Off-grid communications, LoRa technology, and a little backyard experimentation. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about amateur radio and electronics is experimenting with different ways to communicate. Whether it’s HF, VHF/UHF, digital modes, or experimenting with new technologies, there’s always something interesting to explore.
So there I was, casually tuning around 40 meters. A little ragchew here. A couple of guys talking antennas there. Normal ham-radio stuff. Then I arrived at 7.200 MHz. Oh. Oh, wow. For a moment, I thought I had accidentally traveled back in time and landed on CB
Living in an HOA can make amateur radio—especially HF—interesting. Towers, beams, and even obvious wire antennas may not be practical. So instead of trying to fight the limitations of my property, I decided to use one of them to my advantage. The result is my stealth 40-meter
Keeping an Eye on the Skies (and the Bands) Anyone who's spent time in the ham radio hobby knows we love to build, monitor, and tinker — and we love a data stream that just works. So I finally got around to putting up a weather station here in
Not everything in my radio hobby has to involve amateur radio. One of the more practical systems running out of my home lab is my GMRS repeater, which provides local communications for my family while also being available for other licensed GMRS users around Holly Springs and the surrounding area.
One of my favorite pieces of amateur radio equipment in my home lab is actually a combination of traditional analog FM radio and modern Internet linking: my full-duplex AllStarLink node. I primarily use the node to connect to the Carolina 440 UHF Link System here in North Carolina. Carolina
Sometimes you don’t need a complicated antenna farm or a kilowatt of power to enjoy what HF radio has to offer. Pictured here is my 20-meter end-fed half-wave vertical, supported with guy lines and using three ground radials laid out across the yard. A feed line
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