My primary radio, a Yaesu FT-857, half-died during Field Day, so I sidelined it for debug later and continued with my other HF rig. Last night, I tore apart the radio and the Signalink attached to it, and dragged my oscilloscope out of storage, in order to probe into why the audio wasn’t modulating any […]
Category Archives: Amateur Radio
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In January, at the Schertz TX hamfest, I picked up a little oddity: an MFJ-1026 Deluxe Noise Canceling Signal Enhancer, for $25 cash. This magical box takes the input from the main antenna and mixes it with the input from an auxiliary antenna and allows you to shift and invert the relative phase until a […]
Field Day 2020 In Quarantine
This year’s ARRL Field Day was noticeably tinged with difficulty, problems, and loneliness. The goal of Field Day is to set up our radios with makeshift antennas and operate on emergency power while making as many contacts as possible for 24 hours. Adaptation in the face of adverse conditions is the heart of these field […]
Natural Log
Today I played Radio and won. Since I have a new laptop for work, I’ve been occasionally moving it from my office desk to the ham bench to mess with digital modes like FT8 and Winlink. But I’ve been waffling on getting logging software and keeping shitty paper logs of my radio contacts to manually […]
Unexpected Ethernet QRM
I made a quick-and-dirty directional Yagi antenna out of PVC pipe and measuring tape for some future Radio Direction Finding (“fox hunt”) fun. (Instructions here) Since I spent an evening sticking it all together, I had to test it out. So I connected it to a 2-meter (144MHz) radio, tuned it to an unused frequency, […]