Tag: hf
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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…
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1923: The HF DX Breakthrough That Changed Everything
Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. Remember that the government handed amateurs the shortwave spectrum above 1.5 MHz back in 1912 because they figured it was useless for anything but local contacts. In 1923, hams proved everyone wrong, and in the process turned amateur radio from a local curiosity into a…
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When the Repeater Goes Silent: Your Backup Plan for Grid-Down Comms
Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness guide. Repeaters are one of the best parts of this hobby. Stick a repeater on a tower or a mountain and suddenly two handhelds that couldn’t hear each other across town can talk clearly across a whole metro area. Under normal conditions, this is exactly what GMRS and…
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The Yaesu FC-80 Tuner for the FTX-1 Field: Does What It Says
My take on the Yaesu FC-80 automatic tuner for the FTX-1 Field Head. It’s not a G90-level internal tuner, but for a 3:1 mismatch it performs quite nicely.
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The Yaesu FTX-1: The Complete Guide
Every FTX-1 post on QSO Journey in one place: the overview, setup guides, field ops, digital modes, operating skills, and maintenance.
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Pairing the FTX-1 with the Spooltenna Ultra for Portable HF
Why the Spooltenna Ultra is my default antenna for the FTX-1 in the field, and how I actually deploy and tune the pairing.
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Updating FTX-1 Firmware: Why and How
How I approach FTX-1 firmware updates, from checking release notes to the backup step I never skip.