hamradio

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 ...