Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
Way back in the Wayback machine, when I was working on getting my Technician license (in the 20th century), I recall looking at the frequency bands available to Techs. Technicians had operating privileges for everything above 50 MHz, which looked like a lot of useful spectrum to me. The idea at the time was that … Read more
Operating from countries outside the US can be a lot of fun. I just completed another another Slacker DXpedition, this time to the Cayman Islands. The formula for this type of operation is simple: identify an interesting vacation spot that is also considered DX, travel there with friends & family, take along some compact radio … Read more
Congratulations to AMSAT for the successful launch and initial deployment of the Fox-1A amateur radio satellite.This bird has been designated AO-85 and has an FM transponder on board (435.180 MHz uplink, 145.980 MHz downlink). I have not heard or worked this satellite yet but early reports indicate that it has a strong signal on the … Read more
Last week, I had lunch with an old friend, Bdale Garbee (KB0G). Bdale and I had both worked at HP for a number of years and we have been involved in some common ham radio clubs and activities. I followed the test and measurement path with Agilent Technologies when that company was formed, while Bdale … Read more
It was time to upgrade my Verizon Wireless phone, so I decided to move to a smartphone. After pondering whether to go with Android or Apple, I finally settled on the iPhone 4. I still miss the The Real Keyboard on my old LG EnV3, as it is nearly impossible to type on a shrunken … Read more
There was an interesting exchange on the AMSAT-BB email list last week. Dave KB5WIA noted a strange signal on the AO-51 satellite: I just thought I’d relay a bit of QRM I observed on AO-51 on this morning’s 3/16/2011 1322z pass. The bird was totally quiet (just a nice carrier) for the first 5 minutes … Read more