Amateur radio operators have long praised FT8 for its ability to punch through weak-signal conditions with minimal bandwidth, but critics have always noted one major limitation: it’s not conversational. Short exchanges of callsigns, grid squares, and signal reports don’t exactly replace a good ragchew. That changes today with the surprise release of Med8, a revolutionary […]
Reviews
Reviews of amateur radio related equipment, tools, books, etc.
Using AI To Learn RF Concepts
One of the things that has continued to evade my understanding in Amateur Radio is Single Sideband (SSB) transmissions, and how they can be created using anything more than just filtering out what you don’t need. New technologies use crazy math to show how to remove components from an AM signal to create the SSB […]
Review – Field Day 2025
Event Summary There was some sunny weather forecast for Saturday June 22nd, 2024, and the weatherman was accurate! What a great weekend for Field Day! This year brought 35 logged visitors, 30 of which were licensed, and were able to get 14 of those operators on the air, doing everything from CW to SSB to […]
Review – Field Day 2024
Event Summary There was some sunny weather forecast for Saturday June 22nd, 2024, and the weatherman was accurate! What a great weekend for Field Day! This year brought 32 logged visitors, 28 of which were licensed, and were able to get 13 of those operators on the air, doing everything from CW to SSB to […]
HamSCI and Space Weather Overview
For those that missed the March 2024 club meeting, Sarah, KQ4NQO gave a presentation on space weather and information on HamSCI in relation to the upcoming solar eclipse. Below is a summary of the information shared. Thanks Sarah! Overview of space weather: – The Sun sometimes “burps” and lets off electromagnetic energy and/or particles, called […]
Amateur Radio Resources at the VT Library
Selected Resources on Amateur Radio and Basic Electronics from the University Libraries at Virginia Tech from Edward Lener, College Librarian for the Sciences, AK4IS, More information on how to borrow these resources can be found here
Review – Field Day 2023
Event Summary The threat of rain didn’t dull our spirits when waking up to greet the day on Saturday June 24th, 2023 because we knew that it doesn’t rain on the club, it reigns IN the club! And, what wonderful weather we ended up having! This year brought 31 logged visitors, 28 of which were […]
Hints and Kinks of the Yaesu FT-891
If you’re new to the Yaesu FT-891, you may find some things a bit odd, or difficult to use. If you’re a new ham on top of that, it can be quite frustrating. Here, I will attempt to capture some of the points of the FT-891 that are often missed or overlooked by the operator, […]
Review – 2022 Sept ARRL VHF Contest
The Plan Expectations were high despite the gloomy outlook with the weather reports. LOTs of rain was in the forecast, but we kept planning and gathering the tools for our first VHF contest outing (at least my first with the club). The ARRL September VHF contest information can be found here (click). This contest requires […]
Review – Field Day 2022
Event Summary We had an almost “return to normal” field day this year, with people gathered, food served, and radio operations held. Our roster reflects 22 in attendance, only three of which were not already hams. We started around 8:30am at the Randolph Park back shelter, unpacking items for field day and our Radio Rummage. […]