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Shhhh Covert Communications!
I’ve been thinking for a while about discrete HF communications. I often read about issues in the UK with radio amateurs falling foul of local government enforcement action: Radio enthusiast at risk of losing lifelong hobby – BBC News In the UK most amateur radio antenna’s do require planning permission although this is rarely enforced. […]
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CQ World Wide 2025
The last weekend in October is the CQ World Wide contest – The CQ WW is the largest Amateur Radio competition in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves with the goal of making as many contacts with as many different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible. Normally I use contests as […]
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A mini dxpedition
Everyone loves a dxpedition, an exotic location in the sunshine working through a pileup of hunters desperate to get that rare location in their logbooks…. somewhere like…. Dorset, UK?!? Or to be more precise the Hinknowle Cider Apple Farm campsite, IO80PS. I was here camping with the family for 4 nights this August, the weather […]
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EUHFC – How high is my dipole?!?
This weekend was the European HF Championship. The EUHFC is run by the Slovenia Contest Club. During the contest European amateurs try to contact as many other European amateurs as posible to compete for the title of “European HF Champion”. The contest is short in duration, just 12 hours, so I decided to use it […]
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RSGB Islands On The Air Contest
This weekend was the RSGB IOTA Contest. The IOTA contest was created in 1993. This is now a major international event, attracting thousands of participants from all over the world. Radio Amateurs travel to islands around the globe, putting them on the air, making contacts with other islands and with those who are chasing islands. […]
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QRP and the ‘super droopy’ T2FD
I’ve been a bit busy for radio over the last few weeks but I have found time for a few simple experiments. For the past month I have been trying to limit my HF use to QRP (low power) operation using 10w of output power on the 40 and 20m bands in the margins around […]
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SPDX – A Flagpole Of Opportunity
This weekend was the SPDX contest. In the SP DX Contest, competitors are divided into two groups – Polish stations and foreign stations outside of Poland. The aim is for operators outside of Poland to make as many QSOs to Polish stations and visa versa. As I’m currently on holiday I thought this would be […]
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A Simple Double Bazooka Dipole Design
I’ve written a lot in my other blog posts about my double bazooka antenna. It’s probably my favorite antenna for quick temporary setups. I’ve tried to make it portable, quick to set-up and easy to change bands. The original design work came from this website, I’ve refined the design by building a nice center junction […]
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The 2025 CQ WPX Contest
The CQ World Wide WPX Contest was this weekend! In preparation I built a temporary Double Bazooka Dipole oriented East West in an inverted V for the 20m band. The antenna was not perfect, one end was almost touching my garage roof and the height was only 8m or so above the ground, you can see more about […]
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Preparing For The CQ WPX Contest
The CQ World Wide WPX Contest is this coming weekend! I’m not a contest station but I like to use contests to test out new configurations and antennas when there is plenty of band activity. One of the limitations of my home location is the size and orientation of the plot. My permanent antenna is […]