Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
I always have an operating goal in sight to motivate me to get on the air. On the HF bands, I followed the typical progression of getting Worked All States (WAS), Worked All Continents (WAC), and DX Century Club (DXCC). It seems that DXCC receives all the glory and attention, with many DXers pursuing the … Read more
A few days ago, someone told me that a rumor is circulating that I don’t own any gear capable of operating on the high-frequency (HF) bands. I laughed out loud, wondering where this came from. Actually, I know where this comes from: most of my postings here at k0nr.com are oriented towards VHF operating, often … Read more
This weekend is the ARRL Field Day, a great opportunity for individual hams, small groups, and radio clubs to get on the ham bands and have some fun. But what is Field Day all about? The ARRL says this: Field Day is ham radio’s open house. Every June, more than 31,000 hams throughout North America … Read more
At first, I was just looking around on the web for some simple Rules of Thumb that compare the weak-signal performance of commonly used analog and digital modulation types. I was mostly focused on FT8 and FT4 but I also wanted to compare SSB and CW. I failed to find a simple comparison of these … Read more
Sometimes, I just need a reason to get on the air. Specific operating goals can help with this, whatever form they take, including operating awards. One of the first awards I earned many years ago was Worked All States (WAS). The mixed WAS is not that difficult because you can use any of the HF … Read more
Operating from countries outside the US can be a lot of fun. I just completed another Slacker DXpedition, this time to the British Virgin Islands. The formula for this type of operation is simple: identify an interesting vacation spot that is also considered DX, travel there with friends and family, take along some compact radio … Read more