Foundations of Amateur Radio

When you start life you learn early on the difference between being told about an experience and the actual experience. There's a saying that comes to mind, I use it reg…

The other day it occurred to me that my callsign had been away from HF for months, probably longer. I didn't really want to think about how long it had been. I moved QTH…

In our hobby we regularly talk about its purpose, its need, its usefulness and other potentially abstract notions. Often there's a nod towards science, learning, self-di…

When I started learning about antennas I was told height is might. The higher the better. For many years I've followed that advice and like a good little parrot I've dis…

An often repeated statement about the purpose of our hobby is related to emergency preparedness. The various peak bodies around the world devote plenty of resources to t…

One of the things I love most about this hobby is the ability to randomly dart off into any related direction and learn new stuff. For example, the names Nikola, Gugliel…

A regular lament is the lack of things to do in our hobby. I know, it's foreign to me, but there are plenty of amateurs who express frustration at the lack of activity, …

The other day I bumped into a concept that I've heard repeated before. The so-called "impersonal nature" of digital modes.

There's this idea that any communication that…

In my day to day activities as a radio amateur I come in contact with people across all parts of their amateur journey. Some who don't yet know that they're amateurs, th…

Every person is the product of their environment. Unsurprisingly this is even true for radio amateurs. That's not too say that we can't break our mould, but it takes eff…

If you've ever found yourself in the position of attempting to screw a PL259 into an SO239, or an N-type plug into an N-type socket you'll have likely come across the si…

If you've ever had the pleasure or misfortune to hear an on-air net, you might have considered, however briefly, how that net came to be, how it's run and what's involve…

When you switch your radio on to start a radio fishing expedition you join all the other spectrum users across the planet. To be fair, you'll likely only become aware of…

When you become a member of the amateur radio community you become part of a small group of humans who know and understand certain aspects of life. That's not to say tha…

As radio amateurs we learn which frequencies we're allowed to transmit on, where stuff lives and who has priority when there's a signal on the frequency you're operating…

So, you've got yourself a license, or it's coming but you're waiting for the regulator to get the administration done and for your payment to go through. The excitement …

Over the years I've been asked what the hobby of amateur radio is all about. My response has evolved over time, but it started with the lure of simple point-to-point com…

During the week I received an email from a fellow amateur who described that they were feeling deeply disturbed by the decline of the core knowledge underlying the educa…

During the week I celebrated my ninth birthday. You might think that I'm quite eloquent for a nine year old and you'd be right if it was related to how I came to be born…

In the early 1990's when I was a broadcaster I would come into the studio and prepare my show. That involved hours of preparation, but on the technology side it involved…