By David, on June 13th, 2010%
After more than 30 years as a general class Ham Radio Operator, I finally decided about 6 months ago to set aside some time and make the personal commitment to go for the ultimate upgrade — get the Amateur Extra Class license upgrade. Yesterday afternoon I successfully completed this goal.
With many thanks to the Volunteer Examiners of the Kauai Amateur Radio Club for hosting the testing session and for proctoring the test, I took the 50 question test and passed with a very personally rewarding score. I was so filled with joy and personal satisfaction at accomplishing this that I seemingly floated all the way home from Lihue.
. . .
To read the rest of this article, please click here: → I’ve Passed The Test
By David, on May 22nd, 2010%
For anyone who doesn’t know, the grey line is a band around the Earth that separates the daylight from darkness.
This grey line is of particular interest to us radio operators. Radio propagation along the grey line is very efficient. One major reason for this is that the D layer in the atmosphere, which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the grey line, and it has not yet built up on the sunrise side.
Ham radio operators (and shortwave listeners) can capitalize upon this phenomenon for long distance communications to various areas of the world, and do so by monitoring this area as it moves . . .
To read the rest of this article, please click here: → Workin’ on the Grey Line…
By David, on February 20th, 2010%
In the modern ham shack, with computers, rig control software, logging software, digital mode software, firmware update software, and myriad other utilities, it is for all practical purposes mandatory to have your rig connected to your computer via an RS-232 or serial cable.
As you may imagine, this opens up a world of possibilities, including opening up avenues for hum, noise, and RFI.
I labored for a month or more to discover why when I transmitted, my computer desktop would alternate from normal to “Dashboard” mode and back again, rapidly and many times (I have a Mac — Dashboard mode dims the normal desktop and brings up on top . . .
To read the rest of this article, please click here: → Shielding Less Important Than Twisting
By David, on November 18th, 2009%
I stumbled upon this page over at dxing.com and thought it to be a very cool and useful tool…rather than have a million color coded squares, just break up the low frequency, medium frequency and high frequency (HF) spectrum up into a number of bands and provide a high level explanation of what one may find there.
I’ve placed it here because, yes I think you will appreciate it, but mainly so I can refer back to it when I find myself tuning around the bands and hear myself self say “well I wonder what this is?” Bookmark this and you can do that, too!
150 kHz and below: . . .
To read the rest of this article, please click here: → Assignment of Radio Spectrum Understandably Explained
By David, on October 31st, 2009%
Something near and dear to my heart, since I have been an engineer in the computer industry for about 25 years now, is software.
Another thing near and dear to my heart, since I have been licensed as a Amateur Radio operator for over 30 years now, is Amateur Radio.
Combine the two, and how can you possibly NOT have a winning combination? :-)
At the heart of my current Amateur Radio station is the Elecraft K3. My trusty Kenwood TS-440S is still here, standing by. While the Kenwood is the third Kenwood I have loved in my tenure as a Ham, the Elecraft has absolutely taken over as . . .
To read the rest of this article, please click here: → Software and Radio
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NASA Real-Time Solar Image
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