So many rabbit holes, you’ll struggle to find ground
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A good evening on 15m
For some reason, I tend to avoid trying out 15 meters, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot, and it went quite well. I began by experimenting with my 39.5-meter random wire antenna in the garden. It has excellent reception, and I could hear approximately 20 Japanese stations. However, when it came to…
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QO-100 Build: Part 2 – The Hardware
I spent a while debating if I really wanted to build this. I knew the build would be fun, but would it be fun using it? I also knew it wasn’t cheap, and would I regret it once I was done? After a few weeks of thinking this whilst researching the build, I ended up…
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Grid square chasing with GridTracker
Shortly after getting on the air with my Xiegu G90, I became intrigued by FT8. After some initial experimentation, I managed to set it up and began making QSOs. Initially, I was thrilled to hear stations from all over the world – Australia, Japan, South America, and various other places. At first, I believed I…
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What to do
It’s both a blessing and a curse that amateur radio has so many different facets and parts…I can’t even begin to list them all: antennas, operating frequencies, circuitry, radios, modes of operation, amplifiers, structures, networks, digital, analog, moon bounce, competitions, prizes, collecting, … and even each of those sections has subsections or intersections of sections…
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QO-100 Build: Part 1 – The Design
I think I first heard about QO-100 when looking at a local amateur’s QRZ page. He’d setup a couple of satellite dishes in his garden and had his QO-100 DX Club logo on his profile page, along with some other links. That started me down the rabbit hole. 🐇🛰️ Briefly, and there’s more details here,…
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Portable ops in the Cairngorms
My first radio was the Xiegu G90, and when I bought my Yaesu FT-DX10 I decided I’d keep the G90 for portable operations. It’s pretty small, 20W, and I already have it and know how it works. With a few days planned to stay near Aviemore in the summer holidays I thought it was the…
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Hello world! 📻
I’ve decided to make a dedicated amateur radio blog. Partially, so I can run WordPress and (in theory) this will mean I make more posts as it’s easier than my current static site blog. I hope to record contacts I make, things I build, antennas I try out, and generally anything related to amateur radio.…