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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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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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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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South America 10m Contest
Today I decided to take part in the South America 10m Contest… Why? Because it’s a great opportunity to build a custom setup targeted both at a specific geography and band. The South America 10m contest runs for 24 hours on the 10m band (28.3-29.3Mhz for SSB). The purpose is to encourage radio amateurs from […]