hamradio

Traffic Handling

I have started handling traffic for the Philadelphia area. Hams have passed messages like this for over a hundred years. It works like a human powered intern...

Roll-up J-pole Test

I recently purchased an Ed Fong Roll-up J-pole. I wanted something to give me more gain than my rubber duck while on the roof deck. This antenna has already ...

My First Begali Adventure

The nice days have come again! For me, this means going up to the roof deck of my building, usually with a ham radio or two. Elecraft, the manufacturer of my...

My Grandfather’s Straight Key

My grandfather , James Edward Talbot, flew seaplanes in the navy during World War II. He joined in 1941 and flew out of Mustin Field. He could fly any of the...

My Vibroplex Bug

The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) does all of their work using mechanical Morse Code keys, as opposed to the electronic keys invented later. Most people w...

Reducing HF Noise

After my success using a ground plane, I discovered two other things which have further reduced my noise floor by 2 S-units. Firstly, I connected a 1:1 balun...

The HARC Elmer Net

Recently, I began hosting the Elmer Net on the HARC repeater. In ham radio terms, a net works like a round table. A Central station called a net control take...

Heil PR 20 Demo

After hearing Dr. Bob Heil speak at HARC, I decided to upgrade my computer’s microphone. He joked that a lot of people use microphones that they say cost $40...

My Alpha Antenna Adventure

I had an interesting adventure with Alpha Antenna, and I wanted to recount it here. To summarize, they gave five star customer service to get a blind ham on ...

A Straight Key from a Friend

I recently saw my friend Meg. I began paying her to drive me shortly before the pandemic began. I like not needing to deal with a stranger for my transportat...

My First QRP DX

Some time ago I worked my first DX contact with a long distance station. I forgot to reduce power from 15 Watts to 5 Watts, so it didn’t count as true QRP, d...

A Party during the Pandemic

Ham radio has provided a lot of joy during the pandemic. Firstly, I had the strangest Easter I have ever had, though not the worst. Our family could not have...

My First DX

I worked my first DX during the ARRL Inter DX CW contest in February. DX means a long distance station. CW stands for Continuous Wave, Morse Code. I didn’t...

QRP for Apartments

I run a QRP (low power) station from my Philadelphia condo. They do not allow outdoor antennas, so I use a magnetic loop. It sits on a tripod by my window. I...

A Ham Radio New Year

Two ham radio events happened to me over New Year’s Day. I set a new record for distance, and I won a certificate in a contest without trying.

YFKlog

I have some good news for blind hams. I wanted to find an accessible logging program. I settled on YFKlog because it has a text interface. I noticed an easy ...