Articles written by: Ward Silver, N0AX

ham plus antenna selector switch box
Technical Articles

Station Improvements: Inside During the Winter

Station repairs and upgrades can take place all year round, inside and out. That said, Hams who live where the chilly winds blow and the snow flies during the winter […]

a ham radio paddle keyer
Technical Articles

Choosing a CW Key or Paddle: Understanding What’s Available

Learning Morse code for CW operation has many similarities to learning how to play a musical instrument. Modulating the musician’s maxim about achieving success, “How do you get to the […]

audio noise isolator adapter
Technical Articles

Troubleshooting Hum, Buzz, Crosstalk, and RF Pickup

Hams are typically less precise in their use of technical terms than are professional engineers and technicians. Nowhere is this more true than in descriptions of signals contaminated with unwanted […]

geochron digital atlas screenshot
Technical Articles

Long-Duration HF Contesting Tips: Looking Beyond Your Equipment…Tips on Coming Out on Top

Contests come in a lot of shapes and sizes, from domestic sprints lasting a few hours to weekend-long, 48-hour worldwide DX contests. The difference can be as great as between […]

MFJ Voice keyer
Technical Articles

Contesting Equipment Guide: Small Upgrades that Can Make a Big Difference

So you have a station, you’re operating in the contests, and looking to move up the score listings— excellent! But what to do? Is there a BNR (Big New Radio) […]

DX Engineering’s Color-Coded Ferrite Toroids
Products & Product Reviews

DX Engineering’s Color-Coded Ferrite Toroids

If you purchase ferrite components from most manufacturers, you’ll find that they all look pretty much alike: dark grey beads and toroids and rods without markings or other identification. This […]

Technical Articles

Inductor Selection: Manufacturers Part Numbers

Amateurs have long used the Amidon (www.amidoncorp.com) part numbering system for ferrite and powdered iron toroid cores. For powdered iron cores, the Amidon part number begins with a T and […]

Technical Articles

Inductor Selection: Design Sensitivities

When you start designing your own circuits, one of the biggest challenges is not obtaining component values, but choosing from many different types of components all having the same value! […]

ham radio balun illustration
Clifton Labs / Technical Articles

Using Copper Tubing Windings on a Binocular-Core Transformer

It is often effective to use copper tubing as single-turn winding on a binocular-core transformer.  The tubing has extremely low losses and minimizes leakage inductance which extends the transformer’s high […]

Clifton Labs / Technical Articles

Permeability and Ferrite Material

Since the article was written in 2008, other types of ferrite material have been introduced with different characteristics over the MF and HF frequency ranges.  Type 31 has become popular […]