Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
I was flipping through the November 2009 issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine and noticed an advertisement with the title “building your own ham radio”. Wow, what’s up with that? It was an ad for Pacifico beer. The text in the ad says: Become the envy of friends and locals as you join the elite … Read more
AMSAT has recognized that they need to get some new hardware flying in space and is now focused on getting a small LEO satellite developed. AO-51 (originally called ECHO) has been a very popular satellite and one of the few clear successes from AMSAT in recent years. It appears that the AMSAT engineering team has … Read more
In a previous blog posting, I wrote about the construction of a portable VHF/UHF crossband repeater. I published the results of this project in my FM/Repeater column for the Fall 2008 issue of CQ VHF Magzine. I’ve adapted portions of the article to provide an update here. To deal with the issues of identification and … Read more
Amateur radio has a deep tradition of providing emergency communications during all kinds of disasters. Of course, some emergencies are more urgent and serious than others. The Golf November Tango frequency is an important frequency to always have programmed into your radio. Established as 146.55 MHz ( FM simplex, no CTCSS), the GNT Frequency is … Read more
There has been quite a ruckus about the FCC and Part 97.113 concerning emergency communications but I have been taking a wait and see attitude about it. These FCC Rules say: No amateur station shall transmit communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer. The … Read more
The interest in D-STAR continues to grow in Colorado. I have responded to a request to talk about D-STAR at the Mountain Amateur Radio Club (MARC) meeting on Wednesday night. It will be a basic introduction to the mode/technology along with a demo of D-RATS. I don’t think I am an expert on the topic … Read more