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  • How to Become a Volunteer Examiner: The Process, Start to Finish

    Becoming a VE is simpler than most hams assume, and the hobby needs more of them.

  • Remote vs In-Person VE Testing: What’s Actually Different

    Online exam sessions are real, FCC-recognized, and in some ways more convenient than driving to a hamfest testing room.

  • Diagnosing Alternator Whine and Vehicle Electrical Noise on Mobile HF

    That rising whine that tracks engine RPM isn’t your radio’s fault. Here’s how to actually kill it.

  • Take Your Ham Radio Exam Online

    Part of our Getting Licensed guide. You do not need to find a folding table at a community center on a Saturday morning to get licensed anymore. Remote testing has become a completely normal path into the hobby, and the software behind most of it is a pair of connected tools called HamStudy and ExamTools.…

  • Pi-Star vs. WPSD: Why I Switched My DMR Hotspots

    Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. I ran Pi-Star for a long time before switching over, and now every hotspot I own runs WPSD. Both projects do the same underlying job, but a couple years of running both back to back has made the differences pretty clear to…

  • Brandmeister vs. TGIF: Comparing the Two Big DMR Networks

    Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. If you’ve spent any time programming a DMR codeplug, you’ve run into these two names. Brandmeister and TGIF are the two networks that carry almost all of the DMR traffic hams actually talk on, and if you’re setting up a hotspot for…

  • EchoLink vs AllStarLink: Which VoIP Linking System Is Right for You?

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Both EchoLink and AllStarLink let you talk to hams and repeaters anywhere in the world using nothing more than a phone or an internet connection. That’s about where the similarities end. I’ve ran both and after using them for a while I’ve got real opinions about where…

  • PotaCat and EchoCat: Remote Control Your Radio From Your Phone

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. I’ve tried a handful of remote rig control setups, and most of them made me want to throw my laptop across the shack. Port forwarding, VPN tunnels, software that only half works with your radio’s CAT protocol. So when I heard about PotaCat and its phone companion…

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