Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
Many hams start out with ham radio by using FM on the 2-meter band (and maybe the 70 cm band). Clearly, the Technician license privileges are focused on VHF with 2 meters (146 MHz) being the most popular band. I wrote about common types of equipment that hams choose to support their operating habits here: … Read more
Gaining some elevation for VHF operating is always a good idea. Most of the time, we think about this in terms of operating from summits or towers. Another option is to go up in an aircraft…and maybe jump out of it. Carlos/KD9OLN did just that with a parachute mobile operation captured on video. In the … Read more
Normally, I avoid posting items of a nostalgic nature, preferring to keep moving forward and not getting stuck in the past. I am going to make an exception today because I stumbled across some photos of my first radio receiver that went beyond the standard AM/FM broadcast bands. Aiwa AR-158 Radio As a kid, I … Read more
We recently completed a Technician License class that produced a herd of new ham radio licensees. This always leads to a discussion of what radio should I get? Often, this is centered on the idea of getting a handheld VHF/UHF radio to get started. That is a good first move. However, for many new hams … Read more
[My apologies. I fumble-fingered WordPress and published a draft version of this article that was incomplete. This is the corrected version. ] Sometime during the 20th Century, I learned that fuses (or circuit breakers) are used in electrical circuits to prevent catastrophic failure. Fuses open in response to an electrical fault that causes excessive current … Read more
The Baofeng UV-5R established a new price point for an entry-level handheld transceiver and quickly became the “easy choice” for a newly licensed Technician. It is a very impressive piece of technology for the money (about $30). However, it is well known that the UV-5R struggles to meet the FCC Part 97 emission requirements. The … Read more