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Becoming a radio amateur – Getting started is easier than you think
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to communicate with people all over the world via radio without the Internet? This is exactly what amateur radio makes possible! It opens up a fascinating…
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Experimental 5-Band Vertical Groundplane – Four Planks for a Hallelujah
Guest article by Jürgen, OE8RMJ If you want to skip the backstory, jump straight to “The Experiment”. Prologue I got my licence in April 2025. Fresh and full of curiosity about the vast field that…
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The History of Amateur Radio in Austria: From the Beginnings to Today
Amateur radio in Austria has a long and eventful history, closely intertwined with the political upheavals of the 20th century. From the first radio experiments in the 1920s through the ban during the Nazi era…
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New at oeradio.at: Hansl Hohlleiter and the “The Jammer – Satire on Air” Column
Dear readers, it’s your Ferdl here. Normally I write about propagation, antennas and operating modes. But today I have some very special news: We’ve got reinforcements. The kind of reinforcements where you’re not quite sure…
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Field Day: Amateur Radio Under the Open Sky — How to Plan a Successful Participation
When the days grow longer and the weather beckons us outdoors, many radio amateurs feel the excitement building: Field Day is approaching! Whether on an alpine meadow in the Austrian Alps, atop a hill overlooking…
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Wavelog: The Modern Web Logbook for Amateur Radio — Setup with Docker
Any amateur radio operator who wants to properly document their QSOs (radio contacts) needs a logbook. But the days of handwritten entries are long gone: modern web-based logbooks offer DXCC tracking, automatic QSL management, ADIF…
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EME – Earth-Moon-Earth: Moonbounce on 2 m and 70 cm
EME – Earth-Moon-Earth: When the Moon Becomes a Reflector Imagine sending a radio signal from Earth to the Moon and receiving the echo back – a round-trip distance of approximately 768,000 kilometers. This is exactly…
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The 10-Metre Band: The Forgotten DX Band Comes Back to Life
There are bands in amateur radio that always work — 20 metres, for example. There are bands that only come alive at night, like 80 and 160 metres. And then there is the 10-metre band:…
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EchoLink, AllStarLink and SVXLink: Worldwide Repeater Linking via VoIP
Imagine standing on the Dobratsch in Carinthia with your handheld radio and having a QSO with an amateur radio station in Australia — via a local VHF repeater. Sounds like science fiction? It is not.…
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WWFF Austria: Flora & Fauna Activations in Austria’s Nature Parks
Amateur radio and nature experiences – the World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF) program combines both in a unique way. If you enjoy portable operation and want to explore Austria’s beautiful protected areas at the…
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PMR and CB Radio: No Licence Needed – A Guide to Licence-Free Radio
Not everyone has an amateur radio licence – and that’s perfectly fine. Yet there are situations where radio communication is practical, useful, or even life-saving: on a hike in the mountains, skiing with the family,…
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35 Years of OE8XFK: The Dobratsch Relay and Its Sysops – A Thank You
In January 1991, a relay was purchased that has since reliably served from the summit of the Dobratsch at 2,166 metres above sea level, workable not only across most of OE8 but well beyond the…
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35 Years of OE8XFK: The Dobratsch Relay and Its Sysops – A Thank You
In January 1991, a relay was purchased that has since reliably served from the summit of the Dobratsch at 2,166 metres above sea level, workable not only across most of OE8 but well beyond the…
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35 Years of OE8XFK: The Dobratsch Relay and Its Sysops – A Thank You
In January 1991, a relay was purchased that has since reliably served from the summit of the Dobratsch at 2,166 metres above sea level, workable not only across most of OE8 but well beyond the…
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Frequency Utilisation Ordinance: What Has Changed for Radio Amateurs in Austria
With the amendment of the Frequency Utilisation Ordinance (Frequenznutzungsverordnung, FNV), published on 13 March 2023 as BGBl. II No. 61/2023, the amateur radio frequency allocations in Austria were fundamentally reorganised. The former Annex 2 of…
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Creating RF Propagation Maps Yourself: From SPLAT! to Radio Mobile
Do you want to know how far your radio signal actually reaches from your location? Whether the new repeater site on the local mountain provides optimal coverage? Or which frequency and antenna height are best…
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OE8DDX – Domenik Luca: 277 DXCC Entities, HST National Team and Styrian Accordion at 17
There are stories in amateur radio that show passion knows no age. The story of Domenik Luca Hochegger-Hafner, OE8DDX, from Wolfsberg in the Lavanttal valley of Carinthia is one of them. At eleven years old,…
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ESP32 and Amateur Radio: 10 Projects for Makers and Ham Radio Operators
The ESP32 has become the favorite microcontroller of many radio amateurs in recent years – and for good reason. With integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, two processor cores, numerous GPIO pins, and a street price of…
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Gray Line DX: The Magical Twilight Zone for Shortwave
For those active in amateur radio on shortwave, the phenomenon is well known: sometimes connections succeed over thousands of kilometers with surprisingly good signals, while at other times even nearby stations can barely be heard.…
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HackRF PortaPack: The Portable All-Rounder for SDR Enthusiasts
If you’re into Software Defined Radio, you know the problem: most SDR devices are powerful but need a computer to work. Not so with the HackRF One and its PortaPack extension — a combination that…
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ISS Contact via Amateur Radio: How to Hear the Space Station
Who wouldn’t want to make contact with an astronaut orbiting Earth at 28,000 km/h? The International Space Station ISS makes exactly that possible – and you probably already have the equipment for it in your…
