Category Archives: Uncategorized

Radio as a technology doesn’t seem to have a major place in most modern movies and TV shows, with few exceptions. Most recently, however, Netflix now has a mini-series where Radio technology plays a dominant plot role. The limited series “All the light we cannot see” has a fairly dominant radio-based theme. The story isContinue reading “Radio in pop culture”

If Dayton sounds fun but you need more ham radio hardware in your life, HRO in Milwaukee might be the closest “candy store” for us Minnesotans. it’s closer than Dayton but still hours away. A great time to visit is September. The local store there has an annual “Superfest” gathering, with local clubs, vendors, andContinue reading “Ham Radio Outlet Superfest”

Suppose you want to make a ham radio contact with a specific location. How do you figure out when is the best time and frequency to make that contact? One way is VOACAP – the Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program. VOA created this tool to support receipt of their broadcasts, but have also expandedContinue reading “Use of VOACAP for Contact Planning”

By now everyone has heard about “POTA” – Parks on the Air, and I’ve previously covered it. Based on the parks on the air rules, just being inside the park boundaries is sufficient to operate and work that park. So some people may just drive into the parking lot with their HF gear and getContinue reading “POTA the hard way – Lake Maria State Park”

For many years hams in Minnesota have supported outdoor sporting events- marathons, ski races and charity bike rides. These regularly have “missing persons” – such as family members asking about a participant who has not finished the race on time. Are they injured or in a medical tent or the hospital? If you are trackingContinue reading “OSTicket – Ticketing”

This weekend is ARRL field day! The Anoka County Radio Club will be operating the contest from the Laurie Lamotte Park in Centerville, MN. We plan to operate three HF stations – one voice, one digital, and one CW (morse code). If you’re interested and in the area, please stop by! On Saturday at 6:00Continue reading “ARRL Field Day 2023”

POTA stands for “Parks on the air”. Parks on the air is to Ham radio like fantasy football is to real football. Basically, statistics about your contacts are kept and that maintains a scoreboard about how many parks you’ve contacted, how many have contacted you, etc. Some people consider POTA its own mission, and areContinue reading “Operating POTA with Contests”

Running around with ham radios and 12v DC devices, knowing how much power is left in the tank can be pretty important. For simple lead acid batteries, the voltage of the battery can give you a pretty good idea how much capacity is left. But nowadays a lot of people have moved to the LiPo4Continue reading “Power usage tracking for batteries with Coulometers”

January is the home of another VHF contest. With VHF, one can benefit quite a bit from aiming antennas where people are actually listening. Unless you’re using spotting networks, most often that means that you’re aiming at population centers. It’s pretty easy to aim an antenna in a general direction. But what if you wantContinue reading “Azimuthal Maps”