Amateur radio transceivers have improved dramatically over the decades and they pack a lot of capability into relatively compact radios. In this post, we will take a look at the typical configurations and how they may impact setting up a flexible amateur radio station today. This discussion is focused on currently available new gear, with 50 to 100 watts of RF power. The Kenwood TS-430S was a popular HF transceiver in the 1980s. The most common HF radio configuration used to be a 5-band model that offered CW, AM, and SSB on 80 meters, 40 meters, 20 meters, 15 meters, and 10 meters. In the earl ..read more

Pikes Peak is a great summit for a SOTA activation. You can hike up, drive up, or take the cog railway to get to the top. Pikes towers over eastern Colorado and has an excellent radio horizon in all directions. It is easy to work a bunch of stations on 2m FM. With a bit of effort, you can work Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and New Mexico on VHF. Fraser/MM0EFI was visiting from Scotland, operating here in the US as W0/M0EFI. Here’s his HF operating experience, with cameo appearances by Carey/KX0R, Christian/F4WBN, Elliot/K6EL, and Steve/WG0AT. Now for the VHF fun on 2m FM. I happened to be on Sou ..read more

Those of you who follow my blog know that my primary ham radio passion is operating above 50 MHz. But I also enjoy getting on the HF bands for POTA and chasing DX. I’ve also done a few holiday-style DXpeditions: V29RW and ZF2NR. Compared to my friends that are serious about DXing, I consider myself a Slacker DXer. The Sun Is Your Friend You are probably aware that we are approaching the peak of the 11-year solar cycle, which means that the propagation on the higher HF bands is great. When I do operate HF, I really enjoy having 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m open worldwide. Back in December, I note ..read more

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a unique organization in the world of amateur radio. ARDC is organized as a foundation with two main roles: management of 44Net and a grants program. The foundation has assets a bit over $100M and funds grants roughly at the $5M level each year. (These are very rough numbers. For the specifics, take a look at the audited financial statements.) I started out serving on the Grants Advisory Committee and told my ARDC story here: What’s This ARDC Grant Thing? I am honored to be asked to join the ARDC Board of Directors and I look forward to serving ..read more

My ham radio pursuits have tended towards the VHF/UHF bands and the 6-meter band (50 MHz) has always been interesting to me. I like to think of 6 meters as a VHF band with some strong HF tendencies. Most of the time, propagation is local, certainly beyond line-of-sight, but also not long distance. When sporadic-e and F2 propagation show up, 6m tries its best to act like an HF band, skipping the signal off the ionosphere. We call it the magic band because magical propagation occurs just when we least expect it. A more accurate name might be the fickle band because 6 meters provides short period ..read more

When radio amateurs get ready to put an HF station on the air, they often have questions about what antenna to use. The good news is that there are many options to choose from. The bad news is that there are too many options to choose from. It can be overwhelming. This post describes an antenna I just installed that is easy to put up and works well. The ponderosa pine tree supports the endfed wire antenna. Having 30-foot tall pine trees on our property, my usual approach for HF antennas is “wires in the trees.” I have several ropes strung up over these tall trees so that I can raise and lower ..read more

The Technician license is your gateway to the worldwide excitement of Amateur Radio, and the very best emergency communications capability available! This is the entry-level class for people who do not currently have an amateur (ham) radio license. The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association (Monument, CO) is introducing a new approach to teaching the Technician Level ham radio license class. We have completely overhauled the delivery format of our Tech Class to make good use of both in-person and online training methods. The biggest change is that most of the core material will be delivered to t ..read more

Closing out 2023, here are the top five blog posts at k0nr.com during the year. Some people may see this as a lazy way of creating one more blog post for the year without much effort and they would be right. These posts are the top five viewed during the year but may have been written earlier than that. Top Five Blog Posts Leading the list is this blog post…a perennial favorite that seems to make the top five each year. This particular article is tuned for Colorado but also provides a link to an article covering the topic for the USA. Choose Your 2m Frequency Wisely Moving up to second plac ..read more

While investigating some potential Summits On The Air (SOTA) peaks, someone sent me a link for the FAA weather cam that was on a particular peak. I was able to get a real-time look at the snow on the summit and see the terrain. Of course, the world is full of many different webcams providing real-time video but somehow I had overlooked the FAA WeatherCams. (I am sure some of the pilots out there are thinking “duh, everyone knows about these.”) This caused me to spend some time looking at the various FAA webcams available. The FAA webcam site provides a useful map overview to choose an appropri ..read more

I was happy to contribute an article to the recent ARRL Parks On The Air (POTA) book. This piece is based on my Pikes Peak mountain topping article that appeared in the June 2023 issue of QST. This book is a collection of articles about POTA from 14 different authors, each writing about a different aspect of the program. The articles are all easy to read and generally provide a first-hand account of how the author has experienced POTA operating. There is plenty of beginner information and operating tips sprinkled throughout the book. More experienced POTA enthusiasts will probably pick up a fe ..read more