Ferdl
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Vertical Antennas for HF: Fundamentals, Types and Practice
If you want to work DX and have limited space, a vertical antenna is hard to beat. Thanks to their low radiation angle, verticals send their signal flat over the horizon — exactly where the…
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Magnetic Loop: The Balcony Antenna for Radio Amateurs
If you live in a rented flat or apartment, you know the problem: a Yagi on the roof? Not a chance. A dipole in the garden? What garden? For many radio amateurs in urban areas,…
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Sending and Receiving QSL Cards in Austria: All Options Compared
When radio amateurs in Austria want to exchange QSL cards, the ÖVSV QSL bureau is usually the first thing that comes to mind. But the range of options for sending and receiving contact confirmations has…
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3D Printing for Ham Radio: Projects, Materials and Tips
When you need a special enclosure for ham radio, an antenna mount in an unusual shape, or a part that simply isn’t available to buy — reach for the 3D printer. The combination of amateur…
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DX Weather CW 20/2026: SFI 120 — Down but Solid
CW 20 / 2026 | May 11–17 | SFI 120 | SSN 75 | A 5 | K 2 | X-Ray C4.2 Summary After last week’s high (SFI 159), the Solar Flux drops back to…
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Packet Radio & AX.25: The Digital Legacy of Amateur Radio
Long before the internet became mainstream, radio amateurs were already sending digital data packets over the airwaves. Packet Radio — the packet-switched data network based on the AX.25 protocol — was the backbone of digital…
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POTA in Austria: Amateur Radio from Parks and Nature Reserves
A sunny afternoon in a national park, the antenna strung between two trees, the transceiver on the picnic table — and radio amateurs from around the world are calling you. That’s Parks On The Air…
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Belarus: Radio Amateurs on Trial for Espionage
Seven amateur radio operators in Belarus are facing trial — with the death penalty on the table. The charges: high treason and espionage. The “evidence”: QSL cards, logbooks, and confiscated Baofeng handheld radios. What sounds…
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DX for Beginners: First Steps into Long-Distance Contacts
Japan, Australia, South America — all reachable with your own antenna from the roof? DX operation, meaning radio contacts over great distances, is the pinnacle of the hobby for many radio amateurs. The good news:…
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OERadio Weekly Digest CW 18/2026
Calendar Week 18/2026 · Read by Charlotte, your new OERadio voice (ElevenLabs Multilingual). Welcome to the OERadio Weekly Digest, calendar week eighteen. New on the mic: Charlotte, your new OERadio voice. This week on oeradio.at:…
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MeshCom vs. Meshtastic: LoRa Mesh Networks for Radio Amateurs
Text messages without the internet, without mobile networks, without infrastructure — simply device-to-device across kilometres? What sounds like science fiction has long been reality with LoRa mesh networks. Two projects dominate the scene: Meshtastic, the…
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QRP Operation: Around the World with 5 Watts
Five watts of transmit power — less than an LED light bulb consumes — and making contacts across thousands of kilometres? That’s the fascination of QRP, operating with reduced power. What sounds like a limitation…
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RTL-SDR for Beginners: Discover the World of Radio for 30 Euros
Track aircraft, receive weather satellite images, listen to amateur radio, monitor ships on the Danube — all with a USB stick costing around 30 euros? Welcome to the world of Software Defined Radio. The RTL-SDR…
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HAMNET in Austria: The Data Network for Radio Amateurs
What if radio amateurs had their own data network — independent of the internet, independent of commercial providers, operating on amateur radio frequencies with data rates of up to 200 Mbit/s on backbone links? That’s…
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PMR vs. Meshtastic vs. CB Radio: Three Licence-Free Radio Systems Compared
3 January 2026, Berlin-Lichterfelde: an arson attack on the power grid knocked out 45,000 households – for days. Mobile phone towers went down, landlines dead, internet gone. Thousands of people were left with no way…
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The Best Portable Antenna for SOTA and POTA
When you pack your rucksack to activate a SOTA summit or visit a POTA park, one question matters above all others: which antenna are you bringing? The requirements are clear — lightweight, compact, quick to…
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Youth and Amateur Radio: Why the Hobby Is Exciting for Young People
Update 2026-04-16 – corrections after reader feedback: Two points have been clarified. 1. afukurs.oevsv.at is not a self-study online learning platform; it is a free, non-binding contact form that forwards your interest to the appropriate…
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World Amateur Radio Day 2026: Hand the Microphone to the Kids!
On 18 April 2026, the world celebrates World Amateur Radio Day (WARD). On this day in 1925, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was founded in Paris — this year marks the 101st anniversary. The…
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Solar Cycle 25: The Best Bands for DX in 2026
We are living in a special time for amateur radio. Solar Cycle 25 has exceeded all predictions and is delivering propagation conditions that many radio amateurs have not experienced in decades. If you are not…
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Winlink: Email via Radio — Emergency Communication Without Internet
Imagine the internet goes down — no Wi-Fi, no mobile data, no fibre. For most people, that would be a disaster. For radio amateurs with Winlink, it is not. Winlink is a worldwide email system…
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QO-100: Getting Started with the Geostationary Amateur Radio Satellite
Imagine this: you press the PTT button, your signal races 36,000 kilometres into space, is picked up by a satellite and beamed back to Earth — from Brazil to India, from Scandinavia to South Africa.…
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APRS in Austria: Position Reports, Weather Data and More
APRS — the Automatic Packet Reporting System — is one of the most versatile digital systems in amateur radio. It combines position reports, short messages, weather data and telemetry on a single frequency. In Austria…
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NanoVNA: The Pocket-Sized Antenna Analyser
Just ten years ago, a usable vector network analyser cost several thousand euros. Today there is the NanoVNA — a device the size of a credit card that delivers astonishingly accurate measurements for under 50…
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SOTA in Austria: Operating from Summit to Summit
Summits on the Air — SOTA for short — combines two passions: hiking and amateur radio. In Austria, a country full of mountains, SOTA is especially popular. From the gentle Koralpe to the high-alpine Großglockner…
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Blackout Preparedness for Radio Amateurs: Self-Sufficient Radio Operation with Solar and Battery
Predstavljajte si, da internet odpove — brez Wi-Fi-ja, brez mobilnih podatkov, brez optike. Za večino ljudi bi bila to katastrofa. Za radioamaterje z Winlinkom pa ne. Winlink je svetovni sistem elektronske pošte, ki deluje prek…
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Quansheng UV-K5: The Handheld Radio the Community Is Hacking
Buy a handheld radio for around 25 euros and then transform it with open-source firmware into a device offering features normally found only in the 200-euro class? That is exactly what is happening with the…
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FT8 for Beginners: The Digital Mode That Revolutionised Shortwave Radio
Anyone who has watched the 20-metre band in recent years knows the phenomenon: between 14.074 and 14.076 MHz, there is activity around the clock — not in Morse code, not in voice, but in short,…
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Social Media for Radio Amateurs: The Best YouTube Channels, Podcasts and Communities
Amateur radio doesn’t just live on the bands — it increasingly thrives in the digital space as well. YouTube channels, podcasts and online communities offer radio amateurs worldwide the opportunity to share knowledge, connect and…
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New: QRV Board — Find QSO Partners in Real Time
There’s a brand new feature on oeradio.at: The QRV Board! Ham radio operators can now post their planned activity times and see in real time who is currently QRV. How it works Planning a SOTA…
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OERadio Weekly Bulletin now available as a Podcast
The OERadio Wochenrundspruch is now available as a podcast. Subscribe via https://oeradio.at/feed/podcast/ in Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, AntennaPod or any other podcast app.
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Raspberry Pi in the Shack: The Best Amateur Radio Applications 2026
The Raspberry Pi has become an indispensable tool in the amateur radio shack in recent years. Whether as a digital modem controller, APRS iGate, Winlink gateway or fully-fledged WebSDR receiver — the small single-board computer…
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Satellite Tracking and Reception for Beginners: From App to Antenna
Satellites have fascinated radio amateurs since the early days of OSCAR 1 in 1961. Today, getting started with satellite reception and even satellite communication is easier than ever before. With affordable SDR receivers, powerful tracking…
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SATIRE Hamspirit – Your Survival Guide for the Amateur Radio Club
A satirical guide for anyone wanting to join an amateur radio club – and who should know what they’re getting into. You’ve just passed your amateur radio exam, your first callsign in hand, and a…
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Which License Class Is Right for Me? Class 1, 3 and 4 Compared
Getting started in amateur radio in Austria begins with an important decision: which license class should you choose? The Austrian system has three authorization classes — Class 1, Class 3 and Class 4. Each offers…
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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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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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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…
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EFHW: The End-Fed Half-Wave Antenna — simple, effective, versatile
Few antennas have received as much attention in recent years as the EFHW — the End-Fed Half-Wave antenna. Whether for SOTA activations on Austria’s mountain peaks, POTA in national parks, or as a discreet garden…
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Understanding Propagation Conditions: SFI, K-Index, A-Index Explained
“What are the conditions like today?” – every amateur radio operator asks themselves this question before going on the bands. The answer lies in a handful of key indicators: SFI, K-Index, A-Index, and sunspot number.…
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New: RSS Feed for oeradio.at – Never Miss an Update\!
We’re excited to introduce a new feature: You can now subscribe to all oeradio.at articles via RSS feed – without cookies, tracking, or social media algorithms! What is RSS and Why Should I Use It?…
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CubeSats for Radio Amateurs: Small Satellites, Great Opportunities
A 10 cm cube racing across the sky at 27,000 km/h – and you can transmit through it. CubeSats have democratized amateur radio satellite communication: Where once huge budgets and years of development were necessary,…
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WSPR: The World of Propagation Research with 5 Watts
Imagine sending a signal with less power than a flashlight – and stations around the world receive it. That’s exactly what WSPR (pronounced “Whisper”) makes possible. The Weak Signal Propagation Reporter network is one of…
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DXCC, WAZ, WPX: The Major Amateur Radio Awards Explained
Introduction: The Fever for the Certificate You just made your first DX QSO on 20 meters — Japan, with only 100 watts and a wire in the garden. Your heart is still pounding. You checked…
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Contests for Beginners: Why You Should Enter at Least One Contest
Introduction You’re sitting in the shack, turning the VFO, and suddenly on 14 MHz you hear a tangle of callsigns, lightning-fast exchanges, and cryptic numbers. “CQ Contest, CQ Contest, OE2S, Oscar Echo Two Sierra.” Then…
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ChatGPT, Claude & Co. for Radio Amateurs: AI as Learning Aid and Shack Assistant
Let’s be honest: who among us hasn’t asked ChatGPT how long a half-wave dipole for 20 meters needs to be? Or asked Claude to write an Arduino sketch for a CW keyer? Artificial intelligence has…
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Turn old into new – recycle batteries and use them for radio activities
Stell dir vor, du sendest ein Signal mit weniger Leistung als eine Taschenlampe – und Stationen auf der ganzen Welt empfangen es. Genau das macht WSPR (gesprochen „Whisper”) möglich. Das Weak Signal Propagation Reporter-Netzwerk ist…
