Amateur Radio Blog
I have a license to operate all HF bands, but my Hustler 4BTV 4-band trap vertical only covered 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. Now the 80 m band is the only band which allows me to work NVIS night and day across the region here, while 1 m is a Continue reading CG-3000 remote auto tuner on HF vertical review
It took me a while to do it, but I designed a new QSL card. I am intrigued with solar activity and the influence on HF propagation, so I took a spectacular photograph taken by the NASA SDO observatory in space. It’s a filament floating on the magnetic field lines on Continue reading New PA9X QSL card
The NCDXF and IARU founded the International Beacon Project. It consists of 18 beacons around the world. Each beacon transmits every three minutes, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. A transmission consists of the callsign of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second Continue reading How to run an NCDXF IARU Beacon Monitoring station
If you have mobile devices like your smartphone, or you have a laptop, you probably run a wireless network. Concrete, bricks and metal will limit the range of your WiFi signal. Installing one or more WiFi repeaters guarantees a strong signal, but does not guarantee high speed. Here is why. Continue reading Why WiFi repeaters do not guarantee fast internet
Why ask an IT specialist how to extend your wifi range? Wifi is nothing else than a digital radio signal in the 2.4GHz or 12cm SHF band. You need a communication specialist to tell you the secrets, someone like the amateur radio operator who wrote this blog post. Here are Continue reading Solutions to improve your Wifi range
LED lighting is probably the most sustainable way of bringing light into your life. Power consumed by LED is only a fraction of that consumed by a conventional light bulb, with the same amount of light. And what about the lifespan. A quality LED can last a lifetime. Blue-ish white Continue reading LED lights, a sustainable radio disaster
I love HF and my QTH is not that good for harbouring a lot of antennas so I can work each band. I do have a trap HF vertical but it is a pain in the … Corrosion makes this antenna untunable to resonate.The ideal antenna would be a vertical Continue reading The liquid HF vertical for 10m to 40m
I am a big fan of the 10m band. An extra receiver would be nice to listen on 10m, so I can use the TS-480HX to listen across the HF bands. But with a second receiver, you probably need an extra power supply and extra space in your shack. A Continue reading Better DX hunting with a 14 US Dollar SDR receiver
Past months propagation improved, resulting in relative good propagation on HF. Those who have DX ears must have noticed that 10m long distance propagation acted in a more or less remarkable way. Fellow DX’ers on different forums reported signals with multiple echoes that are certainly not from a CB echo Continue reading Long path propagation or short path propagation on HF?
Those who are daily active on the 12m and 10m band must have noticed that propagation was relatively good even excellent during the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2011. The bands, including 6m, were wide open for long range contacts. I observed long path QSO’s, “around the world trip” echoes Continue reading Has Solar Cycle 24 finished?
Lucky me!!! No better way to test the homemade 10m Moxon antenna then with current conditions. Best propagation since 2003, definitely! I took the chance to do one on one tests, and results are a bit surprising in a positive way. But first of all for the right comparison: Moxon Continue reading Nice propagation to test the Moxon antenna
I made a setup with a dipole and the 10m Moxon antenna to compare results. But for some reasons both antennas acted not normally. The Moxon had almost none front to back ratio and the dipole could not be tuned to resonate with a decent SWR. It seemed that the Continue reading Let’s start testing the 10m Moxon antenna, or not…