Stretching and Cautions About Lifting for Ham Radio Antenna Season
As I’m writing at the end of March, antenna season is about to get underway in many parts of North America, including for the author. (Those of you in the […]
An Amateur Radio Blog by DX Engineering Articles written by: Ward Silver, N0AX
HAM Radio 101
Technical Articles
Types of Feed Line Chokes
A feed line RF choke creates a high impedance in the path of RF common-mode current on the outside surface of a coaxial cable shield. The choke doesn’t affect currents […]
Antennas and Tuners
Ham Radio Tech: Simple Low-Band Receiving Antennas
The receiving antennas covered in this article are small enough to fit on residential lots or to use with a portable station. They are not transmitting antennas! Most are relatively […]
Technical Articles
Ham Radio Grounding and Bonding and RFI
Over the past few years, a lot of attention has been developed regarding grounding and bonding. I am pleased that my ARRL book Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur […]
Events
Ham Radio and the April 8 Solar Eclipse QSO Party
Hams being quite focused on solar phenomena, so to speak, many are getting ready for the total solar eclipse coming on April 8. This is the second of two eclipses […]
Technical Articles
CW Pileups for Beginning Ham Radio Contesters
In just two weeks (February 17-18) one of the biggest CW contests in the world will fill the bands from 160–10 meters (except for 60, 30, 17, and 12 meters, […]
HAM Radio 101
After DXCC—Now What?
Congratulations! You’ve finally logged and confirmed country number 100, joining the ranks of radio amateurs who have gained DX Century Club status. This is a great achievement, and you should […]
Technical Articles
Q-Section Feed Line Transformers
What the heck is a Q-section? Long a tool of antenna system designers, the Q-section is a handy way to make a single-band match between a feed line and an […]
Technical Articles
Receivers and Busy Bands
Beginning in early fall, weekends start to fill up with “the majors”—contests that attract thousands of stations which fill the bands with strong signals. November and December are the most […]
Technical Articles
Ham Radio Tech: When 450 Is Not 450
450…where have I heard that number before? Seems familiar…Oh, right…450Ω window line! Yes, that’s the nominal characteristic impedance of the black plastic-coated parallel conductor transmission line like DX Engineering’s DXE-LL450-CTL. […]
