VHF/UHF

Mobile DC Power: One Fuse or Two?

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[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

What About the Yaesu FT-4XR?

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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

A Notable 2m Radio Contact

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For the 2019 CQ Worldwide VHF Contest, I did a modest effort on 6 meters and 2 meters using mostly SSB and FT8. I operated from our cabin (DM78av). We had some good sporadic-E propagation on 6m which enabled some long-distance contacts to the east.  Then I noticed that 2 meters was also open so … Read more

Innovation in Vehicle Labeling

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Twitter is such a wonderful source of knowledge and a great place to pick up amateur radio operating tips. I saw this post from Johnny/W5KV, talking about getting a 146.52 sticker for his truck. (146.52 MHz is the 2m National Simplex Calling Frequency.) I’ve written about these stickers here: Get Your Mobile Frequency Sticker On … Read more