio station in your vehicle expands the usefulness of amateur radio, making automobiles ham shacks on wheels. It’s a convenient way to have instant emergency […]

Antenna Tech / Technical Articles

Cobweb, Halo, and Hex: Ham Radio Antennas You Can Bend, Wrap, and Fold

Space, the final frontier for antenna installations. The ham’s ongoing mission: to explore their shrinking lot sizes and seek out smaller antennas that will keep them on the air—ones that […]

Technical Articles

Update to RadioMail—Varanny

I have written about an amazing program called RadioMail in previous articles. This is an application that allows for Winlink mail to be sent and received on an iPhone or […]

Technical Articles

Ham Mobile Install–A Few Suggestions for Dealing with Noise Issues

In this installment of Ham Mobile Install, we will talk about what happens when you have followed the mobile radio installation instructions to the letter, but there is still something […]

Technical Articles

Waterfall Displays—What Information Do They Provide?

Finding activity on the ham radio bands used to mean tuning around the dial and listening for QSOs, one frequency at a time. We were blind to anything but the […]

Technical Articles

Ham Mobile Install—Power Options

In this installment of Ham Mobile Install, we will discuss powering options for your mobile radios. There are several options to explore, depending on the power of the transceiver and […]