Ham Radio

Motorola, Yaesu (Vertex), Kenwood and ICOM

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The amateur radio community has been buzzing about Motorola’s purchase of Yaesu. Actually, the deal is structured as a joint venture with Mot owning 80% of Vertex Standard (Yaesu is the marketing name for Vertex ham products.) The speculation is running wild on eham.net and other forums about what this means. As usual, these opinions … Read more

BPL Provider Ambient Gets FCC Hand Slap

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I guess things must be a bit slow at the FCC Enforcement Bureau this month. They finally got around to responding to the complaints about Ambient’s Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL (Broadband Over Powerline) system. It seems that the FCC has concluded that Ambient has “violated the radiated emission limits of Section 15.109 of the Commission’s … Read more

Slow Death for Broadband Over Power Line (BPL)

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The ham radio community has been rightly concerned about the radio frequency interference potential from most Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) systems. The ARRL continues to do battle with the BPL providers and the FCC over specific RFI issues. Most recently, the ARRL faced the FCC in the US Court of Appeals, challenging the FCC’s … Read more

ARRL Snags QST.org

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From the Big News From Newington Department: Long-time ham and ARRL member David Lien, W6OVP, of Battle Ground, Washington, has transferred the Web address www.QST.org to the ARRL. If you head to that URL, you’ll now find yourself in the QST section of the ARRLWeb. “I bought the rights to it about nine years ago,” … Read more

K9JY’s 30 Ham Radio Contesting Tips

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Scot K9JY took it upon himself to write up a ham radio contesting tip every day in September. He ended up with a great list of 30 tips for improving your contesting experience. Scot writes from an HF contester’s point of view but most of the tips work well for VHF contests, too. Whether you … Read more

Jay Maynard K5ZC on D-STAR Repeaters

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The Radio Amateur Information Network (RAIN) Report has an interview with Jay Maynard, K5ZC, from the National Frequency Coordinators Council concerning the use of digital repeaters. Jay discusses the issues around the alledged FCC statement that “D-STAR systems are not repeaters” and gives a good overview of the challenges of adopting digital repeater technology. The … Read more