W6LG on SWR Standing wave ration (SWR) is arguably one of the most debated—and misunderstood—topics in amateur radio. Here is Jim, W6LG’s, take on it. CW without Morse Code? In amateur radio, we tend to use the terms “CW” and “Morse Code” interchangeably. Technically, though, we send Morse Code using continuous wave (CW) transmissions.  CW could be used to send other codes, such as the one proposed by this video. It doesn’t’ seem like the code proposed here is all that practical, but YMMV. Let me know what you think. MONTV on impedance matching Impedance and impedance matching are two m ..read more

Rain puts a damper (literally!) on 30m operations I love my homebrew Cobra antenna… …but it suffers from one big drawback. When it rains, the ladder line impedance changes and I have to retune the antenna. And, when it rains constantly for more than a couple of hours—like it has been here for the past 24 hours or so—I can’t tune it at all on 30 meters. That’s a bummer because 30 meters is my favorite band. Oh well….It looks like the rain has finally let up here, so I should be back in business on 30 meters this evening. POTA Ragchewing? One of my ragchewing buddies is Howard, K4LXY. He’s fun ..read more

I’ve written before about the cache of old QSLs that my brother came across several months ago while conducting an estate sale. The recipient of these QSLs lived near Detroit, so it’s understandable that many of the cards he received came from hams in the “Motor City.” W8IFI proudly proclaims himself to be “The Voice of the Motor City.” W8BNG more modestly announces that he is “in the Motor City.” W8KWX’s card simply says, “The Motor City.” I looked up these addresses on Google Maps, and the only house still standing is the house at 1294 W. Grand Blvd. It looks like 5317 Maybury Grand was raz ..read more

Need to wind some toroids? While I’m waiting for my QRPLabs’ QMX kit to arrive, I thought I’d try to learn something about toroid winding. This video takes toroid winding to a whole new level.  W2AEW on CW bandwidth Question T8A11, in the Technician Class question pool asks, “What is the approximate bandwidth required to transmit a CW signal?” The correct answer is 150 Hz. The question says “approximate” because the bandwidth depends on the speed at which the Morse Code is being sent. In this video, Alan, W2AEW, actually makes some measurements to determine the bandwidth of a CW signal. KB6N ..read more

The Most Hackable Handheld Ham Radio Yet The [Quansheng] UV-K5, released last year, might be the most hackable handheld ever, with a small army of dedicated hams adding a raft of software-based improvements and new features. I had to have one, and $30 later, I did. Like Baofeng’s 5R, Quansheng’s K5 as a radio transceiver is fine. (I’m using K5 here to refer to both the original K5 and the new K5(8) model.) The key technical distinction between the 5R and K5 is a seemingly minor design choice. With Baofeng’s 5R, the firmware resides in read-only memory. But Quansheng stores the K5’s firmware in ..read more

Bandscope observations If you who read my blog regularly, you know I’m a big fan of bandscopes. Here are a couple of relevant observations: I almost missed a DX contact because the DX station called about 250 Hz below my frequency. Because I had my bandpass set to 300 Hz (+/-150 Hz), I couldn’t hear him at all. I did seem him on the bandscope, though, and after I adjusted my receive incremental tuning (RIT), I worked him just fine. Not having a radio with a bandscope can lead you to be more pessimistic about ham radio than you should be. I worked a fellow who lamented how quiet the band was a ..read more

The PicoMite Keyer hardware has five pushbuttons and uses two I/O pins for the dit and dah paddle contacts. One of the challenges that I faced when I started my Micropython keyer project was debouncing the switch closures. There are seven in all: five pushbuttons and the dit and dah inputs. So, I did what everybody does nowadays—perform an internet search. I searched for “switch debouncing with Micropython” and got about a zillion references. One of the first references is actually part of the Micropython documentation. The documentation suggests that one read the current value of a given pin ..read more

I’m hearing some new ops on the CW bands these days, and I think it’s very cool. I’m not sure what’s motivating them, but whatever it is, I’m all for it. Here’s one email I got from a fellow after our QSO: Dan, I’m a new CW operator and I heard your call tonight and recognized it from podcast fame, so I answered. I appreciated that you slowed down right away, but I immediately regretted my decision when you sent more than RST and state . I could tell you were asking questions, but I was lost. Then my fingers panicked and stopped working . I bet I’m the only guy that’s ever happened to. I’m us ..read more

8 Tips for Debugging Electronic Circuits Jameco’s eight tips for debugging circuits include: Understand the circuit. Do a visual inspection. Use the right tools. Check power supply and ground connections. Consider signal tracing and analysis. Conduct incremental testing and isolation. Learn from documentation and community resources Develop a methodical approach For a more complete description, visit the Jameco website. My advice would include a combination of #2 and #4. After doing a visual inspection, the first thing I do is to check all the cables and connectors. It’s been my experience t ..read more

Sen. Wicker co-introduces Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) [BROOKHAVEN, MS] U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation to give amateur radio operators the right to install their antennas and serve the community. Homeowner association rules prevent amateur radio operators from installing outdoor antennas on residential properties even though this communication method has proven to be essential in emergencies and natural disasters, such as hurricanes in states like Mississippi and Connecticut. Among other ..read more