Tag: propagation
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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.
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How a Nuclear Blast Impacts HF, VHF, and UHF: Lessons from Operation Starfish Prime
What Operation Starfish Prime actually showed about EMP, and why HF, VHF, and UHF each fail (or survive) for different reasons after a nuclear blast.
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Antenna Height: How Much Does It Actually Matter
Part of our Building Your First Ham Radio Station guide. Every ham has heard “get it up in the air” as antenna advice, and it is generally true, but the relationship between height and performance is more nuanced than just higher equals better, especially once you factor in what you are actually trying to work.…
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Nexus: One Free Program Trying to Replace Your Whole Digital Shack
Nexus is a free, open-source program from KD9TAW that tries to fold your decoder, logger, mapper, alerter, and panadapter into one app. Here is what I found after digging into it.
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What Handheld Radio Should I Get for Emergency Comms?
GMRS, ham VHF/UHF, repeaters, and HF, compared for emergency comms with real-world vs best-case range expectations, plus my actual pick by scenario.
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10 Meters: Amazing When It’s Open, and Why It So Rarely Is
10 meters can deliver worldwide DX on a handheld sized antenna and a handful of watts. The catch is that it only works when the ionosphere cooperates, and that is not often.
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17 and 12 Meters: The WARC Bands Nobody Talks About
17 and 12 meters were added specifically to stay contest-free, and that quiet has made them two of the most pleasant, underrated bands in the entire HF spectrum.
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40 Meters: The Band Many Hams Live On
Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. If I had to give up every HF band but one, 40 meters is the one I would keep. It is not the flashiest band, it does not have the wide open DX magic of 20 or 10 meters on a good…