VHF Contest Survey -N5AC

Steve N5AC recently completed a survey of amateur radio operators about their thoughts on VHF contesting. The results are now published on the web at http://www.n5ac.com/VHFSurvey.pdf In the forward of the document, Steve writes: I love VHF and microwave contesting and I know many of those that read this feel the same. And although I’ve … Read more

Video from Colorado Mountaintop Event

The 2007 Colorado 14er Event was held on August 12, 2007. During this event, amateur radio operators make radio contact from the summits of the state’s 14,000 foot mountains. Chris K0CAO made a short video of his hike up Mount Harvard and some of his radio action on the summit. The video also shows Chris … Read more

Grumpy about QSL Cards

I tend to let my incoming QSL cards pile up for a while and then fill them out in a batch. I don’t actually get all that many QSLs unless I am doing something special like a mini-DXpedition or activating a rare VHF grid. Last week, I decided it was time to catch up on … Read more

How Many Amateur Radio Operators are there in Japan?

I recently came across a web page maintained by Ryota “Roy” Motobayashi, JJ1WTL / AC6IM that explains the Japanese amateur radio callsign system. I used to hold a Japan amateur radio license (reciprocal, based on my US license) with callsign 7J1AUE. I was traveling to Japan on business at the time, so I wanted to … Read more

Colorado 14er Event – August 12, 2007

The Colorado 14er Event is coming on August 12th, in the morning local time in Colorado. Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on … Read more

The FCC and Automatic Control

In several recent FCC actions, the regulatory agency removed the privilege of automatic control from a licensed amateur radio operator. For example, this FCC letter to John Kimbraugh WR3S says: “…on various dates in March 2007, your repeater stations operated without proper control and re-broadcast portions of commercial TV programming and music, contrary to the … Read more