Ham Radio

Explaining Standing Waves

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When we teach the Technician License Class, we provide a simple explanation of Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) that emphasizes the concept of impedance matching. An SWR of 1:1 is a perfect match; anything higher is less than perfect. SWR is an important amateur radio concept, one that is not that easy to explain so I … Read more

World’s Best Microphone Hanger

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I am often disappointed by the crummy microphone hanger clips supplied with mobile ham transceivers. Typically, they are cheap metal clips with sharp edges waiting to impale your hand, that look like this: I recently came across these microphone clips that are awesome! Available from Amazon for $7.49. 73, Bob K0NR

CQ WPX, LoTW and the End of QSL Cards

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Last weekend, I had a fun time working the CQ WPX contest on SSB. I’ve always liked the format of the contest with the callsign prefix as the score multiplier (e.g., K1, K2, W1, W2, VE1, VE2 are all multipliers). Its like every new contact is a multiplier. This contest attracts plenty of DX but … Read more

WordPress Security

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My site has been down for a few days due to a “security problem” that I encountered. it seems that some malware showed up on the server and my host disabled the site. It took a bit of ftp’ing to get the offending files removed but we are back on the air. I can’t say … Read more

ARRL Field Day: Season To Taste

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I’ve written before about the flexibility of Field Day and the need to season to taste to make it your own. I have always thought that one of the great things about Field Day is that it can be tuned to whatever interests you or your club. It can be a serious radio contest (well, … Read more