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, […]
Reviews
Reviews of amateur radio related equipment, tools, books, etc.
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. […]
Review – Audie Murphy – 2022
The weather was perfect and the bands were crowded for the third annual Audie Murphy Special Event which was held on Brush Mountain approximately one-half mile from the 1971 plane crash that took Audie Murphy’s life. This year we moved the event date from Memorial Day weekend to Saturday, June 4, 2022, which coincided with […]
Microcontroller Projects for Amateur Radio
Book Review “Microcontroller Projects for Amateur Radio” is a great book for folks with some background with microcontrollersand have a knack for improvising and troubleshooting. That may sound like a left-handed complement, but read on. It was submitted to ARRL for publication two years before it hit the ARRL Store. Every schematic was redrawn, which […]
Getting Ready for Special Event
I bought this 10’x10′ Cover Pro Shed at Harbor Freight to use at Audie Murphy Special Event. The canopy went together fairly easy. It took Mike and me about an hour but could be done quicker now that we have experience. It seems sturdy enough.I like having the four walls in case of bad weather. […]
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. Antenna Physics : An Introduction by Robert Zavrel, Jr.Call Number – TK6565 A6 Z38 2020 Antenna Theory : Analysis […]
Just Flexin’
Blings ‘n’ Things for March 2021 Here are some pictures of submitted pictures and descriptions from club members wanting to share. All in alphabetic order according to call sign. From AI4RC 01 – On the left is an Yaesu FT 450, MFJ 4225 power supply, MFJ IntelliTuner , Tigertronics Signal Link, Bencher By -1 iambic […]
200 Meters and Down
Do you wonder how amateur radio started, or how our bands were determined, or how the ARRL started and how it became the American Radio Relay League? All those questions and more are answered in “200 Meters and Down”. Originally published in 1936, this 184 page book is an easy, informative read; well worth a […]
Amateur Radio Series by Cynthia Wall, KA7ITT
In the late 1980’s, Cynthia Wall published Night Signals, a young-adult fiction book that prominently featured amateur radio in an engaging story about a wilderness rescue. Over the next ten years this was followed by five other books which featured the same two main characters in different, and often perilous, adventures. As in the original, […]