Ham Radio

Visit to Akihabara

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Every once in a while, I pass through Tokyo, Japan on business travel. When the schedule permits, I make a trip over to Akihabara (AKA “Electric Town”), the center of electronic and computer gadgets in Tokyo. This place is amazing, offering everything from resistors to wide-screen televisions (and, yes, ham radio equipment). The only thing … Read more

2007 September VHF QSO Party

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The March issue of QST arrived in the mail today, so I sat down and did my usual browsing through it. Ah, the September VHF contest results article by Sean KX9X is in here. The September contest is not a focus for me….usually I am out of energy for serious VHF contesting after participating in … Read more

Happenings in the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division

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The Rocky Mountain Division of the ARRL has established a new web site to aid in communications with the membership. It looks to be a great place to find out about regional ham radio events, including local hamfests. Jeff Ryan K0RM is the Section Manager for the ARRL Colorado Section. Jeff has recently created a … Read more

The Use of 146.52 MHz

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One of the local clubs recently had a heated discussion about the use of the National Simplex Calling Frequency, which is 146.52 MHz in the US (per the ARRL band plan). You have probably heard the argument before…..is the calling frequency reserved to just calling or is it OK to ragchew on that frequency? In … Read more

Paul Rinaldo’s Rule of Amateur Radio Progress

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Recently on the AMSAT-BB email list, there was a discussion about some new satellites about to be launched. Some folks criticized the implementation of the satellite hardware (as in “they should have done this instead of that.“) Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, posted an excellent response that bears repeating: Paul Rinaldo’s rule of Amateur Radio Progress: Progress … Read more

QSL Via the Buro

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I was going through the Pile of Mail that had accumulated over the past few months. This is the non-urgent stuff that got pushed aside to be looked at later. I had two envelopes from the Zero QSL bureau, with about a dozen total QSL cards. Most of these cards were from my KB0CY/C6A Mini-DXpedition … Read more