With colder weather looming ahead, now’s a great time to start gathering reading materials for those downtimes when you’re away from the shack and don’t want to venture outside into the frozen tundra. You’re in luck because DX Engineering has three excellent ham radio reference books from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) to add to the large selection already available.
Mini DXpeditions for Everyone by Billy McFarland, GM6DX: Here’s the perfect book to help you and some friends prepare for a portable operation that’s far less complex, dangerous, and expensive than undertakings like 3Y0J Bouvet Island 2023. The 128-page paperback includes details on a wide range of topics, including selecting the right antennas, power supplies, and transceivers; solving RFI problems; operating legally in other countries; Pico-DXpeditions for the solo operator; and much more.
Nano VNAs Explained by Mike Richards, G4WNC: The introduction of Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) in “nano” form has put this once cost-prohibitive device well within reach of amateur radio operators. This 112-page paperback covers VNA basics but takes owners and those thinking of purchasing a nano VNA well beyond this, providing practical examples of VNA-based measurements, a section on antennas, and guides to ATU settings, feeder loss, resonant stubs, time-domain reflectometry (TDR), RF switches and relays, passive filters, active filters, amplifiers, attenuators, directional couplers, RF taps, common mode chokes, baluns, ununs, splitter/combiners, crystals, and cable checkers. If you don’t have a Vector Network Analyzer, you’ll find top nano and mini models at DX Engineering from Chelegance, MFJ, and WiMo.
Work the World with DMR by Andrew Barron, ZL3DW: This 224-page paperback may be the only reference you’ll need to get started and flourish with Digital Mobile Radio (DMR). You’ll learn DMR terminology, how to purchase and program a DMR radio, the ins and outs of configuring and using a DMR hotspot, how to use DMR repeaters, talk groups, and much more—from making your first call to assembling a hotspot from Raspberry Pi. ZL3DW is also the author of the popular Radio Today guides for popular transceivers, including the Icom IC-7300 and Yaesu FTDX10.
Watch this video of Tim Duffy, K3LR, DX Engineering CEO, interviewing ZL3DW and Mark Allgar, M1MPA, RSGB commercial and membership manager.
Embed Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8J10tiHvds
Also new from DX Engineering is the ARRL’s Get on the Air with HF Digital, 3rd Edition, and Nifty Mini Manuals for the Yaesu FTM-200DR Dual Band Digital Mobile Transceiver and the FTM-6000R Dual Band FM Mobile Transceiver.
Finally, if you choose to purchase Work the World with DMR and don’t own a DMR transceiver yet, you’ll find a nice selection of them at DX Engineering, including the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG Dual Band DMR Handheld, the Alinco DR-MD500T Advanced Dual Band VHF/UHF DMR Part 90 Mobile Transceiver, and new DMR rigs from AnyTone which we’ll feature later this month.
