Author: Kris – KZ7K

  • What Is AMRRON? The American Redoubt Radio Operators Network Explained

    AMRRON is a volunteer network of licensed and unlicensed operators built to keep information moving when normal communications fail. Here’s what it actually is and how it works.

  • Two Cheap Ways to Get Into DMR

    Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. DMR is one of the cheapest digital modes to actually get on the air with, and you don’t need a nearby repeater to do it. There are two realistic paths in: buy a little hardware, or skip the hardware entirely and run…

  • Radio Field Cards: Quick-Reference Programming Guides

    Part of our Handheld Radios (HTs) guide. I keep pulling up the same four questions on every new radio that lands on the bench: how do I program a repeater, how do I get into VFO mode, how do I adjust power, and how do I scan. Every radio buries these in a different menu…

  • Cool HF Nets Worth Checking Into: History, Schedules, and Purpose

    Part of our Clubs and Nets guide. Nets are one of the most underrated parts of HF operating. A lot of newer hams think of HF as either ragchewing on SSB or grinding out FT8 contacts, but there is a whole world of organized, scheduled nets running every single day, some purely social, some handling…

  • The Complete Ham Radio Glossary: Definitions and Acronyms for Every Corner of the Hobby

    Ham radio runs on jargon. Half the barrier to getting comfortable in this hobby is not the electronics, it is the alphabet soup that gets thrown around on every net, every forum thread, and every product listing. I built this page to be the one link I send someone when they ask what a term…

  • Coax and Antenna Switches: Keeping Multiple Antennas on One Radio

    Once you own more than one HF antenna, whether that’s a low-band vertical and a high-band beam, or just a backup antenna for when the primary is down, an antenna switch saves you from crawling behind the radio to swap coax every time you want to change. Manual switches: simple and reliable A manual coax…

  • Programming Cables Compared: Which One Actually Works Reliably

    Part of our Handheld Radios (HTs) guide. A programming cable should be a boring, reliable piece of gear. In practice, cheap ones are a genuinely common source of frustration, driver problems, connection failures partway through a write, and radios that seem to accept a program but come out wrong. The chipset inside the cable matters…

  • 1901: The Wireless Pioneers Who Started It All

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. There was no such thing as a licensed amateur radio operator in 1901. There was no FCC, no call signs, and no rules about who could key up on what frequency. What there was, was a small group of obsessive tinkerers who believed you could…

  • 1912: The Radio Act and the Birth of Licensed Amateur Radio

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 is usually credited as the tipping point that forced Congress’s hand, though the interference problems from a decade of unregulated wireless had already been building pressure for years. Whatever the final push was, the result was the…

  • 1923: The HF DX Breakthrough That Changed Everything

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. Remember that the government handed amateurs the shortwave spectrum above 1.5 MHz back in 1912 because they figured it was useless for anything but local contacts. In 1923, hams proved everyone wrong, and in the process turned amateur radio from a local curiosity into a…

  • 1934: How the FCC Took Over Amateur Radio Regulation

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. By the early 1930s, amateur radio had already changed regulatory hands once, from the Department of Commerce to the newly formed Federal Radio Commission under the Radio Act of 1927. That arrangement didn’t last long either. In 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act, creating the…

  • 1945: How WWII Shut Down Amateur Radio, and How It Came Back

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. This is the second time in this timeline that a world war forced amateur radio off the air entirely. It happened in WWI, and it happened again in WWII, only this time the shutdown lasted longer and the technology amateurs came back to was completely…

Categories

×