As we do every year for this annual series on preparing for a successful ARRL Field Day (June 22-23, 2024), OnAllBands would like to remind you that there is no shorter—or more economical—path to improved performance than upgrading the coaxial cable assemblies you’ll be employing in your temporary stations. And there’s no easier way to get precisely what you need than through the coaxial cable experts at DX Engineering—either by the foot; in bulk; as assemblies with connectors professionally installed; or with your choice of cable in your desired length and connector types on both ends (see Cu ..read more

DX Engineering has proudly carried finely constructed, proven, and highly portable Par EndFedz End Fed Half Wave (EFHW) Antennas for several years. Besides selling these popular antennas made for worry-free Field Day, POTA, and SOTA operating, DX Engineering team members—the folks who answer your amateur radio questions when you call—rely on Par EndFedz antennas for their successful outdoor excursions. DX Engineering customer sales/technical support specialist and OnAllBands blogger Troy, KE8DRR, has taken along a Par EndFedz EFT-102040 (40/20/10M) for low-powering operating (25W SSB/CW) on hi ..read more

OnAllBands is rounding out our QSL card posts for the month with a brief look at several entities that will be active in May, along with QSL cards from the team of avid DXers at DX Engineering. Stay tuned because in a few weeks we’ll be featuring cards from Glorioso Islands, one of the rarest of them all (#7 globally and #2 on the west coast of North America per Clublog). Marek, FH4VVK, using the call sign FT4GL, is scheduled to be operating from Grande Glorioso, the largest of the Glorioso Islands, from May 24 to June 19 on 160-6M in SSB, RTTY, and FT4/FT8. Look for more at OnAllBands about t ..read more

The 100% RIB (Rig in a Box) N5J operation from the Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge, one of the rarest DXCC entities on the planet, is scheduled for a two-week run from August 5-20, 2024. The operating team will consist of Don Greenbaum, N1DG; Mike Snow, KN4EEI; Tomi Pekarik, HA7RY; and Rig in a Box innovator George Wallner, AA7JV. All four operators were also part of the DX Engineering-sponsored Baker Island KH1/KH7Z DXpedition in 2018. Uninhabited Jarvis Island, which features a dried lagoon where guano deposits were mined in the nineteenth century, is an unincorporated, unorganized U ..read more

Sometimes we come across a video at OnAllBands that is simply too good not to share with our readers. Today’s video spotlight is just that—a six-minute confirmation that amateur radio, even in this age of smartphones and a million other shiny distractions, can still capture the imaginations of young people, the techies who will one day carry the torch for our beloved hobby. If you’ve ever wondered about the future of amateur radio, prepare to be inspired. Better yet, the segment below exposed a national audience to just how cool amateur radio can be. On December 11 of last year, longtime telev ..read more

One of our favorite parts of every DX Engineering Amateur Radio Products Catalog is Page 4. That’s where we traditionally highlight new products that we’ve added to the more than 30,000 amateur radio items already found at DXEngineering.com. In the 2024 version of the catalog (available next month), Page 4 features a range of new offerings to upgrade your stations: 4O3A NC-1 Noise-Canceling Boom Mic Headset and Accessories VE2DX TrueCIV Icom Transceiver Interface Data Hubs, Digital Meter Displays, and Antenna Switches FlexRadio Power Genius XL Amplifier, Tuner Genius XL Tuners, and Antenna Ge ..read more

Going mobile? Installing a ham radio station in your vehicle expands the usefulness of amateur radio, making automobiles ham shacks on wheels. It’s a convenient way to have instant emergency communications onsite without any tedious setup. You can even treat yourself to park and POTA—no picnic table needed. Those of you who have moved to mobile radio operation probably started with combination VHF/UHF radios. Some go the extra mile and later add HF radio to the mix. Either way, ham radio mobile installations can present some unique challenges for the operator. Anyone who has shopped for a car ..read more

Have you thought about changing your current call sign? Maybe you’ve upgraded your license, moved to a new call area, decided you want a shorter call, or have a real tongue twister that’s hard to decipher on the air. It could be you want a call that’s easier for your friends to remember or one the net control station won’t keep asking you to repeat. A vanity call sign is one that a ham or amateur radio club wants in place of an existing call sign. Vanity call signs often include alphabetical characters that are important to the licensee—initials, parts of names, hobbies, nicknames, or amateur ..read more

Space, the final frontier for antenna installations. The ham’s ongoing mission: to explore their shrinking lot sizes and seek out smaller antennas that will keep them on the air—ones that boldly perform with the fewest compromises. There’s nothing that says you can’t bend or wrap antenna elements to make them more compact. Think of open folded dipoles or the end droop on a wire antenna when it’s a few feet too long. Keep in mind that making a dipole smaller by wrapping it back on itself reduces not only the size but affects bandwidth as well. Regardless, this might be a good tradeoff under the ..read more

For most people in the path of totality, the April 8 Great American Eclipse was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. (Only residents in southern Illinois were in the path of totality for both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses). In case there is still someone out there who is unfamiliar, a total solar eclipse happens—as it did earlier this month—when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky darkens as if it were dawn or dusk. The next total solar eclipse that will be visible in the U.S. (only in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota) will be in ..read more