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  • What Is a MARS/CAP Mod? How It Works and the Legal Reality

    What a MARS/CAP mod actually does, who’s legally allowed to use it, and how to unlock extended transmit range on the Icom IC-2730A, AnyTone AT-D878UV II Plus, and AT-D578UV III Plus.

  • 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…

  • 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…

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