Foundations of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the more fundamental aspects of long distance radio communication is the impact of the ionosphere. Depending on how excited the Sun is, what time of day it is and what frequency you're using at the time will determine if the signal you're trying to hear from the other side of the planet makes it to you or is on its way to a radio amateur on Proxima B who is like...

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you start playing with software defined radio, you're likely to begin your journey using something with a display that shows you a lovely waterfall, gives you a way to pick out a frequency, decode it and play it over your speakers all over the house. Likely your first effort involves a local FM radio station. These graphical tools come in many and varied forms ava...

Foundations of Amateur Radio In 1958 The Kentucky Engineer published an award winning student article by Copthorne "Coppie" MacDonald. He described a Slow-Scan T.V. System for Image Transmission. If you get the opportunity, have a look for the link on his archived home-page which you can find from the Wikipedia SSTV page. The purpose of this narrow band television idea was to be able to send image...

Foundations of Amateur Radio My radio shack consists of two radios, identical, well, in as much as that they're the same model, a Yaesu FT-857d. Their memories are different, their microphones are different, but both of them are connected via a coaxial switch to the same VHF and UHF antenna. One of them is also connected to a HF antenna. Let's call these two radios alpha and bravo. Alpha is used t...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Yak Shaving ... Not every adventure gives you an outcome. Today started with reading a thank-you email from a listener who shared their activities and wanted to express their gratitude for encouraging them to get on air and make noise. That in turn prompted the question on the country of origin of that listener and did I know where all my listeners were? For the past f...

Foundations of Amateur Radio In my ongoing software explorations I've discussed that Software Defined Radio or SDR is a fundamentally different way of dealing with radio. It's been in use across non-amateur circles for decades. Your mobile phone has an SDR on board for example. The original term of "digital receiver" was coined in 1970, "software radio" was coined in 1984 and in 1991 Joe Mitola re...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Contesting is a fun way to learn about amateur radio. It tests your skill, your station, your patience and your ability to change approach at a moments notice. For those reasons alone it's an activity that I recommend you have a go at. For me it's also about self-improvement. With each contest, can you make better use of your station, can you learn more about your radi...

Foundations of Amateur Radio It's the morning after the day before. I've been calling CQ for 24 hours and for the first time in my life after a contest I still have my voice. That in and of itself is novel. I also don't have ringing ears, that's a blessing. I have learnt heaps and had fun doing it. I made contacts and I heard stations across the globe and I did it all from the comfort of my shack...

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you start playing with radio your first interaction is likely to be voice. It could be SSB, AM, FM or something more recent like FreeDV or DMR. Your next challenge is likely going to be a digital mode like Morse Code, Radio Teletype or my recommendation for your first adventure, WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter. I've previously discussed WSPR, today I woul...

Foundations of Amateur Radio When I came across amateur radio nearly a decade ago I did a course, passed my test and got licensed. At that point I didn't have any equipment, didn't know about any, hadn't touched anything, other than the radio in the classroom, and had no idea about what to buy and how to choose. So, instead I asked the friend who introduced me to the hobby, Meg, at the time VK6LUX...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day day I managed my first DX contact using a new mode, FT8. It wasn't very far away, all of 2600 km or so, but it evoked memories of my first ever on-air DX contact nearly a decade ago. I should say thank you to YD3YOG for my 15m contact, fitting because my first ever was also on 15m as I recall. Unfortunately I never did log my first. Recently a friend aske...

Foundations of Amateur Radio When was the last time you told anyone anything about your hobby? What about someone who isn't also an amateur? Have you ever considered why there is a perception that our hobby is dying, why it's running out of people, why we struggle to get air-time in mainstream media, why attracting new members is hard and why there is a very narrow range of understanding about wha...

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the recurring questions in this hobby, technically outside this hobby, asked by people who've not yet, or have only just been bitten by the bug, is: "What's the point of this hobby?" In some ways I too have asked this question, though for me the answer came within a few months of learning that amateur radio exists. In response to others asking this I've also mad...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The hobby of Amateur Radio is essentially one of experimentation. Within our community we endlessly build things, from amplifiers to Yagis and every letter of the alphabet in between. With every experiment we grow the amateur radio sphere of influence just a little bit. As our hobby is evolving into Software Defined Radio, or SDR, the homebrew aspect of our community i...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Every week I run a net for new and returning amateurs. A variety of people join in with varying degrees of skill, knowledge and number of birthdays. One of the regular things I say during that net is that if I'm not acknowledging you, it's because I cannot hear you. I then start a spiel about repeater offsets and give some examples, but what is it really and how does i...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The single most discussed topic in amateur radio is that of antenna design, that and medical procedures on 80m, but I kid. Previously I've discussed the notion that all frequencies are on-air all the time and that your traditional radio uses much of its electronic circuitry to filter out all the things you don't want to hear. Parallel to that is the concept that you tu...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The day came to pass when all my set-up and configuration was going to culminate in the moment of truth when I enabled TX on my WSPR mode station. Before I tell you of my experience, I should give you a little bit of background. A few weeks ago I managed to erect a HF vertical at my home or QTH. That in and of itself was news worthy, well at least to me it was, since i...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was getting ready to go out when rain started pelting down. Not unexpected in this part of the world at this time of year but inconvenient for my plans. I didn't particularly want to carry an umbrella and the thought of wearing a rain hood brought back memories of water trickling down my back. For reasons I'm not quite sure of, my eye fell on my hat on...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Much of the operation that I've done as a radio amateur is conducted in the field. That is, I tend to either drive my car to a location, or go out with friends and set-up camp to play. After you do this for a while you start to notice the things that you look for in an operating position. The very first one is accessibility. That is, how easy is it to get there? It's f...

Foundations of Amateur Radio If you've ever used a spray can of WD-40, you might have wondered what the name means. It stands for "Water Displacement, 40th formula". In my time as a radio amateur I'd never stopped to think what the RG in RG-58 stood for. Turns out that it too has a meaning, "Radio Guide", though I have found some interesting alternative descriptions where the G stood for Governmen...

Foundations of Amateur Radio During the week I climbed on my roof and installed a base antenna for the 2m and 70cm band. The antenna is a Diamond X-300N. It's 3 meters tall, has a gain of 6.5 dB on 2m and 9 dB on 70cm. I've owned it for just under eight years and this week I finally took it out of the box and installed it. I know, I know, in my defence, you shouldn't rush these things. Truth is, u...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I received an email from Colin VK2JCC who mentioned that he was a keen home brewer and he was interested in a discussion about using ex-military gear in amateur radio. If you want to see his beautiful rig, check out Colin's Clansman PRC 320 Radio, does 2 to 30 MHz at 3 or 30 Watts. Look for his callsign and you'll also find a video of him calling CQ. Coli...

Foundations of Amateur Radio During the week I finally made the decision to purchase my first software defined transmit capable radio. It wasn't an easy choice for me, given that the range of options vary in price from "not much" to "more than my car is worth" and an infinite number of choices between those. One of the considerations, other than price, was a thing called bit-depth. In the past I'v...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I stumbled on a social media post titled "So, you want to be an astronomer..." by /u/Andromeda321 on reddit. Look it up if you're interested how she puts together the prerequisites from her perspective as an astronomer. Apart from the fact that a few of my friends are astronomers, one even a radio amateur - and I have to confess, that's a combination that...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The activities that our community places under the banner of amateur radio are many and varied. I've referred to this as a thousand hobbies in one. If you look at the surface, you'll find all manner of activities that readily attach to our hobby. Activations for example are invented at any opportunity, from parks to peaks, light houses, bridges, trains, boats, lakes, r...