Sometimes, going backwards a bit can make you really appreciate the newer versions of communications methods. such has been my experience the last couple of days working with RTTY, or Radio Tele-Type on the digital modes. Previously my only experience in the digital HF bands has been with FT8 and FT4 modes. While getting the …
Author Archives: KJ7DJR
The Secret Second Life of Hams
Just when you think you know a fellow ham, after hanging out together for a couple years over radios, nets, propagation and antenna chatter, lunches and breakfasts at Denny’s, or Village Inn, you find out that they have a second secret life as a weatherman. (You know who you are, NWF! =) This is particularly …
Flying Saucer Antennas!
I had the chance to attend a pretty neat presentation at a ham club in Mesa earlier today on building “flying saucer antennas” for the HF bands. (I took both my Technician and General tests at this club in 2019, and they are a terrific bunch of mostly retired folks with the amateur radio bug.) …
Exploring the Drought Map and Radio Propagation
I’ve been watching weird behavior in propagation over the western USA with curiosity since Hurricane Ida plowed through some weeks ago. And I’ve been taking screen shots of how the hole in propagation has changed and expanded over time since then. Early Summer “Normal Propagation” When I first started on the HF bands back in …
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The Sun Takes Aim at Earth…
Space weather is interesting to hams because the “mood” of the sun affects ham radio in all kinds of interesting ways. From creating the different layers of the ionosphere that bounces HF waves back to earth and makes communications possible, to disrupting those same waves with geomagnetic storms, to sunspots cycles affecting the day to …
A Broken Sky Continues – The Anomaly Project
A while ago I wrote about the propagation phenomenon I was seeing around the time Ida was hammering the gulf coast states– namely that there wasn’t much propagation to be had in the western states or east of the center of the country. Signals simply weren’t landing where they used to at all, and the …
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Nibbling at Africa
There is an award on QRZ that I’ve been on the verge of getting for a couple of months, but the final accomplishment on the list seemed nearly impossible with my current humble hamstick setup. I needed to make confirmed contacts on at least SIX continents to get the Continents of the World Award, and …
Discovering The Long Year Town
In public school for most kids, geography always comes off as a dull subject. One of memorizing states, and state capitols, and peering at a bland globe at far off places that never really captures the interest of most students. Yeah, that was me too–guilty as charged! If public schools really wanted students to enjoy …
A Rush of Butterflies and 17m Results
I don’t know why I see these little stories in my head to explain how an experience “feels”, but I can only describe yesterday’s fun on 17 meters as a rush of butterflies and chasing a field full of them all over the place while laughing gleefully. Which one to chase first?! Oh! that one …
Square Foot Antenna Farming Part 1
“Old Mc-Lisa had a farm, ee-eye-ee-eye-oooh!“ Yet Another Antenna Project As I have previously detailed, my 3rd floor apartment is pretty hard to ham from. I’ve hacked a few solutions that have allowed me to work about three bands so far, though I can only work two at a time due to space constraints. It’s …