Articles written by: Ward Silver, N0AX

portable ham radio station built into a cooler
Technical Articles

Ham Radio Tech: Inexpensive Project Enclosures

No matter what kind of operating you do, sooner or later you’ll need a “gadget” that isn’t readily available commercially. Maybe you’ll need a special switch or an interface between […]

ham radio operator at a station under a tent
Technical Articles

Ham Radio Tech: RF Safety—In the Field

This is the second installment of a two-part article about RF when you are operating “in the field,” meaning away from a fixed station. For example, when you are operating […]

rear view of a portable ham radio station on a tabletop
Technical Articles / Uncategorized

Ham Radio Tech: RF Management–In the Field

This is the first of a two-part article about RF when you are operating “in the field,” meaning away from a fixed station. For example, when you are operating a […]

wire stripper tool stripping a wire
Tools

How To Strip (Wires and Cables)

Let’s start with a story about how NOT to strip wires. Back in the day, I worked with a fellow who had the unique talent of stripping wires with his […]

two half hitches knot tied around table leg
Technical Articles

Ham Radio Tech: Knots & Slings

Antenna and tower work are never far from our minds as hams. Most amateur loads are considered light by professional installers, but they can be heavy enough to cause injuries […]

field day ham radio station
Field Day

Effective Field Day Operating

Operating at Field Day is lot different than operating a home station—and that’s more than half the fun. It’s also one of the main reasons Field Day exists, so that […]

screengrab of a map displayed on a computer
Field Day

Noise Management on Field Day

Here comes Field Day and all of your careful equipment connections and filtering go out the window as the station is disassembled and hauled off to the operating site. Be […]

HAM Radio 101

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 […]

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 […]

dx engineering pixel loop antenna radiation pattern
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 […]