Foundations of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about SWR or Standing Wave Ratio. As amateurs we use this term all the time, we expect to see it on a meter or display near our transmitter, we buy specific gadgets to measure it and often we seek to find the lowest possible SWR. As I've said in the past, the perfect antenna cannot exist, in the same way, a perfect connection, the feed-line, bet...

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the tick boxes we're required to deal with is the one titled "Station Security". As licensed amateurs we're required to secure our station from use by unauthorised people. What form does that take, how do you do it, what makes it secure and how much security is enough? I spent a bit of time looking around to see if there were any guidelines I could unearth to ac...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Radio Waves travel in straight lines. They go from point to point and that's it. Except that Radio Waves also reflect off certain surfaces, like light does. So, Radio Waves travel in straight lines and they also reflect and that's it. Except that Radio Waves also change direction when they pass through some change of medium. So, then, Radio Waves travel in straight lin...

Foundations of Amateur Radio To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome is the definition of insanity; so how do you avoid making the same mistakes on-air in Amateur Radio? During the week I was wading through some old photos and videos on my phone to make some space and I stumbled on some old videos taken by others and sent to me whilst I was on-air. It was a lovely l...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There was a time when I took my computer out into the field to do my portable logging. That's still true for contests, but when I'm hunting for an elusive DX station, I no longer take with me all the bits that are required to make that level of technology work. I've come to the realisation that less is more. Especially with portable operations in parks and on summits....

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about magic. In the past I've made mention of the magic that is Amateur Radio. There are those who think that our hobby isn't magic and that everything that we do in this field is understood and documented. I think that this is both wrong and unhelpful, since there is much to learn, much to discover and much to invent. Amateur Radio isn't dead,...

Foundations of Amateur Radio This technology driven community of radio enthusiasts makes me laugh on occasion. Today I had to laugh when I realised that we spend an awful lot of time talking about antennas and radios and feed lines and impedance and propagation and electronics and a whole lot of subject in-between and around that. It stuck me that one conversation that we don't have, is the one ab...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There is a curious phenomenon related to how we operate that is pervasive within our community. As an inexperienced ham, I would turn on my radio and tune around and hear nothing. I'd change bands and do it again. Over time I'd work my way through the bands I'm allowed on and find no activity. On rare occasions I'd venture into the wide unknown and see what other bands...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The thing I like about our community is that there is always something new brewing, someone is inventing something, making something or doing something. It amazes me that the level of ingenuity is boundless. During the week someone asked the question, "What's the difference between AM and FM?" and while answering that could incorporate hand waving, arrows and drawings,...

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you use your trusty multi-meter to measure resistance across a 50 Ohm resistor, it shows 50 Ohm, but when you use it across a piece of 50 Ohm coax, you see either infinity, or 0. Similarly, when you measure across a folded-dipole, you see 0, not 300 Ohm. Does this mean that a 50 Ohm resistor is somehow different than a 50 Ohm piece of coax and why is the feed-poin...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm concluding my breakdown of the contest that I participated in recently as a mobile station. I planned to make my contacts on one band and I did that. Feedback indicated that there were other contacts to be had on other bands, but switching bands is a non trivial affair with my current set-up. I planned to have a common frequency that would be a local cluster...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to look at the actual on-air activity of the contest. Previously I've talked about the preparation and planning, as well as the doing, in terms of mechanics, what to bring, where to put it and how to power it all. At the most basic level, a contest is a combination of two things, making and taking calls. It's an important point, so I'll say it again. A...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about the doing of a contest. Previously I discussed the preparation and you can go back to that and have a listen online, search iTunes for my callsign, VK6FLAB. The contest I participated in was a 24 hour contest. It started at 2pm local time on a Saturday and ran the whole 24 hours. If I was sitting in a shack, I might have and in the past ac...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Training is a word that is steeped in tradition, it conjures up images of classrooms, teachers, chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your desk and being called upon to attend the front of the class to explain something based on the misapprehension that you did your homework. Fortunately this is a hobby and training is something you can do yourself, to yourself, by yourse...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about getting started. In the past I've mentioned that it's a good idea to find a community, a club or a local mentor to get you going in this hobby, and that still stands. You really need to find some like-minded, available humans to share this experience with. That being said, there are some things that you can do on your lonesome. An often as...

Foundations of Amateur Radio This crazy hobby keeps sending curve balls to me. You've heard me talk in the past about missed opportunities. There are times when you look back and ask yourself: "What was I thinking?" Over the past, oh boy, I just looked it up, two years, I have been struggling with an antenna system that I could use while mobile. I took delivery of 4 single band antennas, one for 8...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Have you ever had your radio on, listening around, say on 40m and heard the following: "CQ, CQ 40m, this is VK6FLAB, calling CQ 40, CQ 40m, calling CQ" Apart from the fact that the station calling seems pretty desperate for a contact, you're tuned to 40m, why on earth would you actually mention that, what's the point of telling me what band you're calling on, when clea...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today we enjoy radio using all manner of different so-called modes. The ones that most people are familiar with are FM and AM. In fact digital radio DAB+ is another example of a mode. In Amateur Radio we have a few more to play with, Single Side Band, or SSB, countless other digital modes, CW, or Carrier Wave are all different approaches to getting information from one...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about housekeeping, that is, the things you should be doing while you're doing the things you like doing, like making noise on air. The topic of Logging is one that continues to attract comment, suggestion, frustration and on occasion ridicule. Let me start with the fact that the very first contact that I made was not logged. I can tell you exac...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There are things to say and things not to say as a radio amateur. Let's start with swearing on-air. Each jurisdiction is different and changing. The Australian Radiocommunications License Conditions Determination, or LCD has nothing to say about content. It's all about bandwidth, frequency and modes. The rules in the USA discuss "obscene or indecent words or language",...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about QRP, a term that's used in various different environments and one that I've used in the past. So, let's start at the beginning. QRP is a three letter code, part of the so-called Q-codes, that can either be a question or an answer. It's used in Morse communications to either ask "Shall I decrease transmitter power?" or to answer "Yes, decre...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There is a recurring question that never seems to get a straight answer. Why are we using 50 Ohm impedance and not 75 Ohm? The more people you ask, the more answers you get. There'll be commentary about standing waves, SWR, loss, incompatibility, soldering, cost, velocity factor, diameter, susceptibility to noise and the list goes on and grows, the more people you ask,...

Foundations of Amateur Radio This week I'm going to have a look at something called a Q-code. Last week I talked about a few aspects of operating. One of the inventions associated with human speech is the short-cut, a way to quickly say something rather than use the whole story. Before Amateur Radio this started on the telegraph with shortcuts called Q-codes. Think a three letter combination, star...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today we're going to look at operating procedures, that is, what to say, when to say it and when not to say it. Amateur Radio being over a century old has lots of traditions and lots of quirky exceptions to rules, but you'll learn those as you go on air and make mistakes, and assume that you'll make those, probably regularly and every now and then someone will gently c...

Foundations of Amateur Radio In the past I've talked about our hobby and lightning. I've done it on more than one occasion, talked about cows and lightning strikes, about earth bonding and the dangers associated with lightning that's not directly overhead, but close enough to matter. On the weekend I learned the difference between saying something and seeing something. A group of Amateurs, went ou...