Category: HF

  • Choosing a Laptop for Field Operating

    Part of our Where to Spend Your Money guide. A laptop that works fine on your shack desk can be genuinely frustrating in the field, where sunlight, dust, and limited power access expose weaknesses a desk setup never reveals. Battery Life Matters More Than Raw Power For digital modes, logging, or CAT control in the…

  • Why HF Radio Matters Most When the Grid Goes Down

    Why HF radio is critical when the grid goes down: NVIS keeps you connected to your region, and HF DX lets you poll other states and continents for news.

  • Your Repeater Is Not a Plan: Why HF NVIS Matters Just as Much

    Without the repeater, VHF/UHF is line of sight. Here’s why HF NVIS matters as much, and how I’d layer both into a real SHTF comms plan.

  • My Yaesu FTX-1 Go-Box: 100 Watts, HF Through UHF, in One Watertight Case

    My FTX-1 Optima go-box: a watertight hard case holding the radio, the SPA-1 amp, and antennas for HF and VHF/UHF. 16.5 lbs, 12 x 12 x 7 inches.

  • What Is an HF NVIS Regional Net?

    What an HF NVIS regional net is, why it beats a repeater net as a regional comms test, plus modes, antennas, radios, and four station builds.

  • Reading Solar Weather: SFI, K-Index, and A-Index Explained

    Every propagation report leads with three numbers. Here’s what they mean and how to actually use them.

  • My POTA Radio History: Five Radios, One Lesson About Carrying Less

    From an AnyTone 578 in an Armoloq cage, through a G90, an FT-891, and an FT-857D, to landing on the FTX-1 Optima. Here’s the actual radio history behind my current POTA setup, and why I kept swapping until it matched my shack.

  • Band Plans vs Frequency Allocations: What’s Actually Different

    Part of our Building Your First Ham Radio Station guide. New hams often assume band plans carry the same legal weight as the FCC’s actual frequency allocations, and mixing these two up leads to real confusion about what is actually required versus what is just strongly encouraged convention. Frequency Allocations: The Actual Law The FCC’s…

  • Understanding Duty Cycle: Why Your Radio’s Power Rating Isn’t the Whole Story

    Part of our Where to Spend Your Money guide. A radio rated for 100 watts does not necessarily mean you can key it at 100 watts continuously for an extended period without consequences. Duty cycle is the piece of the spec sheet that explains why, and it matters more than most hams realize until they…

  • Two-Radio Diversity Receive: Reducing QRM Without a Second Antenna

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Diversity receive is a technique borrowed from serious contest and DX stations, using a second antenna and receiver simultaneously to fight noise and interference in a way a single antenna simply cannot. The Core Idea Local noise and interference often affect two physically separated antennas differently, since…

  • MARS/CAP Mods on the Yaesu FT-857D: What They Actually Do and Where the Legal Line Sits

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. What a MARS/CAP Mod Actually Is I cover what a MARS/CAP mod actually is, the DoD and Civil Air Patrol programs behind it, and the legal reality of transmitting on the frequencies it unlocks in What Is a MARS/CAP Mod? The short version for the 857D…

  • The FT-857D as a Shack in a Box: Why It’s One of My Favorite SHTF Radios

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. One Box, Every Band You’d Actually Need When I think through what a grab-and-go radio needs to do in an actual SHTF scenario, the list is short: reach the local repeater network, monitor and work HF for anything past line of sight, and do it all…

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