Foundations of Amateur Radio
488 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 30 ratingsStarting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or HAM Radio can be daunting and challenging but can be very rewarding. Every week I look at a different aspect of the hobby, how you might fit in and get the very best from the 1000 hobbies that Amateur Radio represents. Note that this podcast started in 2011 as "What use is an F-call?".
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Episodes
What does MARS have to do with Amateur Radio?
February 04, 2017 16:00 - 7 minutes - 13.8 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio In my travels along the highways and byways of the Internet I came across several references to MARS in relation to Amateur Radio. Being the curious soul that I am, my interest was sparked. I must warn you, today there is a lot to cover. First up before I tell you anything, let me start by pointing out that what I'm talking about has different levels of application depending on where you are on the planet. I also need to inform you that in some parts of the glob...
A nifty idea looking for a purpose in 1947 changes the world as we know it...
January 28, 2017 16:00 - 5 minutes - 9.48 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio If you have the need to switch something on and off, a likely first candidate is to get a switch from the local hardware store. The principle is pretty straightforward. You put the switch into the power supply lead and by pushing it on, the two halves of the switch make contact with each other, completing a circuit, and the thing you're switching turns on. It's a lot like having two bits of bare wire that you can touch the ends together. What if you want to remo...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ...
January 21, 2017 16:00 - 5 minutes - 10.9 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I look at an antenna and marvel at what it implies. A simple piece of conducting material made into some particular shape and size that harnesses the radio spectrum. I find it fascinating that this can and does exist and my fascination translates into a thing of beauty. I recall being on a camping trip and being introduced by a friend to an antenna that was strung between two trees in the middle of the bush. For some reason ...
More strange antennas!
January 14, 2017 16:00 - 3 minutes - 7.16 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio About ten minutes ago I was blissfully unaware of the existence of James K2MIJ. It's unclear if this bliss will ever be returned because it's obvious to me that James and I share several things, a sense of humour among them. Mind you, I've not yet actually spoken to James, other than me saying "Hello" right now, but his QRZ page is a thing of wonder. Last week I was talking about weird and wonderful antennas. As you know, Amateur Radios don't particularly care w...
Tuning up strange antennas ...
January 07, 2017 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.81 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio During the week I received a funny picture from a fellow amateur. This particular image was one titled "Multitap Antenna" and it featured a Four Wheel Drive vehicle with a bull-bar and a spring base mounted antenna. The antenna was made from pipe and at suitable intervals the pipe had a t-piece with a tap. Nothing too peculiar, right? Well, other than that the taps were standard brass garden taps with a hose-quick release clip and hose fittings. Made me laugh. ...
Do we really understand our hobby?
December 31, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 5.45 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I was going to talk to you about Grid Dip Oscillators. Some research later I realised that I don't yet understand the topic enough to explain it to myself, let alone explain it to you. I then set my sights on a simpler thing, an SWR Meter. Pretty standard fare in a radio shack. You plug it in and off you go, nothing to it. So I then set about learning how this actually works. As you know, if it's written on the Internet, it must be true, and in this case,...
SOTA goat adventures ...
December 24, 2016 16:00 - 7 minutes - 13.1 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Last week I went on an adventure and came home with an experience. I've been wanting to go out and play radio for a while. Work has been spectacularly unhelpful in making time available to achieve this, not to mention the 17 million other things vying for my undivided attention. Last week the planets aligned and my outing came to pass. I'd set my sights on doing a SOTA activation. If you're not familiar with that, SOTA is an acronym for Summits On The Air and t...
Passion and Politics
December 17, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.62 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I want to talk about Politics. I can hear you groan from here, so hold your horses, stow your tar and feathers and put your pitchfork back in the barn. Amateur Radio is a hobby. It's to do with electronics and physics and the ionosphere and other cool stuff. Some people call Amateur Radio a thousand hobbies in one and that's a pretty good description. Underlying Amateur Radio are the people. Those who have spent their time studying, learning new skills, d...
Coax vertical dipole and other musings ...
December 10, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.99 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio The other day I celebrated my sixth birthday, no not that one, the one that reminds me when I first became licensed as a Radio Amateur. It caused me to reflect on what I've done with my license and what I've learned and where I'm heading. A recurring theme in my Amateur life is one of upgrading. Not a month goes by when someone makes a comment about my license status. As you might know, I hold the entry level license in Australia, the Foundation License as it's ...
Manufacturer drivel and antennas ...
December 03, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 7.42 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Let me start completely off-topic today with a thank you for emails and other expressions of concern regarding the demise of the bearing last week from my messy desk. I did not loose my marbles, other than the ball bearings in the disposed item and my sanity is as intact as it ever was. I was also asked for photos of the messy desk and as a concession to that I'll use a photo of the ball bearing for the podcast edition this week. How am I able to produce a photo...
Messy shacks are the way we do things around here.
November 26, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.37 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio In my time as a member of the radio community I've been in around 30 different shacks and a similar amount of camp-out style activations. I've operated at least a hundred different radio set-ups with different operating styles, logging systems and power sources. I wouldn't say that I was particularly experienced, but I've seen enough to make some observations. My first observation is that radio shacks and set-ups tend to be messy. It's not unusual to see several...
Amateur Radio Satellites ... more than two in the sky.
November 19, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.66 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There are moments in your life when you say to yourself, duh, why didn't I think of this earlier? I had one of those last week. As you might recall, I have a hard time using HF communications from my home. There is lots of noise around and I've been going out mobile and portable to make contacts. As satisfying as that is, nothing beats sitting at home in your comfy chair with all the other home amenities. Ideally I have this notion that I should be able to do ...
DTMF is something we use regularly ...
November 12, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.59 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Ingenuity is the name of the game in Amateur Radio, building, inventing, solving and helping are all part and parcel of this hobby. We like to lay claim to being the source of all that is good in the world, all that was invented came from Amateur Radio first, right? Seriously though, sometimes we pick up a technology along the way from other places. If you've ever picked up your microphone and pushed one or more buttons on it whilst the push to talk button was ...
The joy of Amateur Radio
November 05, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.05 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Last week over dinner I was chatting with a friend about Amateur Radio in a discussion about things that take your fancy. I was attempting to explain what it specifically was about this hobby that keeps me coming back. I talked about invention, about exploration, about fishing and catching that elusive station, but looking back over that discussion it occurred to me that none of that is what "does it" for me. Sure, those things are part of it, but it's not what ...
Where do you start with this Amateur thing?
October 29, 2016 16:00 - 5 minutes - 9.68 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Being on air and getting on air are part of the journey that you undertake when becoming a Radio Amateur, but what happens before all that, what do you need to get your foot in the door as it were? If you're listening to this via a radio, you're already on the journey, but if you've downloaded this as a podcast, you're not far behind and your journey towards becoming a Radio Amateur is just around the corner. Let's start with a few things before I start with th...
What happens if you move the feed point in a dipole?
October 22, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 7.83 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio One of the recurring topics in on-air discussion is that of antennas and if we were to graph the topics of conversations, antennas would be the clear winner in any line-up. As a beginning Amateur this phenomenon bamboozled me for a very long time. Why are these people talking about antennas all the time and what's there to know that you can't say in 30 seconds? From the mouths of babes... I've mentioned in the past that Amateur Radio is to a very large degree ...
DX, common ground on a common term?
October 15, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 7.75 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Have you ever been on air and in the middle of a wonderful discussion that all of a sudden and often unexpectedly erupts into a heated argument about nothing? One of those conversations that came to mind was about what the term DX means. I'd been taught that DX means outside the country and if you're calling CQ DX, I was taught that this means that you're looking for a contact in the next country. So. What's the argument? Simple really. In a nutshell, making ...
Propagation is everywhere!
October 08, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.28 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Recently I talked about making a propagation map in your mind by listening to the various NCDXF beacons across the globe on various HF bands. You're not limited to listening to a beacon to learn what propagation is like. If I tell you that listening to a band gives you an indication on what's going on, you're likely to respond with: "Duh". But what if I suggest that instead of listening to a DX station running a pile-up, you instead listen to the stations calli...
The birth and legacy of IRLP.
October 01, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 7.93 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Technology is a moving feast. New ideas spring new inventions which in turn change our lives. Amateur Radio is at the forefront of such inventions. Radio Amateurs have been until recently the only soldering iron brigade around. We've been building things for over a hundred years and we continue as a community to think of new ideas and ways to make them happen. For example, we take technologies like AllStar Link, EchoLink, Wires and so on all in our stride. We th...
Make your own propagation map!
September 24, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 5.41 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio The world is your oyster, but sometimes you need to find a way to test what is going on with your station and determine what is working and what isn't. Often I turn my radio on to scanning mode and I set it to scan the Northern California DX Foundation beacons. These beacons, perhaps better known as the NCDXF beacons can be heard across five different HF frequencies, on 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m. These beacons repeat in a cycle that lasts three minutes, coverin...
How to melt coax ...
September 17, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.6 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Recently I made a comment about melting your coax and that this was a bad thing. Today I'm going to talk about some of how this comes about and what kinds of parameters we're dealing with. Let's start with coax itself. The operating temperature of coax is somewhere around 80 to 90 Degrees Celsius, or 176 to 194 Fahrenheit. Soldering is at 230 Celsius, or 446 Fahrenheit, so for starters, soldering coax is a risky adventure. For argument's sake, let's assume that...
What is SWR?
September 10, 2016 16:00 - 5 minutes - 10 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about SWR or Standing Wave Ratio. As amateurs we use this term all the time, we expect to see it on a meter or display near our transmitter, we buy specific gadgets to measure it and often we seek to find the lowest possible SWR. As I've said in the past, the perfect antenna cannot exist, in the same way, a perfect connection, the feed-line, between an antenna and transmitter can also not exist. The perfect match is a 50 Ohm match, but a ...
What is station security?
September 03, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 5.39 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio One of the tick boxes we're required to deal with is the one titled "Station Security". As licensed amateurs we're required to secure our station from use by unauthorised people. What form does that take, how do you do it, what makes it secure and how much security is enough? I spent a bit of time looking around to see if there were any guidelines I could unearth to actually describe in detail what this might actually mean, but my Google Fu is clearly broken, s...
Unpredictable radio waves ...
August 27, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 4.68 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Radio Waves travel in straight lines. They go from point to point and that's it. Except that Radio Waves also reflect off certain surfaces, like light does. So, Radio Waves travel in straight lines and they also reflect and that's it. Except that Radio Waves also change direction when they pass through some change of medium. So, then, Radio Waves travel in straight lines and they also reflect and refract and that's it. Except that Radio Waves also bend when the...
Learning from your mistakes ...
August 20, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 4.75 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome is the definition of insanity; so how do you avoid making the same mistakes on-air in Amateur Radio? During the week I was wading through some old photos and videos on my phone to make some space and I stumbled on some old videos taken by others and sent to me whilst I was on-air. It was a lovely look back at some previous activity, but they also made me cringe. Here's one example, the very ...
Paper Logging tips and tricks ...
August 13, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.71 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There was a time when I took my computer out into the field to do my portable logging. That's still true for contests, but when I'm hunting for an elusive DX station, I no longer take with me all the bits that are required to make that level of technology work. I've come to the realisation that less is more. Especially with portable operations in parks and on summits. This move to paper will actually simplify your life whilst you're enjoying the rare stations you...
The FM Capture Effect and other Amateur Radio magic...
August 06, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.75 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about magic. In the past I've made mention of the magic that is Amateur Radio. There are those who think that our hobby isn't magic and that everything that we do in this field is understood and documented. I think that this is both wrong and unhelpful, since there is much to learn, much to discover and much to invent. Amateur Radio isn't dead, it's full of life, full of things that are continuing to develop, evolve and grow. Let me give...
Don't ever yell into a microphone and other neat things ...
July 30, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.69 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio This technology driven community of radio enthusiasts makes me laugh on occasion. Today I had to laugh when I realised that we spend an awful lot of time talking about antennas and radios and feed lines and impedance and propagation and electronics and a whole lot of subject in-between and around that. It stuck me that one conversation that we don't have, is the one about microphones. Specifically how to actually use one. I've been around hundreds of radio amate...
The band is dead and there are no contacts to be made...
July 23, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.22 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There is a curious phenomenon related to how we operate that is pervasive within our community. As an inexperienced ham, I would turn on my radio and tune around and hear nothing. I'd change bands and do it again. Over time I'd work my way through the bands I'm allowed on and find no activity. On rare occasions I'd venture into the wide unknown and see what other bands were doing, ones where I wasn't allowed to transmit due to my license restrictions, and find l...
How old is the mode you're using?
July 16, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.06 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio The thing I like about our community is that there is always something new brewing, someone is inventing something, making something or doing something. It amazes me that the level of ingenuity is boundless. During the week someone asked the question, "What's the difference between AM and FM?" and while answering that could incorporate hand waving, arrows and drawings, I came across a much simpler explanation, which simply says it all. Credit goes to redditor Em...
Alternating Current and Direct Current are the same thing ...
July 09, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.96 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio When you use your trusty multi-meter to measure resistance across a 50 Ohm resistor, it shows 50 Ohm, but when you use it across a piece of 50 Ohm coax, you see either infinity, or 0. Similarly, when you measure across a folded-dipole, you see 0, not 300 Ohm. Does this mean that a 50 Ohm resistor is somehow different than a 50 Ohm piece of coax and why is the feed-point impedance of a folded dipole 300 Ohm, when your multi-meter clearly says it's 0? Does this mea...
After the contest ... the debrief.
July 02, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.54 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm concluding my breakdown of the contest that I participated in recently as a mobile station. I planned to make my contacts on one band and I did that. Feedback indicated that there were other contacts to be had on other bands, but switching bands is a non trivial affair with my current set-up. I planned to have a common frequency that would be a local cluster of activity, except it never happened that way because others decided to do their own thing. T...
How to make contacts during a contest?
June 25, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.57 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to look at the actual on-air activity of the contest. Previously I've talked about the preparation and planning, as well as the doing, in terms of mechanics, what to bring, where to put it and how to power it all. At the most basic level, a contest is a combination of two things, making and taking calls. It's an important point, so I'll say it again. A contest is two things, sitting on a frequency and call CQ and have other stations call you, and...
The logistics of being in a contest while mobile
June 18, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.2 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about the doing of a contest. Previously I discussed the preparation and you can go back to that and have a listen online, search iTunes for my callsign, VK6FLAB. The contest I participated in was a 24 hour contest. It started at 2pm local time on a Saturday and ran the whole 24 hours. If I was sitting in a shack, I might have and in the past actually have, operated during most of that. Seeing that this time around I was planning to be m...
Training, Traumatic or Fun, you decide...
June 11, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.44 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Training is a word that is steeped in tradition, it conjures up images of classrooms, teachers, chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your desk and being called upon to attend the front of the class to explain something based on the misapprehension that you did your homework. Fortunately this is a hobby and training is something you can do yourself, to yourself, by yourself at your own pace. Of course, you can choose to do it with others, but it's not required as s...
How to get started ...
June 04, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 7.22 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about getting started. In the past I've mentioned that it's a good idea to find a community, a club or a local mentor to get you going in this hobby, and that still stands. You really need to find some like-minded, available humans to share this experience with. That being said, there are some things that you can do on your lonesome. An often asked question is: "What radio should I buy?" The answer to that question can be long and involve...
A surprise might be just around the corner...
May 28, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.17 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio This crazy hobby keeps sending curve balls to me. You've heard me talk in the past about missed opportunities. There are times when you look back and ask yourself: "What was I thinking?" Over the past, oh boy, I just looked it up, two years, I have been struggling with an antenna system that I could use while mobile. I took delivery of 4 single band antennas, one for 80m, one for 40m, 15m and one for 10m. I also purchased a boot-lip mount and some other things l...
Harmonics and calling CQ
May 21, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.76 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Have you ever had your radio on, listening around, say on 40m and heard the following: "CQ, CQ 40m, this is VK6FLAB, calling CQ 40, CQ 40m, calling CQ" Apart from the fact that the station calling seems pretty desperate for a contact, you're tuned to 40m, why on earth would you actually mention that, what's the point of telling me what band you're calling on, when clearly I'm hearing you on that band? The answer to this question is in harmonics. At the heart ...
Lower and Upper Side Band, why is it so?
May 14, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.24 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today we enjoy radio using all manner of different so-called modes. The ones that most people are familiar with are FM and AM. In fact digital radio DAB+ is another example of a mode. In Amateur Radio we have a few more to play with, Single Side Band, or SSB, countless other digital modes, CW, or Carrier Wave are all different approaches to getting information from one place to another. If you have a radio that uses SSB, you'll soon notice that there are two ver...
Logging software ... what to choose?
May 07, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 9.06 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about housekeeping, that is, the things you should be doing while you're doing the things you like doing, like making noise on air. The topic of Logging is one that continues to attract comment, suggestion, frustration and on occasion ridicule. Let me start with the fact that the very first contact that I made was not logged. I can tell you exactly which day it was, Sunday, April 17. I can tell you where I was, Stirk Park in Kalamunda in...
What can you say on-air?
April 30, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.36 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There are things to say and things not to say as a radio amateur. Let's start with swearing on-air. Each jurisdiction is different and changing. The Australian Radiocommunications License Conditions Determination, or LCD has nothing to say about content. It's all about bandwidth, frequency and modes. The rules in the USA discuss "obscene or indecent words or language", but there is no definition of what that might mean. A word in one country is meaningless, wher...
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
April 23, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.81 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about QRP, a term that's used in various different environments and one that I've used in the past. So, let's start at the beginning. QRP is a three letter code, part of the so-called Q-codes, that can either be a question or an answer. It's used in Morse communications to either ask "Shall I decrease transmitter power?" or to answer "Yes, decrease your transmitter power." It was perfectly valid for a kilowatt station to ask: "QRP?" and fo...
Coax impedence, 50 Ohm and 75 Ohm, why is it so?
April 16, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.27 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There is a recurring question that never seems to get a straight answer. Why are we using 50 Ohm impedance and not 75 Ohm? The more people you ask, the more answers you get. There'll be commentary about standing waves, SWR, loss, incompatibility, soldering, cost, velocity factor, diameter, susceptibility to noise and the list goes on and grows, the more people you ask, the longer the list. Of course as time goes by, people remember stories told to them, guess, o...
Q-codes in voice
April 09, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 7.11 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio This week I'm going to have a look at something called a Q-code. Last week I talked about a few aspects of operating. One of the inventions associated with human speech is the short-cut, a way to quickly say something rather than use the whole story. Before Amateur Radio this started on the telegraph with shortcuts called Q-codes. Think a three letter combination, starting with Q, followed by two letters. QTH, QSL, QRZ, QLF are examples. Language, just like Amat...
Operating Procedures
April 02, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 6.93 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today we're going to look at operating procedures, that is, what to say, when to say it and when not to say it. Amateur Radio being over a century old has lots of traditions and lots of quirky exceptions to rules, but you'll learn those as you go on air and make mistakes, and assume that you'll make those, probably regularly and every now and then someone will gently correct you, or you'll get shouted at, either way you'll get feedback. It's generally a better i...
Lucky Lightning Escape
March 26, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 5.26 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio In the past I've talked about our hobby and lightning. I've done it on more than one occasion, talked about cows and lightning strikes, about earth bonding and the dangers associated with lightning that's not directly overhead, but close enough to matter. On the weekend I learned the difference between saying something and seeing something. A group of Amateurs, went out camping, about two hours from anywhere in the middle of the bush to participate in an annual...
The CAT interface
March 19, 2016 16:00 - 4 minutes - 8.16 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today's Amateur Radio is less like the valve or transistor based radio and more like a computer. So much so that most radios today have a mechanism to connect the radio to a computer. This mechanism is called a Computer Aided Tuning interface, or CAT interface. It's a mechanism that's used to allow two way control information to be shared between the radio and a computer. This interaction is a serial connection, generally something called RS232. This is a stand...
Bandplans and Edges
March 12, 2016 16:00 - 2 minutes - 4.79 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about operating procedures. Before groan and tune out, stay with me for a moment, this is important for all amateurs, even you. We as amateurs have a range of bands allocated to us. These bands cover a whole chunk of spectrum that we in many cases share with other users. They might either share the same band with us, or the other way around, we with them. Our bands might be right next to theirs or overlap in some part. To make things mor...
What's in a Repeater?
March 05, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.82 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about repeaters. These invisible services that sit on a particular frequency and do magic things to your signal. First of all, the best way to think of a repeater is to think of it as two radios. One is the receiver, the other the transmitter. The way it works is that the receiver hears your signal and sends that audio to the transmitter which sends it out over the air. For this to work, there need to be two frequencies in use, the one t...
Experimentation is about failure ...
February 27, 2016 16:00 - 3 minutes - 5.92 MBFoundations of Amateur Radio There is an interesting phenomenon that I've begun to notice and now that I've seen it, it's hard to un-see. Think of it as the equivalent of the little dot in the top right corner of the screen that signifies the end of the reel to a movie projectionist. Once you've seen it, you can't miss it ever again. If you haven't, sorry, you will and now you'll carry that with you for the rest of your life. Across Amateur Radio, from Foundation and Standard through Advanc...