Author: Michael | OE8YML
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 (POTA)…
Kärnten Funkt: 100% Pass Rate at the Amateur Radio Exam — for the Third Time!
Every participant of the Kärnten Funkt course passed the 2026 amateur radio exam — 100% pass rate for the third consecutive time!
Numbers Stations: The Mysterious Voices of Shortwave
Imagine this: late at night, you're turning the VFO on your shortwave receiver. Somewhere on 4625 kHz the dial sticks — a monotonous buzzing, about 25 times per minute. You think it's interference. Then suddenly: a…
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 like…
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: in…
xOTA Map: 34 Outdoor Programs on One Map — with Spots and Field Logging
If you operate outdoors, you know the drill: SOTA has one map, POTA another, WWFF yet another. Spots are scattered, rules are everywhere. The idea came up during the Dobratschrunde — a regular on-air roundtable: Why…
OERadio Weekly Digest CW 18/2026
Calendar Week 18/2026 · Read by Charlotte , your new OERadio voice (ElevenLabs Multilingual). OERadio Weekly Digest CW 18/2026 — read by Charlotte (German) Welcome to the OERadio Weekly Digest, calendar week eighteen. New on the…
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…
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 turns…
Yaesu FT-290R: 2.5 Watts of Pure Addiction
There are radios you buy. And there are radios that find you. My Yaesu FT-290R belongs to the second category. I was scrolling through willhaben (Austria's Craigslist) one evening, no plan, just browsing, and there it…
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 is…
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 exactly…
