Author: Kris – KZ7K

  • What Happens When You Key Up: A Beginner’s Walkthrough of the Transmit Chain

    Pressing PTT feels instant. Here is everything your radio actually does in that split second.

  • Field-Expedient Antennas: Improvising When You Forgot Your Gear

    You forgot the antenna. Here is what you can actually improvise with what is already in the car.

  • 3D Printing for Ham Radio: Antenna Mounts, Cases, and Field Accessories

    A $200 printer solves a surprising number of small ham radio annoyances that nobody sells a product for.

  • Tower and Mast Permitting: Navigating Local Zoning Beyond PRB-1

    Part of our Building Your First Ham Radio Station guide. I have written before about what PRB-1 is and what it actually protects. This post is about the part that comes after you understand PRB-1: the real, practical process of getting a tower or tall mast permitted with your local jurisdiction, which is a very…

  • Choosing a Desktop Power Supply: Switching vs Linear

    Part of our Building Your First Ham Radio Station guide. Every base station radio needs a 12-13.8 volt DC supply, and the choice between switching and linear power supplies is one of those decisions that seems trivial until you are dealing with mystery RF noise across your entire HF spectrum and realize your power supply…

  • Airband and Public Safety Scanning with an SDR

    An RTL-SDR dongle replaces a dedicated scanner for airband, and gets you most of the way there on trunked public safety systems too.

  • Running a Public Service Event: Parades, Races, and Marathon Comms

    Part of our Clubs and Nets guide. Public service events are one of the most underrated ways to get real, practical net experience without waiting for an actual emergency to force you into it. Marathons, charity walks, parades, and bike races regularly rely on ham radio volunteers for course communications, and it is one of…

  • VE Session Day-Of: What Actually Happens During Your Exam

    Part of our Getting Licensed guide. I run VE sessions regularly, and the single biggest source of test-day anxiety I see is not the material itself. It is not knowing what the actual process looks like. So let me walk through exactly what happens from the moment you show up to the moment you have…

  • Automatic Control vs Remote Control Under Part 97

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Part 97 defines several categories of station control, and automatic control versus remote control is a distinction that matters a lot more than most hams realize, especially for anyone running a repeater, a hotspot, or a remote-operated station. What Remote Control Means Remote control means a control…

  • How ExamTools and Other Online VE Platforms Work Behind the Scenes

    From the VE side of the screen, here’s what an online testing platform is actually doing during a session.

  • RadioID.net and DMR ID Registration: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Before you can transmit on DMR, whether through a hotspot or a repeater, you need a DMR ID. This trips up a lot of new hams because unlike a callsign, it is not something the FCC assigns you automatically. It is a separate registration you have to…

  • Winter Field Day: A Dedicated Guide

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Winter Field Day gets treated as a footnote to the June ARRL Field Day, and I think that undersells it. It is run by the Winter Field Day Association rather than ARRL, it happens on the last full weekend of January, and cold weather changes enough about…

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