- — I need a new sticker
![[*]](img/ib-star_nm.png "mark favorite")
![[+]](img/ib-marked_nm.png "mark as new")
![[-]](img/ib-markold_nm.png "mark older as read")
![[x]](img/ib-delete_nm.png "delete article")
![[A+]](img/ib-fontbg_nm.png "larger font")
![[a-]](img/ib-fontsm_nm.png "smaller font")
![[l]](img/ib-link_nm.png "direct link")
at 6/18/25 5:43amFor years, Ive given out this sticker: To be honest, this sticker was never as popular as I thought it would be. Maybe the message is too corny. I dont know. At any rate, I am running out of these stickers and need to buy some more. Id like to come up with a new, more popular design. Id love to hear your thoughts.- — Does anyone make a homebrew SteppIR?
- at 6/17/25 4:00amIn case you havent heard by now, SteppIR, the manufacturer of very expensive HF antennas is getting out of the amateur radio business. Their announcement has caused a minor uproar in the amateur radio world, but personally, its not a big surprise to me. If MFJ couldnt seem to find enough customers for their $300 $500 Hy-Gain antennas, how many $5,000 antennas could SteppIR really sell? What Im surprised by is that no one has come up with a homebrew design replicating the functionality of the SteppIR antennas. The SteppIR design is quite complex—which is one reason that it costs so much—but hams are pretty creative. It seems to me that someone out there could replicate the SteppIR functionality for a lot less than $5,000 (the approximate price for a two-element SteppIR Yagi). Perhaps someone has already. If you know of a homebrew version of the SteppIR antennas, please let me know.
- — Some Ham-Vention History
- at 6/16/25 1:14pmA couple of weeks ago, I attended a Zoom meeting for the ARDC Grant Evaluation Team. The talk naturally turned to the Dayton Hamvention, which the ARDC folks and I recently attended. At the mention of Hamvention, Lad, WA3EEC, mentioned that he had a brochure for the 1952 Southwestern Ohio Ham-Vention, which was sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association and held at the Dayton Biltmore Hotel on March 22, 1952. This was the first year that what we now know as the Dayton Hamvention was held. Lad scanned it for me, and Im sharing it with you here. The first thing Ill note is the strong technical program. The second is the prize list. The third is the manufacturer exhibits. All of these continue to be an important part of Hamvention to this day. In his email to me, Lad noted, For the record, Dayton ARA VP, Ed Pompea, W8FHJ (now SK) was my uncle. He was married to my fathers sister. He passed away more than 30 years ago in Colorado Springs, CO where his call was K0ZPG. He was career Air Force. I think that this is a very cool piece of history, and Id bet that the founders would be amazed at what the Dayton Hamvention has become, namely the pre-eminent amateur radio event in the world.
- — Shame on the ARRL again
- at 5/27/25 7:40pmShame on the ARRL again for once again allowing a division director to resign with only months to go before the next election. It was reported today that Anthony Marcin, W7XM, is resigning as Pacific Division director after serving two and a half years of a three-year term. This very un-democratic maneuver is a common one for the ARRL, and, this time, no excuse was even give for the directors resignation. Vice director John Litz, NZ6Q, is the fellow being elevated to director this time. This move is even more un-democratic because Litz was appointed vice director in April 2024. As Ive written many times, a directors seat should remain vacant if a director resigns less than a year before their term is up, or a special election should be held. Elevating a vice director like this is just a way to rig an election, giving the vice director the unfair advantage of running as an incumbent. And they wonder why theyre losing members.
- — Operating Notes: 40-meter DX, two Ohio POTA activations
- at 5/23/25 9:15amRecently, there have been some complaints about propagation on the HF bands. Last night, however, propagation was pretty good on the 40-meter band. I managed to work four DX stations, including one LU (Argentina), one YT (Serbia), and two HAs. All of them were S6-S7 and very good copy. The two stations from Hungary were both from the same town (Miskolc). Im wondering if the first one called up the second and let him know that propagation was good to the U.S. Finally got Ohio in the POTA log Last year, on my way down to the Dayton Hamvention, I activated two parks: Van Buren State Park and Grand Lake St. Marys State Park. Unfortunately, those logs never got uploaded. As I was leaving the second park, my phone died. And, it wasnt just that the battery needed recharging. It was completely dead. When I got to Dayton, I had to buy a new phone. This time, I had much better luck. Van Buren State Park is right off the I-75 freeway. As soon as you get off the freeway, youre in the town of Van Buren. Drive through town (about four or five blocks) and you come to the park. I set up in a shelter close to the entrance because there was a possibility of rain. Despite complaints about poor band conditions, I made 30 contacts in an hour, including a couple of DX contacts. I would have stayed longer, but that evening, I was meeting some people for dinner, so I packed up and headed to the second park. Even though its an inland lake, Grand Lake St. Marys is so big that has a lighthouse. The second park I activated was Grand Lake St. Marys State Park. I like this park because, even though its an inland lake, it has a lighthouse (see above). So, I get both a park activation and a lighthouse activation. Grand Lake St. Marys is a man-made lake that was constructed in the early 19th century as a reservoir for the Miami and Erie Canal, which connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie. At one time the lake was the worlds largest man-made lake. The threat of rain was even more real here, so I found another shelter to set up in. That kept me nice and dry. Unfortunately, the shelter I decided on was very close to some homes near the lake. The problem with that was that it was very noisy there. I managed to make 15 contacts in about an hour, but I know I missed at least one because he was down in the noise. I would have been able to make that contact if Id been at Van Buren State Park. After I packed up, it was off to Dayton. This time, my phone didnt flake out on me, and I made it to the hotel in plenty of time to get ready for dinner. Overall, it was a great way to kick off my Dayton 2025 trip.
- — The 2025 Four Days in May Symposium: An Introduction to LTspice, A Tube Transmitter for SOTA, SSB for the QMX, and more
- at 5/22/25 11:38amIn years past, you could always count on a QRP-ARCI Four Days in May (FDIM) talk by Rev. George Dobbs, G3RJV. You might never know what the subject would be, however. As Bill, N8ET, put it, “He always submitted a paper for the FDIM Proceedings, but would often talk about something completely different.” G3RJV became a Silent Key in 2019, but Jack Purdum W8TEE, Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE, and Hans Summers G0UPL have all stepped in and picked up the slack. All three have become FDIM regulars, and each presented interesting talks at this year’s FDIM. And, to round out the lineup, we were treated to talks by N8ET, WA5BDU, AI6XG, NT7S, and VK1UN as well. The T41EP: Seven Years Later Jack W8TEE and Al AC8GY presented a short history of the T41, their software-defined transceiver (SDT) that they’ve been working on for the past seven years. Jack recalled that the T41 had its birth on the drive home from a Field Day trip in 2018. During that trip, Jack and Al hashed out some of the basic requirements, including: It would be a software-defined transceiver (SDT). It would have a spectrum/waterfall display capable of displaying up to 192 kHz of bandwidth. It would be self-contained and not need a PC or laptop. It would support CW and SSB with up to 20 W output power. It would operate on the 80-meter, 40-meter, 20-meter, 15-meter, and 10-meter bands. Both the hardware and software would be open-source. It would be affordable for someone whose income was mowing lawns over the summer. They explained how they made their design decisions, including how the hardware and software has evolved over the years. They also discussed some of the benefits of sticking with a project over several years. I think that this approach has certainly paid off. There are more than 1,000 T41 units currently in the field, and if this talk is any indication, there will be more in the future. A Messaging System Using FT8 Technology In this talk, Farhan, VU2ESE, described his software for passing short messages using FT8 technology. He has currently implemented this software on the zBitx transceiver, but it is still in beta mode. VU2ESE’s paper is not, unfortunately in the proceedings, but if you’re interested in obtaining a copy, you can contact Farhan directly. Look for Farhan’s specification for his messaging software in the next issue of QRP Quarterly. An Introduction to LTspice Nick, WA5BDU, then introduced the crowd to the wonders of LTspice, a free software package that allows you to simulate analog circuits. In addition to the analog simulator, the package includes a graphical interface that allows you to input circuit schematics and view waveforms. This software is being developed and maintained by Analog Devices and is available for Windows and Mac OS. In his talk, Nick quickly ran through the features of LTspice using a simple transistor amplifier as an example. He also showed how to analyze crystal filters using the software. In his paper, the author asks the question, “Is it (LTspice) hard to learn?” His answer is, “You can learn to draw a schematic and run a simulation in 30 minutes or less. You can also use it off and on for several decades and still have a lot more to learn. Sort of like electronics itself.” As this talk demonstrated, this is certainly the case. A Project for the Decades: A SOTA CW Tube Transmitter This talk was a lot of fun. This project had its genesis in an article found in the March 1967 issue of Electronics Illustrated titled, “A 1 Bottle Xmitter for 40.” Dan Koellen, AI6XG, took that circuit and adapted it for portable operations, namely Summits on the Air (SOTA). One of the challenges Dan faced was powering the transmitter with a 12 V battery so that it could be operated portable. The original project plugged into an AC outlet and included a power transformer to supply the 6.3 V filament voltage and the high voltage on the plate. Providing the correct filament voltage was easy—Dan used a 12AQ5 instead of a 6AQ5. Supplying the high voltage was a bit trickier. Fortunately, he found a DC-DC converter designed to power Nixie tubes, which require a voltage of approximately 180 V. Not only did he find one—the Omnixie NCH6300HV—that could output up to 230 V, they were electrically quiet as well. To implement the transceiver functionality, Dan used a QRP Labs QCX as the receiver and keyer, along with a T/R switch and bandpass filters that he designed for this project, Dan successfully activated W6-NC-402. He made seven 40-meter CW contacts, including two summit-to-summit QSOs. According to Dan, “The fun factor was a Spinal Tap 11 out of 10.” A History of FDIM Right after lunch, Bill, N8ET, ran through some of the history of Four Days in May, dating back to when it started in 1996 at the Days Inn Dayton South. The organizers planned for 50 attendees, and were quite surprised when more than 100 registered! Bill attributes this to the great slate of presenters, including L.B. Cebik W4RNL, Dick Pascoe G0BPS, George Dobbs G3RJV, Gary Breed K9AY, George Heron N2APB and Joe Everhart N2CX, and Rex Harper W1REX. The proceedings has the tables of contents for most of the symposium proceedings, and I’d encourage you to get a copy if you weren’t fortunate enough to attend the event. It’s really quite impressive the number of quality talks and projects that FDIM has supported over the years. Beyond the ‘612 Since its release in 1987, the SA612 Gilbert Cell mixer, and all its variants, have been used in countless QRP projects. This era is, however, coming to a close. No new parts have been manufactured since 2022, and soon, new parts will be unobtainium. This situation prompted Jason Mildrum, NT7S, to search for an alternative. His search was made more difficult because so many radios now are software-defined radios (SDRs) and don’t require mixers the way that superheterodyne radios do. Fortunately, Jason discovered the Maxim MAX268x series. Although designed for microwave applications, Jason concluded that the parts could be used for HF QRP radio projects after a fairly comprehensive series of tests. Using these parts, he built a QRP transceiver, with which he has completed several successful POTA activations. At the end of his talk, Jason hinted that a return of Etherkit, his kit company, might be in the cards. Stay tuned for that. Bringing SSB to the QMX Hans, G0UPL, opened his talk by apologizing for taking nine whole months to implement SSB on his QMX transceivers. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s rather remarkable that he was able to do it in such a short time! It would have taken anyone else much longer to do it. Hans then launched into an explanation of how he was able to achieve this feat. After a review of digital signal processing (DSP) basics, he jumped into an explanation of polar modulation, the technique used in the QMX to generate single sideband. Hans’ paper in the proceedings includes references to papers which really get into the details of how polar modulation works, if you’re so inclined to read them. Hans also got into some detail on his development process. After some initial failures, he decided to simply try the code that runs then uSDX and was quite surprised that it actually worked on the QMX. That began a series of improvements that resulted in the software that QMX users can now download and run on their radios. I can’t really say that I understand everything that’s going on, but I think that with some review of Hans’ paper and some of the others that he references, I could get a better handle on it. I do know that his talk has inspired to complete the QMX kit build that I started months ago. Stealth Operations from Hotel Rooms and Other Unlikely QTHs Ross Valentine, VK1UN presented the last talk of the day. It described his operations using QRP radios and short wire antennas from a number of “unlikely” locations that he’s been in around the world. As far as radios go, small and light are the ticket. He has a selection of QRP Labs’ QCX and QDX radios, and uses small lithium batteries to power them. To run digital modes, he uses a Raspberry Pi 400 with a small LED/LCD display. For antennas, he favors wire-wrap wire, often wound on a fishing reel. He notes that the wire is light and very difficult to see, even in bright sunlight. He tunes the antennas with a variety of homebrew tuners, including simple LC tuners, Z-match tuners, and FRI-match tuners, some using homebrew variometers for the inductors. With this simple gear, Ross’s results have been impressive. He showed plots of his WSPR signal being spotted all around the world. If these talks don’t inspire, I don’t know what will. I mentioned earlier that Hans’ talk has inspired me to finally get my QMX working, but I’m now also motivated to play around with LTspice, and I have some ideas for tube circuits that I want to build as well. The trick is going to be completing these projects before next year’s FDIM, when I’m sure another all-star lineup of presenters will inspire me to tackle yet more projects. To get a copy of this year’s proceedings, contact Bill, N8ET at toystore@qrparci.org or n8et@woh.rr.com.
- — YOTA hosting silent auction, KI2D wins award for Portable Logger
- at 5/12/25 8:33amHere are a couple of items that have landed in my inbox that I think you might find of interest YOTA is hosting a silent auction! The folks at Youth on the Air (YOTA) write: Thanks to Garmin, we are raising funds for YOTA Americas with a silent auction for a Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch! The auction begins on May 12th at 12:00 AM EDT and will end on May 31st at 9:00 PM EDT. All proceeds go towards supporting YOTA camps in the Americas. Click here to bid on the watch. KI2D wins 2025 Amateur Radio Software Award The Amateur Radio Software Award (ARSA) committee has selected Ham2K Portable Logger, a groundbreaking project led by Sebastian Delmont (KI2D), as the winner of the 2025 annual Amateur Radio Software Award. This award celebrates software projects that enhance amateur radio and promote innovation, freedom, and openness in amateur radio software development. Ham2K Portable Logger stood out among a competitive field of nominations for its transformative approach to field operations. Designed with intuitive, user-friendly interfaces and a suite of convenient features, the software empowers operators to log, analyze, and share their on-the-go radio activities seamlessly. The Award Committee believes encouraging adventurous portable operations, Ham2K Portable Logger has redefined how enthusiasts engage with the hobby—whether from mountain summits, parks, or impromptu field setups. PoLo, short for Portable Logger, is a mobile application for amateur radio operators to log their contacts on the go. It is designed to be simple, fast, and easy to use, with a focus on the most important features for logging contacts. It supports multiple activation types such as: POTA Parks On The Air, SOTA Summits On The Air, WWFF Worldwide Flora & Fauna, Field Day, Winter Field Day, and many more. Sebastian Delmont, the project’s lead developer, emphasized the community-driven ethos: Im deeply honored to receive this award on behalf of the entire community behind the Ham2K project. We set out with the goal of pushing the boundaries of what good amateur software could be, and to do it through open source and community building. This recognition is an incredible validation that were on the right track. The Amateur Radio Software Award is an annual international award for the recognition of software projects that enhance amateur radio. The award aims to promote amateur radio software development which adhere to the same spirit as amateur radio itself: innovative, free and open. Personally, I used PoLo on my POTA activations and love it. Its very easy to use and works great. Kudos to Sebastion on the award.
- — Another ARRL member lost
- at 4/22/25 7:21amLast week, I went to lunch with a ham friend of mine. This fellow has been a ham for more than 60 years, and an ARRL member for most of that time. As we were waiting for our food, he says to me, “My ARRL membership is up soon, and I don’t think that I’m going to renew.” When I asked him why, he said, “Well, it used to be that you sent them 30 bucks and you got a book. Now, you send them 60 bucks, and you get nothing.” It’s more than just that, though. He said that he hardly reads QST anymore. “There’s just not that much of interest to me in QST,” he said. And, he went on, you have to read it with a special reader. This, and a recent episode of the DX Mentor podcast featuring ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, has got me thinking that the reason ARRL membership is shrinking is that it’s losing touch with its membership and with potential members. Two things stuck out for me. The first was Minster’s description of his operation of the super station on Bonaire during some DX contest. I suppose it’s a normal thing for a rich guy like him, who is pulling down $350,000 a year from the ARRL, but how many hams are going to get a chance to do this? The second thing that stuck out is that at about the 1:33:30 mark, DX Mentor host, Bill, AJ8B, commented, “It appears to me that there’s a real strong growth in The Technician Class license. So, overall, that’s got to be pretty exciting.” Minster re-directed the conversation immediately into a discussion of ARRL membership. He said, “I get asked the question pretty regularly that you know, there’s 750,000 hams and there are only 150,000 in the ARRL. (Note: It’s well below 150,000 right now.) You guys are terrible.” He tried to blow this off by noting that many members of the Mormon Church and Orthodox Jewish communities get licensed for emergency preparedness and disaster communications. At He said flat out, “They’re not hams.” To blow off anyone with an amateur radio license as “not a real ham” just doesn’t seem like the right attitude to me, and isn’t emergency and preparedness communications supposed to be one of the pillars of amateur radio? Now, he did go on to say that new Techs need mentors to help them get more involved with amateur radio. I agree completely with him on that, and I tell everyone that takes my class to consider me their mentor, and if they ever have a question or need help, to contact me. I’m proud of the fact that many people who’ve taken my classes are now active hams and having fun with amateur radio. At any rate, the impression I get is that Minster isn’t all that concerned with membership. He certainly didn’t give any indication of that in his DX Mentor appearance, and I don’t see the ARRL taking any serious steps to increase membership. Instead of truly being the national association for amateur radio, theyre becoming an ever-smaller association of guys they consider to be real hams. Theyve lost touch with long-time members like my friend and who knows how many potential members. What this means is that, in the future, ARRL membership will continue to fall, both in the percentage of licensed radio amateurs and absolute numbers.
- — Buttons are back, baby!
- at 4/21/25 8:43amSeveral years ago, I got a good deal on a Flex 6400 and thought I’d give it a try. It’s a great radio, and I enjoyed using it, but after a couple of years, I decided to give it up and buy an Icom IC-7610 instead. The main reason was the user interface—the IC-7610 has real knobs and buttons instead of just a computer screen to control its functions. Maybe I’m just being old school (I am certainly getting old), but I prefer real knobs and buttons, even if those knobs and buttons are just providing digital inputs to the processor controlling the radio. Recently, I’ve run across a couple of articles that back me up on this. The first, “Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back,” is an interview in IEEE Spectrum with Rachel Plotnick, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, and a leading expert on buttons and how people interact with them. She says that while touchscreens are a useful interface, people are becoming somewhat fatigued by the use of them. “People seem to have a hunger for physical buttons,” she says, “both because you don’t always have to look at them—you can feel your way around for them when you don’t want to directly pay attention to them—but also because they offer a greater range of tactility and feedback.” She also said something else I found interesting. “Buttons tend to offer you a really limited range of possibilities in terms of what you can do. Maybe that simplicity of limiting our field of choices offers more safety in certain situations.” I might say that it also makes the user interface more straightforward and easy to understand and use. Take the receiver incremental tuning (RIT) control, for example. I use this control frequently on my IC-7610, I press a button to turn it on and a knob to set the offset. On the Flex, however, using the SmartSDR software, I’d have to go to the X/RIT menu, click on the RIT button on the screen, then set the offset by clicking right or left arrows or by typing in a text box. It’s just not as simple to do as on the IC-7610, so I found myself using that control less often. On my IC-7610, the RIT controls are conveniently located in the lower right-hand corner. The second article is “Subaru is bringing back physical knobs and buttons in its cars.” The article begins, “To the relief of practically anybody who drives a car regularly, Japanese carmaker Subaru has brought back physical buttons and knobs for its 2026 Outback midsize SUV. Its yet another sign that carmakers are finally starting to listen, ditching massive touchscreens that have taken over a vast number of vehicle controls in favor of tactile buttons, switches, and knobs.” Of course, touchscreens are the appropriate choice for many transceiver functions. The IC-7610 touch screen not only displays the waterfall, but also lets you select a signal by touching it on the screen. That works great for me. The lesson to be learned here is that a good user interface can help increase sales. These days, almost all of the radios from the major manufacturers are so good that the average ham can’t really detect a difference in performance. That leaves the user interface as one of the differentiating features, and you’d think that a more usable user interface would sell more radios. And, it appears that physical, tactile buttons and knobs are going to be a part of that user interface.
- — Will tariffs affect the cost of ham gear?
- at 4/17/25 9:29amA friend of mine asked me the other day how the proposed tariffs will affect the cost of ham gear. Not being an economics guy, I really have no clue, except to say that prices will probably go up. Well, today I came across an email from Connect Systems, who import radios for digital communications. Heres their analysis: Tariffs The mark-up for amateur products in not very high. The following is how we figure the cost of the product: CS750 cost to manufacture.$115.00 Shipping..$15.50 Credit Card Cost $9.56 Tariffs at 25% .$28.75 Total out of pocket cost.$168.81 Selling Price $239.00 Profit = 239 168 = $71 Now lets assume the tariffs are at 100%. The analysis is now as follows: CS750 cost to manufacture.$115.00 Shipping..$15.50 Credit Card Cost $9.56 Tariffs at 100% $115.00 Total out of pocket cost.$255.06 Selling Price .$239.00 Profit = 239 255.06 = $(16.06) If I dont change the selling price, I would loose $16.06 for each radio sold. The above analysis does not cover the cost of things such as cost of running the on-line store, salary, and other business expenses. While I do not expect the tariffs to be set at 100%, I would be very surprised if the tariffs do not increase from the current rate. We anticipated the tariffs and we bought a large stock of our standard products. We will keep the price the same until we run out of stock. While I cannot predict the selling price in the future because I do not know what the tariff rates are going to be, you can expect some type of increase. When you buy direct from a Chinese company, you will not see a price increase. However, the tariffs are going to be paid by you before it is delivered. Of course, who knows what the final tariffs, if any, will be, but this is something to keep in mind. It was reported this morning that car sales have jumped in anticipation of the tariffs raising automobile prices. Crazy times.
- — Random Notes: KB6NU at the South Pole, operating W7P, RF in the shack.
- at 4/9/25 7:09amAmateur radio antennas at the NSF Amundson-Scott South Pole Station. KB6NU at the South Pole (well, my study guides anyway) A week ago, I got the following email from David Williams, whos working at the United States Antarctic Program NSF Amundson-Scott South Pole Station. According to their website, the station is the southernmost year-round research station in the world, and supports scientific studies in astronomy, astrophysics, aeronomy, auroral studies, geospace research, meteorology, geomagnetism, seismology, earth-tide measurements and glaciology. The stations geographic location allows unique astronomical observations, benefiting from clear, dry air and the absence of light pollution. David writes: Greetings, I want to thank you for writing your study guide- A few of us down here for Winter are going for Ham radio licenses and part of the study materials we are using includes your PDFs. Our equipment down here requires a General class at minimum. We would use it to contact McMurdo Station in an emergency. I’m very new to the hobby but it’s really interesting to learn about! We will all go for our licenses after a few weeks of study likely. How cool is that? Im glad that theyre able to use my study guides, and I hope that a bunch of them get their licenses. Operating W7P Yesterday, I operated as W7P for the first time. W7P is one of the call signs being used for the Narwhal Amateur Radio Society’s Polio on the Air special event, which is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine. Other call signs for the special event include W7O, W7L, and W7I. So far, Im the only CW operator. Last night, I made 25 contacts on 7035 kHz in about an hour. I worked stations as far west as North Dakota and as far east as Spain (my only DX contact). It was a lot of fun. The even runs through Saturday, and Im scheduled to operate tonight and Thursday night at 0000 UTC. You can listen for me again on 7035 kHz. RF in the shack Something wonky is going on with my trusty Cobra antenna, and Im not sure what exactly. Somehow, Ive started to get RF in the shack. I do run the ladder line right into the shack, but the antennas been up for nearly 10 years now, and this hasnt been a problem. One thing that Ive been thinking about doing is to connect the 450Ω feed line to a balun outside and run coax into the shack. Im also thinking that maybe I should rebuild the antenna. That would clean the contacts. If you have any thoughts about this, please leave a comment below or email me directly.
- — Teaching a one-day Tech class (2025 edition)
- at 4/6/25 3:19pmIn 2017, I gave a presentation on teaching a one-day Tech class at Dayton. Yesterday, I gave an updated version of this presentation to a dozen folks via Zoom. The presentation was organized by Bob, WA3PZO, president of the Holmesburg ARC. I was originally going to present in person and then teach a class at the Philadelphia Maker Faire. Unfortunately, the class fell through, so we moved it to Zoom.
- — On CW, no one knows you’re a dog
- at 4/2/25 4:44pmPicture found on the QRZ.Com page of a fellow I just worked. :)
- — Voice-activated Morse key uses AI
- at 4/1/25 9:47amThis just in from the CWops mailing list. I knew someone would come up with a good use for AI in ham radio. Happy April Fools Day!
- — Ham Radio Ireland magazine relaunched
- at 3/31/25 9:30amI received the following email a couple of days ago: Following many requests over the last year we have relaunched Ham Radio Ireland, Irelands only independent amateur radio magazine. We have just published our April 2025 issue, and it may be downloaded for free. Back issues of the magazine are also available. If you wish to contribute articles to our magazine we would be delighted to include them. Articles should be submitted in Word format and be 1.5 2 pages or more with good quality photographs (not compressed). We hope you enjoy this free e-Magazine and our intention is to publish every two months from here onwards. Please feel free to share with friends and other groups/clubs and social media. Steve EI5DD We covered this story on the ICQ Podcast several episodes ago, and as a result, I sent them an article on my POTA antenna experiments, which they included in the April 2025 issue. This issue also includes articles on: Diodes Hex beam antennas Bunkers on the Air and more
- — Amateur radio in the news: Club edition
- at 3/29/25 8:01amHere are four stories about amateur radio clubs that recently made their local newspapers. I think that each of them has a lesson that could help your club be successful. The first lesson is to include food in your club activities. Food brings out members. SaddleBrook Amateur Radio Club Monthly Breakfast The SaddleBrooke Amateur Radio Club met at SaddleBrooke Ranch on Friday, February 21 for a monthly breakfast at Bistro Veinte. Fourteen members attended the popular club breakfast gathering. The excellent food and service served in a conference room adjacent to the cafe was enjoyed by all. read more The second lesson is to provide some kind of public service. In this case, the Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club is donating a set of amateur radio books to their public library. The catch is that some libraries will not accept this kind of donation. Our library here in Ann Arbor, MI is one of them. Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club Donates Books To Local Library, GC Makers Space The Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club is hoping to spur more local interest and public awareness of amateur radio operations. The club recently presented several educational books on the subject to the Greeneville-Greene County Public Library and to Greene County Makers Space. Two sets of books were purchased and donated to both the library and the GCMS, club officials note in a news release. read more When your club earns recognition of any kind, issue a press release. It raises the clubs profile and could draw in some new members. HC Amateur Radio Club earns recognition The Hill Country Amateur Radio Club has been recognized as a “Special Service Club” by the American Radio Relay League, the countrys primary educational, advocacy and representative organization of the craft of Ham Radio. Hill Country Amateur Radio Club serves the greater Hill Country region, with training, outreach and emergency communications, and has done so for decades. read more This is an example of a club profile. You can sometimes get a local paper to write such a profile by pitching the story to them. Nothing amateur about radio Good afternoon. Welcome to the AA0RC Repeater. The time is 3:33 p.m. The automated greeting crackles through the radio on Dan “WZ9W” Schnaare’s desk in response to a call sent by Rick “KF0JCP” Smith from a handheld radio just outside of Schnaare’s Ham Shack in Centralia. The signal traveled about 20 miles to the Radio Repeater in Mexico, before being sent back. “KF0JCP, WZ9W,” Schnaare confirms. Schnaare and Smith are members of Audrain Emergency Communications Inc. serving as vice president and treasurer, respectively. AECI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization consisting of 30 amateur radio operators who meet monthly at the Help Center in Mexico. They are dedicated to their craft, teaching and practicing nearly every day. read more
- — ICQPodcast Episode 452 – Disqualified ARRL board nominees tell their stories
- at 3/23/25 10:59amIn this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest amateur/ham radio news: ISS FM Repeater, APRS Digipeater Could Be Sunset in Two Years ISS Astronauts Reject Call for Early Retirement of the ISS VOA, Other International News Services, Marked for Cuts Questions Loom After Cuts at United States Weather Agency FCC Seeks Public Suggestions On Possible Deregulation Work at Repeater Site Costs Ham His County Job In Washington State From my point of view, the big news is this episodes feature, which starts at approximately the 1:25:00 mark. In the feature, Frank K4FMH and I interview the three hams who were disqualified from last years ARRL board elections. They are: Jim Talens, N3JT Dan Marler, K7REX Fred Hopengarten, K1VR Each of them tells the story of how they came to be disqualified, and Im sure that these stories are sure to raise an eyebrow or two. After hearing their stories, we all discuss how the recent board decision to modfy ByLaw 18 will make the ARRL even less democratic and what that might mean for ARRL membership. (TL;DR its not a positive thing.)
- — Videos: Single sideband, HAMNET update, HF propagation
- at 3/21/25 9:30pmIntroduction to SSB This is an Air Traffic Command instructional video describing the theory behind single side band (SSB) modulation. Dig that jazzy intro music! HAMNet Update HAMNET (Highspeed Amateur radio Multimedia NETwork) is a fully-independent amateur radio wireless network that provides data services. Its a wireless internet, so to speak. It covers many regions in Europe and is even now growing fast beyond its European border. Hamnet is using international coordinated IP-address space of the AMPRNet (44.0.0.0/8) and Autonomous System (AS) numbers out of the 16-bit and 32-bit private AS number space to interconnect active regions by external Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing. Here is an up date on HAMNET given at the recent FOSDEM conference. Rohde & Schwarz on HF Propagation Rohde & Schwarz produces some of the finest RF instrumentation in the world. They also produce great videos on RF topics. This one explains HF propagation.
- — I used to think that I was the biggest thorn in the ARRL’s side, but…
- at 3/20/25 9:25amI used to think that I was the biggest thorn in the ARRLs side, but I now cede this title to my friend, Frank Howell, K4FMH. Since the beginning of the year, Frank has written a number blog posts, which I can only describe as scathing. Hes gotten the attention of the ARRLs CEO, too. ARRL CEO, David Minster, NA2AA, ends his April column with the admonition, Reading the baseless conspiracy theories about ARRL does nothing to promote or protect amateur radio. Are they baseless, though? Ill let you read Franks meticulously-researched posts and decide for yourself. In his January 18, 2025 post, Many ARRL members couldn’t get there from here…So they left. Here’s how to get them back, describes what he thinks is a major flow in how ARRL governance is organized and how that has led to a decrease in membership. His two main suggestions to remedy this are: Replace the CEO with a COO hired from the non-profit sector. Elect the President and other Officers directly by the membership. Franks January 31, 2025 post, They went down, down, down..and the flames are higher … but it’s not too late, addresses the decline in ARRL membership. Frank notes that the percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are also ARRL members is now close to 16%. And yet, the only visible attempts at increasing membership are a raffle for new and renewing members that will benefit only a single ham and cheap coffee mugs for those renewing for three years. The March 3, 2025 post, Election Ethics and Bylaws of the ARRL: Are They Being Applied to Everyone? addresses what Frank sees as a possible conflict of interest. He notes that the ARRL CEO does a little moonlighting as a real estate agent, even though By-Law 35 clearly states that the [CEOs] entire time shall be devoted to the duties as set forth above. Frank asks, Why is there such a different emphasis on election ethics while allowing a clear and specific violation of Bylaw 35 to go unchecked? In Franks latest post, Only the Shadow (Board) Knows…, he addresses what some refer to as the shadow board. Frank describes the shadow board as a a subset of Division Directors who I’m told have teamed-up with the non-voting Board member CEO and President to form a caucus. Frank notes: It is not authorized in the Bylaws.This group’s shadow actions circumvent public disclosure of League business discussions. Why? One source states below it is because they fear some Directors will actually tell their member constituents—you know, the dues-paying ones who vote for them—what is on the horizon for ARRL actions in the future. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, Frank thinks that the existence and actions of the shadow board are in violation of IRS rules for governance of charitable organizations. If youre concerned about how the current board of directors and officers are running the ARRL, I hope that you will read Franks blog posts and raise a little cain with your director. I think youll find that these issues are not as baseless as the ARRL CEO would have you believe.
- — A reader writes about his concerns with the ARRL
- at 3/10/25 9:42amOn Mar 7, 2025, a reader wrote: Greetings, Im almost 50-year amateur , and a Life Member of the ARRL . I wanted to comment on your ideas how the League could improve its image . I believe the ARRL has become a publishing firm with prices higher than a hawks nest. My first Repeater Directory was handed to me by Harry Dannals, who was the ARRL director at that time. It was free as a member. Today, the Directory with shipping is around $30. Maybe because of my age, QST has become a magazine with articles that I cant really understand. Im familiar with coil and capacitor technology, which my R.L. Drake gear used. It served me well, and I was pretty much able to troubleshoot it. I still try to help hams in my area—Kalamazoo, MI—with antenna problems. Im still the best on Home Made Tilts for a tip-over Tower . I am a retired tool and die maker from GM. I have many more concerns about the ARRL. I will not quit, though, being a Life Member. I replied: Hi, Thanks for your email. I am also a long-time ham—53, going on 54, years for me. I found your comment about QST interesting. While you find that the magazine has “articles that [you] really can’t understand,” there are others that don’t find it technical enough. A friend of mine, who has been a ham longer than me and a retired electronics engineer, told me the other day that he just didn’t find QST interesting anymore. To be fair, the ARRL has a tough job because amateur radio is such an expansive hobby. There are folks who just operate CW with vintage equipment and others who are pushing the boundaries with data modes at microwave frequencies. It seems to some of us, however, that the ARRL has given up on some aspects of the hobby and are not providing the leadership that it should be providing for all radio amateurs. One example of this is the membership crisis—and I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic by calling it a crisis. Membership has been dropping like a rock. See this blog post by my friend Frank, K4FMH, for a good analysis of the data. Not only is membership dropping in terms of absolute numbers, but also as a percentage of licensed radio amateurs. The percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are also ARRL members is now south of 20%. How can the ARRL call itself the “national association for amateur radio” when less than 1 in 5 hams are ARRL members? It appears to me that they either don’t care about membership levels or have just given up. My membership was set to expire at the end of March, and several weeks ago, I got a letter from the League asking me to renew. I could either renew at $59/year or $174/three years. Seriously? They’re only offering me a discount of $1/year to renew for three years? They did say that they’d send me a coffee mug for renewing for three years, but I already have a cheap ARRL mug that I never use from when I renewed for three years three years ago. Their latest attempt to increase membership is a raffle of a dream station. Hams get “tickets when they join or renew their memberships, and life members, like you, are given chances when you donate at least $50 to the Diamond Club. This is all well and good, but I highly doubt that it’s going to increase membership at all, much less make up the deficit. I’ll be interested to read about the effectiveness of the raffle in the 2025 Annual Report. Aside from the three-year discount and the raffle, I don’t see any other efforts to increase membership. There is nothing mentioned in the Membership, Marketing and Communications section of the 2023 Annual Report (the 2024 annual report isnt out yet), except that the ARRL had a presence at the Dayton Hamvention, Huntsville Hamfest, Northeast HamXposition, and Pacificon. That’s fine, but just showing up isn’t going to increase membership, and I would argue, that those events cater to older and more traditional hams and not the kind of people that we want to get into ham radio and become ARRL members. Well, that’s enough (probably more than you bargained for ) for now. I’d be happy to hear more about what you think. 73! Dan, KB6NU p.s. I did renew my membership, but for only a single year. I figure that Ill get a better return my money by investing that $115 in a CD or maybe some Costco stock than I would by paying for an extra two years of ARRL membership.
- — Operating Notes: Why do people tune up on your frequency?
- at 3/7/25 9:05amA couple of days ago, I was calling CQ on 40 meters, when someone decided they wanted to tune up on my frequency. He had a very strong signal, so it was unlikely that he hadnt heard me calling CQ. The band wasnt crowded, so I simply moved up a kHz and began calling again, but I just dont understand why people do that. After one or two calls on my new frequency, I get a call from the guy who tuned up on top of me earlier. I know this because he told me that if Id waited another 10 seconds, he would have answered my CQ earlier. I explained to him that there was no way for me to know if he was going to call me or not, and that more often than not, stations tuning up tend to just disappear. All I knew is that there was a strong station tuning up on my frequency, and not only that, his tuning up was preventing other stations from calling me. He seemed to get the idea and apologized. Ham radio is no place for politics We proceeded to have a generally nice contact. At one point, however, he mentioned that he had watched Trumps speech earlier, and while I forget his exact words, I got the impression that he generally approved of the speech. I was a bit taken aback at this. Its just not good practice to discuss politics on the air, especially on CW! I simply ignored the comment and moved on to other topics. Id suggest that you do the same, whether these comments are made on 40-meter CW or 2-meter FM. CQ SALK On Mastodon last night, I saw a post from N3VEM about the Narwhal Amateur Radio Societys Polio on the Air operating event. According to the NARS website, the operating event is a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the April 12, 1955 US approval of the Salk polio vaccine. It will run from April 5 19, 2025. Being a member of a Rotary club here in Ann Arbor, this really piqued my interest. Rotary International has been working to eradicate polio for nearly 40 years now, and as a result of our efforts to vaccinate children all over the world, were very close to doing so. And, in the past, Ive set up and operated a special event station to commemorate the founding of Rotary and make people aware of our End Polio Now project. NARS will be operating five special event stations—W7P, W7O, W7L, W7I, and W0O—during that time. They also say, Make contact with one, get a QSL card. Make contact with all five, get five QSL cards—and something really neat happens if you collect all five! One of the unique aspects of this special operating event is that you can sign up to use one of the special event callsigns as well as hunt the special event stations. See the Polio on the Air web page for details on how to do so. I plan to sign up for several hours and operate CW, of course.
As of 6/21/25 2:23am. Last new 6/18/25 7:00am.
- Next feed in category: AmSat UK