Foundations of Amateur Radio Podcast Por Onno (VK6FLAB) arte de portada

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio

De: Onno (VK6FLAB)
Escúchala gratis

Starting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or HAM Radio can be daunting and challenging but can be very rewarding. Every week I look at a different aspect of the hobby, how you might fit in and get the very best from the 1000 hobbies that Amateur Radio represents. Note that this podcast started in 2011 as "What use is an F-call?".℗ & © 2015 - 2026 Onno Benschop Ciencia Física
Episodios
  • Transmitting into a dummy load .. for a year .. on purpose.

    Transmitting into a dummy load .. for a year .. on purpose.
    Feb 14 2026
    Foundations of Amateur Radio Just under a year ago I started an experiment. I set-up a beacon for WSPR, or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, transmitting at 200 mW into a dummy load using eight bands between 80m and 10m. I also set-up an RTL-SDR dongle, connected to an external 20m HF antenna and made it monitor 18 amateur bands between 630m and 23cm. I left this running 24/7 for most of the year, though there were times when I detached the antenna due to local thunderstorms and there was a seven week period where there were no reports. It's highly likely that I forgot to reconnect the antenna, but I don't recall. For this analysis I used the online WSPRnet.org database where I uploaded my spots as they were decoded. I noticed that there are reports that I have locally that are not in the database, though I'm not sure why. They're incomplete and not in the same format and merging these is non-trivial for reasons I'll discuss. Lesson learnt, the "rtlsdr-wsprd" tool needs to be patched to output the data in the same format as is available from the online database and I need to actively log locally. The results are puzzling, at least to me right now. Let's start with the low hanging fruit. There are no reports of my WSPR beacon being received by anyone other than me. That doesn't guarantee that nobody heard me, just that nobody reported that they did. In the database there's just over six thousand reports of my station receiving a WSPR transmission from my beacon during the past year. The reports cover all bands, though not equally. The 80m band represents 6 percent of reports, where 40m accounts for 20 percent. The reported SNR, or Signal To Noise ratio, varies significantly across the data. For example, the 12m band shows a range of 42 dB. Digging into this does not reveal any patterns related to date, time of day, season, other band reports or any other metric I was able to imagine. In my exploration, missing records and time-zone differences aside, I discovered that the local data does not appear to match the database. For example I have records where the software decoded my beacon ten times in the same time-slot, but none of them exist in the database. For others, there's only one matching record, which leads me to believe that the WSPRnet.org database only accepts the first report for any given combination of timestamp, transmitter and receiver, but I have yet to confirm that. So, let's talk about getting more than one result for a specific time-slot. As you might know, a WSPR signal is transmitted every 120 seconds, starting at the even minute. Each transmission lasts 110.6 seconds. The decoder will make several attempts to decode multiple, potentially overlapping signals. It is my understanding that the way this happens is by essentially removing a known decoded signal and then attempting to decode what's left, repeating until either there's no more signals to decode, or time runs out, since there's probably only really 9.4 seconds in which to do this. Potentially this means that a faster computer will decode more signals, but I've not actually tested that, but it's probably something worth pursuing. Back to our decodes. If the first decode is removed from the received data and the next decode gives you similar information, same callsign and maidenhead locator, with SNR and frequency differences, then you might imagine that there's so much of it there that the only way that might happen is because the receiver is overloaded. I'm still looking into this, because if that's the case, then we'd need to determine if the receiver was always overloaded, or only sometimes. It's curious, since there's over a thousand other signals being received from other stations, several over 18,000 km away, so it's not like the receiver is completely swamped. Another hypothesis is that the decode is coming from a different band, like a harmonic. This is potentially caused because from a band and timing perspective, the receiver isn't linked to the transmitter in any way. The transmitter hammers away 24/7 one band after the next, switching every two minutes, the receiver listens for half an hour on a band, then randomly picks the next, until it runs out of bands and starts again. The receiver is listening on more than twice as many bands as the transmitter operates on, but that doesn't mean that it cannot hear the transmitter on a harmonic of one of the bands. Again, I don't know if this is the case, or if something else is happening. One thing I'd expect, is to see reports on other harmonics outside the bands that the transmitter is using, but I'm not seeing that. Perhaps the overload is limited to just the band we're actively monitoring and the other signals are coming in regardless of the overload. I'm still trying to determine if that's the case. As I said, merging the data from the two sources is non-trivial, time-zones and formatting are not the same and I'm not in the mood for manually ...
    Más Menos
    9 m
  • How to become a radio amateur today?

    How to become a radio amateur today?
    Feb 7 2026
    Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day a fellow amateur revealed that they qualified for membership of the QWCA, the Quarter Century Wireless Association .. twice over .. there may have been some innocent whistling involved. During the ensuing discussion it emerged that it all started with a crystal radio set built together with dad, which triggered a whole lot of memories and made me consider just how you'd get into the hobby of amateur radio today. I think it's important to notice that amateur radio is a hobby. There are public service and emergency communication aspects to the experience, but it's essentially a hobby. It's supposed to be fun. I'm mentioning this because that might get obfuscated when I tell you that in order to actually be a radio amateur, you need a license. This license is required because when you transmit, radio waves don't know about international borders, don't know about interference, don't know about priorities and other aspects of our deeply interconnected world. Think of it as a way to formalise your responsibilities. Note that I said "when you transmit". You don't need an amateur radio license to listen, which you can do right now using all manner of online tools in your web browser, "WebSDR", "KiwiSDR" and "shortwave listener" are useful search terms if you're inclined. Getting an amateur license is not difficult. There are many amateurs who were licensed as a teenager, or even younger. It sets you up for life and amateur radio license in hand, you can start transmitting on dedicated amateur frequencies or so-called "bands". A license is required in every country and how that specifically happens in your country will require that you do a little research. Most countries have a so-called "peak body", an association that represents amateur radio to their government, it's a good place to start. In Australia where I live, it's called the Wireless Institute of Australia or WIA. In the United States, it's the ARRL, the UK it's called the RSGB. Searching for "amateur radio peak body" and your country should get you there. If you're stumped, your national telecommunications regulator is often another good place to find information, ultimately you'll be obtaining your amateur license from them anyway, even if they don't actually run courses and exams, though some do. Essentially what you're looking for is, where you need to go to get an amateur license and what's involved. As far as I know, most of this infrastructure is run by volunteers, fellow radio amateurs, even if there's a fee involved. You should also know that amateur licenses generally come in different flavours or levels. For example, in Australia there's currently three levels of license, Foundation, Standard and Advanced. The USA has Technician, General and Extra. The UK has Foundation, Intermediate and Full. The Netherlands has Novice and Full. In other words, what it's called and how many levels there are is country dependent, as are their requirements. I'll also mention that whatever license level you pursue, it's your hobby. You get to decide if, how and when you look for more responsibilities with a higher level of license. It might surprise you to know that I hold the basic Foundation license in Australia. I've held it since 2010. So-far I've yet to have a need to pursue anything further, despite regular "encouragement" to "upgrade" to a "real" license. You do you. It's your hobby. Some countries allow all of this to happen online, others require that you use pen and ink in person in a dedicated classroom, and everything in between. If you are hard of hearing, blind, or unable to physically attend, there are often specific tools and processes available to help you, make sure you ask. As an aside, I will mention that, as in life, there are people in this community who are less than welcoming and will go out of their way to be obnoxious, obstructionist or worse. Fortunately, while vocal and destructive, they are in the minority. Don't let their behaviour dissuade you from participating. You'll find amateurs all over the planet who will welcome you into the community with open arms. There are thousands of local amateur clubs, online resources and of course potentially a couple of million radio amateurs at the other end of your antenna. It's important to understand that the journey into amateur radio is different for everyone. For many long term amateurs the experience came from a family member or neighbour. While that route still exists, it's much less common as an introduction as it used to be. I first came across it as a teenager during a sea scouting event called JOTA or Jamboree On The Air. Whilst memorable, it wasn't until two more amateur radio interactions, decades apart, that I finally got to the point of actually discovering the hobby. For your journey, just being here, today, right now, is already a start. Welcome, it's nice to have you here. You've found the community! What are you ...
    Más Menos
    6 m
  • Building a shack: Part 8 - Will it ever end?

    Building a shack: Part 8 - Will it ever end?
    Jan 31 2026
    Foundations of Amateur Radio

    Building a shack makes a number of assumptions about your situation and to make it abundantly clear, it's not the only way to enjoy the hobby of amateur radio. Visiting clubs locally and remotely, being a member of a club, visiting other amateurs, setting up your station in a suitcase or a backpack, on a bicycle, in a car, on a bus, or in a boat are some of the many other avenues open to you.

    That said, there is something magical about building your own shack. It has the ability to transform your hobby and if you have the opportunity, I can highly recommend it and I'd like to encourage you to consider the notion.

    As I've said previously, there is plenty of exploration and learning associated with putting one together. After you've spent some time reflecting, planning, designing, sourcing, building and testing the environment where you do amateur radio, you're likely to reach a point where you'll refer to that space as "your shack". You might even come to think of it as your shack, rather than a collection of trade offs that you've constructed in the best way you know how.

    Inevitably, you'll wonder what to do next.

    Several things come to mind. Creature comforts is probably the most obvious, a push to talk foot pedal, or a desk microphone, either on a stand or hanging from a boom, an audio mixer, a couch, a soldering station, a microwave oven, a fan, or air conditioning, in other words, plenty of opportunities for improvement and enhancement.

    Then there's computing, something that might interest you, or not. It offers the ability to explore a whole different side of amateur radio, from logging through to digital modes, from weak signal propagation to tracking satellites, the possibilities are endless.

    Your shack is also potentially a communal place where you can meet with your friends to share the experience.

    It's a place for contemplation, for relaxation, for "being" an amateur. All of it is open to you as possibility, an excuse to improve and enhance.

    The thing is, that too will come to a point of, let's call it "completion", and you're left with more questions.

    Amateur radio is inherently experimental in nature, that's the whole point of the pursuit. Your licence gave you access to the playground, your shack is that playground. Now it's up to you to play.

    Of course what playing looks like is unique to you. Over the past 15 years I've been describing what playing looks like to me, and from the over 3 million downloads last year from my website alone, not to mention the newsletters, rebroadcasts, podcast inclusions, other streaming services, news reports, social media and messages I've received, they've encouraged you to explore and investigate this wondrous activity.

    The point is, the shack you just completed isn't finished and hopefully it never will be. Whichever one it is, the first one, the one after that or the next one, your shack is a place where you can experiment, learn, discover, test, fail, succeed, challenge and enjoy the hobby of amateur radio. It's not the only place where you'll find this hobby, but it's your place.

    So, have at it.

    I'm Onno VK6FLAB
    Más Menos
    4 m
Todavía no hay opiniones