Thanksgiving weekend is shaping up to be active on the High Frequency (HF) bands. It’s time to fire up your HF radio and log some new contacts thanks to the beginning of Solar Cycle 25 and sunspot AR2786 rotating towards earth. AR2786 is a sunspot twice the size of earth. It’s the first large sunspot…
Category: Ham Radio News
Nearly 2000-mile record-setting contact on 433Mhz in South Atlantic
Propagation is a fun thing — especially when you’re talking thousands of miles on UHF! On October 16, 2020 a 1,950 mile contact was made on 433Mhz FM between the Island of St. Helena (U.K.) and Plumstead, South Africa. The two stations involved in the contact were Garry, ZD7GWM and Tom, ZS1TA in South Africa….
Solar Cycle 25 has officially begun
Ham radios operators around the world rejoice — Solar Cycle 25 has officially begun! The Royal Observatory of Belgium has reported the solar minimum likely occurred in December of 2019. The solar minimum marks the lowest point of sunspot activity and is the official start of a new cycle. Amateur radio and shortwave enthusiasts alike have…
KDKA special event station begins operations Nov. 1
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of Pittsburgh radio station KDKA. KDKA would evolve from private point-to-point communication to being known as the first commercial radio station in the United States after airing the Harding-Cox presidential results on November 2, 1920. And the rest they say, is history. The success of the KDKA broadcast and of…
FCC will take away another ham band in 2021
Say goodbye to another amateur radio band. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has ruled that it will revoke amateur radio privileges on the 3300-3500 MHz (9-cm Microwave band). The FCC will auction the band to wireless telecom companies to support 5G rollouts across the United States. The dates when amateur radio privileges will “sunset” have…
USFS portable repeater vandalized in Rocky Mountain backcountry
Vandals took aim at an unlikely target last week in Grand County, Colorado. Firefighters’ battling the 14,000+ acre Williams Fork wildfire suddenly noticed their radios stopped working. The size of the fire is so large simplex communication wasn’t feasible. The U.S. Forest Service deployed a portable repeater to allow firefighters in the field to communicate…
Baofeng saves the life of ham radio operator
Ham radio is often portrayed as irrelevant. A dying hobby in the age of the cell phone. Ham radio operators know nothing could be further from the truth. One operator who would be the first to back that up is Alden Summers Jones, KC1JWR, from Vermont. During the Summer of 2020, Alden decided to take…
M17 project aims to kill off DMR, YSF and D-Star on ham bands
One of the most significant challenges digital has in ham radio is the multiple modes across manufacturers. D-Star, DMR, C4FM, P25 are all on the amateur bands across the United States, but could these digital modes we all know and use come to an end? If a new startup project has anything to say about…
New Ham Radio Onboard The ISS Is On The Air
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team has announced the new ham radio FM repeater is now active aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as of September 2, 2020 at 1:02 GMT. Ham radio and the International Space Station Ham Radio operators have enjoyed making contact with the ISS for many years….