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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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Really Weird Twisted Sisters!
I’ve been building a QMX+ HF transceiver kit recently, and one feature really caught my attention: the “really weird twisted sisters transformer” (RWTST).It’s a great reminder of how, at RF frequencies, the smallest physical details can make or break circuit performance. Earlier versions of the QMX+ used a conventional output transformer. But some builders noticed […]
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Software defined or hardware defined – which is better?!?
This weekend I upgraded my 1970s-era PRC-320 HF radio to include new functionality for amateur radio use – adding an S-meter, correcting the military 2 kHz frequency offset, enabling LSB, and replacing a few tired components. Every time I open one of these sets I’m reminded how remarkable older engineering can be. Built by Plessey […]
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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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Proppy Propagation Prediction
Proppy is a simple to use web-based propagation prediction tool which allows users to predict HF propagation conditions, select appropriate HF frequencies for point to point links and understand what geographic coverage they can expect to achieve with their transmitter across time for a given frequency. The below shows how to use the basic functionality […]
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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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I do not like the zoo!
Today the family decided to go to the zoo for the day…. I’m not a big fan of the zoo so it seemed like a great opportunity to get away for a few hours of HF. I decided to walk from my holiday cottage to Northam Burrows which is the site of a Second World […]