Author: Kris – KZ7K

  • Pat Winlink Client: Setup and Your First Message

    Winlink Express is the client most hams default to, but it’s Windows-only, which leaves Mac and Linux users, along with anyone running Winlink from a Raspberry Pi, looking for an alternative. Pat fills that gap: a free, open-source, cross-platform Winlink client that runs pretty much anywhere. Why Pat exists Pat was built to give non-Windows…

  • FT-891 vs FTX-1 Field vs G90: Which Portable HF Radio Wins for POTA

    Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. I get some version of this question constantly: which of my three portable-friendly HF radios should someone actually buy for POTA. I own all three, I use all three in the field, and the honest answer is that they’re not really competing…

  • Backup Power for the Shack: Generators, Solar, and Batteries for Extended Outages

    Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness guide. I’ve written plenty about LiFePO4 batteries and solar charging for field kits, but there’s a bigger question I haven’t tackled directly: what actually keeps the shack itself running when the grid is down for days instead of hours. Batteries alone won’t carry a base station forever, so…

  • MURS vs GMRS vs FRS: Which One (or Combination) Actually Fits Your Family

    I write a lot about GMRS and FRS on this site, but MURS almost never comes up, and that’s a gap. It’s the license-free service most people have never heard of, and for certain family and neighborhood comms setups it’s worth understanding alongside the two everyone already knows. The Quick Version FRS is license-free, low…

  • How to Run a Net People Actually Want to Check Into

    Part of our Clubs and Nets guide. I have sat through weekly nets that were nothing but a name, a call sign, and a signal report to know exactly why check-in numbers decline over time. Running a net well is a skill, and most of what separates a net people look forward to from one…

  • Net Topics That Actually Get People Talking

    A quick-reference list of net topics for when check-ins wrap up fast and the net needs somewhere to go.

  • Setting Up WIRES-X on the FTX-1: Registration, Software, and Getting Connected

    Getting the FTX-1 onto WIRES-X, from radio ID registration through the PC software’s confusing COM port setup, laid out start to finish.

  • RT Systems Programming Software: What It’s Good For (and Where I Skip It)

    RT Systems is the programming software I reach for on most of my radios, but not all of them. Here is where it earns its keep and where I switch to manufacturer software instead.

  • Setting Up APRS on the AnyTone AT-D578UV III Plus

    The 578 shares its APRS architecture with the 878, which makes sense since AnyTone builds the CPS around the same feature set across the mobile and handheld lines. The setup steps are nearly identical, but a mobile radio adds a couple of wrinkles worth calling out, starting with the GPS antenna itself. Mount the GPS…

  • What Is GhostNet? S2 Underground’s Off-Grid HF Comms Plan Explained

    GhostNet is S2 Underground’s free, off-grid HF communications plan: weekly check-in nets, regional data bridges, and ALE. Here’s how it works and where to find it.

  • IOTA and County Hunting: Niche Award Programs Worth Knowing About

    DXCC gets most of the attention as the classic ham radio award chase, but it’s far from the only one. IOTA and County Hunting both offer a genuinely different kind of goal, one geographic, one domestic, and both worth knowing about even if DXCC isn’t your primary focus. IOTA: chasing islands, not just countries Islands…

  • Grayline DXing: Timing Your Operating Around Sunrise and Sunset

    The grayline, the twilight band circling the earth between day and night, isn’t just a nice thing to look at on a map. It creates a real, repeatable propagation advantage on the low bands that serious DXers plan their operating around. Why the terminator boosts propagation The short version: the D layer, which absorbs HF…

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