Category: Hamshack
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The Yaesu FTX-1: Field Radio, Base Station, or Both?
Yaesu’s long-awaited FT-817/818 successor splits into two configurations: a lightweight Field Head and a 100W Optima setup. Here’s how each one performs.
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GMRS Base Stations: Building a Fixed GMRS Setup at Home
A GMRS base station is a simple, cheap way to keep in touch with family around town. Here’s what goes into a real fixed setup, not just a handheld sitting on a shelf.
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Buying Used Ham Radio Gear: What to Check Before You Buy
The used market is one of the best ways into this hobby without spending full retail. It is also where a surprising number of bad batteries, cracked finals, and misaligned rigs end up. Here is what to actually check.
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Automatic vs Manual Antenna Tuners: Which Do You Actually Need
An antenna tuner does not actually tune your antenna, it tricks your radio into seeing a happy match. Whether that trick should happen automatically or by hand is a genuinely practical question, not just a budget one.
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Icom IC-7300 vs IC-7300 Mark II, and How Both Compare to the G90 and FT-891
The radio that put SDR touchscreens in every ham’s hands just got a sequel. Here’s what actually changed, and where it and the original fit against the G90 and FT-891.
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Networking Your Shack: Ethernet, WiFi, and Remote Gear Reliability
This post is part of Building Your First Ham Radio Station. Modern shacks have quietly become networked environments. Logging software syncing to the cloud, remote SDR access, WSJT-X talking to a network-connected radio, an internet-linked AllStarLink node, all of it depends on your shack’s network holding up reliably, and WiFi isn’t always up to the…
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Coax Connectors Explained: SO-239, BNC, SMA, and N-Type
Choosing coax is only half the equation. The connector on each end matters just as much, and mixing up the wrong one for the job causes more problems than the cable itself usually does.
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Installing and Running the YSK-891 Separation Kit
How the YSK-891 separation kit actually installs, and what running the FT-891’s control head away from the main chassis looks like day to day.