Articles written by: Ward Silver, N0AX

Multimeter screen displaying 12.56 volts
Technical Articles

Troubleshooting Your Transceiver

Uh-oh, the radio’s broken! It’s either doing something it’s not supposed to or not doing something it’s supposed to. The natural response will always be to change a few things, […]

close up of a knob on a ham radio
Technical Articles

Maintaining and Troubleshooting Your HF Station

There is a fine line between maintenance and troubleshooting, whether it’s a Ham station, a car, an audio system, or any bit of technology with several “moving parts.” One often […]

VK0IR Ham Radio QSL card from Heard Island
Events

My Favorite QSOs

Long-path on QSOs and first-call transmissions Bright copper coils and quickly band-switchin’Bright paper QSLs from distant kingsThese are a few of my favorite things (From “My Favorite Things” by Rogers […]

Repeater Builder Technical Information Page Header
Products & Product Reviews

Ham Radio Tech and History Book Reviews: A Top Ten Desert Island List

When I was asked to write this blog entry, the suggestion was made, “…like a desert island list.” Well, that’s just a perfect idea! Since most such lists include ten […]

wire antenna wavelength diagram
Antenna Tech / Technical Articles

Wire Antennas—Beyond the Dipole

The oldest radio antenna is—guess what—a dipole. In fact, a dipole was used by Professor Hertz to discover electromagnetic waves in 1886. How did he decide to use a dipole? […]

ARRL Grounding & Bonding Book
Technical Articles

How to Build Your First HF Station

First of all, congratulations on starting your first HF station! You will be joining a long tradition of Hams with roots in the spark era all the way through to […]

close up of radio base inspection points
Technical Articles

Spring Station Inspection Tips

As I am writing (March 23, 2020) more and more of us are staying home and maybe spending time in our Ham stations. We are fortunate to have amateur radio […]

antenna directivity diagram
Technical Articles

Why Upgrade to Extra?

So you’re a Technician class license holder? Congratulations on passing that exam! You can be proud—the public is almost completely unaware that Hams have to take an exam and are […]

DX Engineering Maxi Core Balun
Technical Articles

Baluns vs. Impedance Transformers

There is a lot of confusion about baluns—where you need to use one, what the balun is supposed to accomplish, and even what a balun really is! The term “balun” […]

world map with night/day shown
Technical Articles

Guide to Low-Band DXing– When and Where

Most Hams start out DXing on the HF “high bands” of 20 through 10 meters. There are lots of stations active, the antennas are manageable in size and effective height, […]