Closing out 2025, here are the top five blog posts at k0nr.com during the year. Some people may see this as a lazy way to create one more blog post this year without much effort, and they would be right. These posts are the top five most viewed this year, but may have been written earlier.
Top Five Blog Posts
Leading the list is this blog post…a perennial favorite that seems to make the top five each year. This particular article is tuned for Colorado, but also provides a link to an article covering the topic for the USA.
In second place, this article from Sept 2022 popped onto the list. This post addresses some confusion about the common nomenclature of VHF and UHF.
In the third spot, we have another older article about 2m SSB that just keeps on getting views. I recently updated this article, which was written a long time ago.
Number four this year is a more recent article about the station I’ve been using for both SOTA and POTA activations, built around the Icom IC-705.
In fifth place is this article describing the RH770 antenna for use with dual-band 2m/70cm handheld radios.
However, there is a newer, better version of this antenna, which I just wrote about in September:
Editors Choice
Just for good measure, I am including one more notable post. This explains why I strongly favor using VHF and UHF frequencies for SOTA activations. It is all about Height Above Average Terrain.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
73 Bob K0NR
All great articles! I have also enjoyed reading your book “VHF, Summits and More”.
I wonder if you have considered writing an article dedicated to the 23cm band? I know you have that awesome Comet Yagi that you use with the Alinco DJ-G7T for targeted contacts from time to time. It seems like the 23cm band is largely ignored, although I know that it was supposedly very popular in Japan, and it may have some unique properties compared to the 2m/70cm standbys.
I saw a post on the Ham Radio Crash Course Facebook group where a poster claimed to have made a NLOS contact in Arizona. There was a big mountain between him and his contact, so he allegedly bounced the 23cm signal off of another nearby mountain to get around it!
I wondered if you have experienced anything like that here in Colorado? I know that getting above the 1 GHz mark, the signals start approaching bands used by radar (L, S, C, X, etc), so it wouldn’t surprise me if the signal from 23cm can bounce like that.
73 de W0CTB
William,
Thanks for the comment.
That’s a good idea to do a post focused just on 1.2 GHz. I will keep that in mind.
I have posted a few times about operating in that band:
https://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2017/07/sota-1-2-ghz/
https://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2021/08/using-1-2-ghz-in-the-colorado-14er-event/
https://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2022/08/sota-23-cm-best/
Yes, you can definitely bounce signals off mountains at 23 cm. Using a handheld Yagi, I always move it around to find the best path. Sometimes it is obvious and direct but often it is a reflected path.
Bob K0NR
Hi Bob, thanks for sharing those links! It’s interesting to see what you’ve accomplished on that band. I saw that there’s a D Star repeater up on Cheyenne. Does that see a bit of activity with folks running the IC-9700? Thanks, William W0CTB
I don’t know anything about 23cm D-STAR on Cheyenne Mountain.
I was an early adopter on D-STAR but later lost interest.
D-STAR on 23cm has really suffered due to the lack of mobile gear.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! Keep up the great work. I hope to catch you on the air soon. 73 W0CTB