800 reflections on a hobby
Foundations of Amateur Radio On the 15th of May, 2011, my amateur license still wet, I started documenting my experience with my newly adopt...
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Foundations of Amateur Radio
Starting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or HAM Radio can be daunting and challenging but can be very rewarding. Every week I look at a different aspect of the hobby, how you might fit in...
Episodes
20 of 607 episodesWhat does I/Q have to do with anything .. time to poke the bear.
Foundations of Amateur Radio More than seven years ago I first uttered the phrase: "I/Q", and palmed it off to future me with "we should loo...
How to point an antenna without moving it?
Foundations of Amateur Radio The radio telescope at Dwingeloo in the Netherlands recently promoted an Open Day where visitors were treated t...
Bald Yak 21: When you need to travel to Pluto and back
Foundations of Amateur Radio I recently expressed the notion of using a PlutoSDR as a replacement for an oscilloscope, a spectrum analyser,...
Getting Kitted Up with Amateur Radio
Foundations of Amateur Radio Launched into your amateur radio adventure you're faced with figuring out what you need to fly. If you have a w...
Monitoring radio spectrum around you
Foundations of Amateur Radio Previously I've talked about using radio spectrum monitoring to detect lightning to potentially protect your eq...
Global Ionospheric Maps
Foundations of Amateur Radio In the middle of the night when insomnia rears its head, there are occasions when an idea sprouts that is still...
It's all in the community
Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the weekend I had the opportunity to participate in two completely different community events, one aimed a...
Lightning in a bottle
Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I heard a thunderclap and as is my Pavlovian response, immediately ran to my shack to disconnect...
Radio .. for the love of it
Foundations of Amateur Radio During the week I was shown a photograph of a chalkboard standing on the sidewalk with one of those "Thought of...
Give yourself a break!
Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the past weeks, actually, probably months, the push to talk button on the radio I use for my weekly discus...
Emergency response reality check
Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I explored the nature of amateur radio emergency response. I received a few replies providing an insig...
An emergency response
Foundations of Amateur Radio Previously I've talked about one of the often lauded cornerstones of the amateur radio community, namely Emerge...
CME, Wind, Flares, Flux and Geomagnetic Storms .. say what?
Foundations of Amateur Radio When the Sun burps, something that it does regularly, the mainstream media starts talking about aurorae and opt...
The power of patience and pacing
Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the more, let's call it challenging, skills to learn in amateur radio is the pace of the process. For ma...
The things you hear when you least expect it.
Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day a friend of mine mentioned in passing that they'd hooked their Home Assistant dashboard to an RTL...
What does expertise look like?
Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the years I've had the opportunity to operate my station with other amateurs in close proximity. From a co...
Failure is a dirty word
Foundations of Amateur Radio It's a curious thing, this hobby of ours, in that the more you want out of it, the more challenging it becomes....
Building a new resource: How do you get into Amateur Radio?
Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was asked a question on social media. Having answered this question several times before, I adm...
Telling Stories to Strengthen a Community
Foundations of Amateur Radio When was the last time you told a story? The hobby of amateur radio represents as diverse and disparate a group...