Category: Operating

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • VHF/UHF Weak Signal SSB: Beyond the Local Repeater

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Most hams experience VHF and UHF exclusively through FM repeaters, and that is a perfectly good way to use those bands, but there is an entirely different style of operating happening on the same bands that most repeater users never encounter. Why Weak Signal SSB Exists FM…

  • Field Day vs POTA vs SOTA: What’s the Difference and Which to Try First

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. These three activities all get lumped together as portable operating, but they have genuinely different formats, goals, and time commitments, and knowing the differences helps you pick the right starting point. ARRL Field Day: One Big Annual Event Field Day happens once a year, the fourth full…

  • QRP Contesting: Making the Most of Low Power

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Running QRP in a contest sounds like a self-imposed handicap, and in a sense it is, but most major contests reward that handicap with scoring multipliers that make QRP a genuinely competitive, satisfying category rather than just a novelty. Why the Multiplier Matters Most contests that offer…

  • The 10-10 International Net: A Niche Award Worth Knowing

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. The Ten-Ten International Net is a club built entirely around one band, 10 meters, and if you have caught the 10 meter bug during a good solar cycle opening, it is one of the more fun and approachable niche communities in the hobby. What Ten-Ten Actually Is…

  • Worked All Continents (WAC): The Other Big Award

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Worked All Continents sits in an interesting spot between Worked All States and DXCC: harder to complete than WAS since it requires genuine international contacts, but far more achievable than full DXCC since you only need six confirmations, not over a hundred. What WAC Actually Requires The…

  • Worked All States (WAS): How to Track and Claim It

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Worked All States, usually just called WAS, is one of the most approachable awards in the hobby, and it is a genuinely satisfying long-term goal for anyone who operates HF regularly, without needing rare DX or contest-level effort to complete. What the Award Actually Requires WAS requires…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • FT8 Contesting: How Digital Contests Actually Work

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Most hams who run FT8 do it casually, working stations one at a time while doing something else with half their attention. Contesting on FT8 is a completely different animal. It is fast, structured, and genuinely competitive, and understanding the difference will save you a frustrating first…

  • 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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