Category: Amateur Radio
P25 and NXDN: Commercial Standards in Amateur Radio
P25 and NXDN are commercial digital radio standards used in amateur radio. P25: public safety standard with FDMA/TDMA. NXDN: Icom/Kenwood, 6.25 kHz narrowband, efficient. Important: Encryption prohibited in amateur radio! Use only unencrypted mode. 73 –…
D-STAR Explained: Reflectors and Callsign Routing
D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio) was the first digital voice system designed specifically for amateur radio — and it is still in daily use. This article explains what happens under the bonnet: how the…
Legendary Amateur Radio Transceivers – Radios That Made History
Some amateur radio transceivers are more than mere technology — they are milestones that fundamentally changed the hobby. From the glowing valves of the post-war era to the Software Defined Radios of today, certain transceivers have…
IOTA (Islands on the Air): Island DXing and Awards
First the awkward news: Austria has not a single IOTA island. Not the Donauinsel in Vienna, not the islands in Lake Wörthersee, none at all. Anyone in OE who wants to activate an IOTA reference has…
ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding): Fox Hunting
Five transmitters are hidden somewhere in the forest. Each one comes up for exactly one minute, then the next takes over. You have a map, a compass, a direction-finding receiver and running shoes — and you…
RaDAR Rally: Set Up Fast, Make Contacts, Move On
Imagine this: you are hiking through the Austrian countryside, you set up a complete amateur radio station in just a few minutes, make five contacts, pack everything away — and walk another kilometre to do it…
Reverse Beacon Network (RBN): Global Skimmer Network
You call CQ on 14025 kHz, nobody answers — and 30 seconds later you know that someone in Finland copied you at 22 dB above the noise. That is what the Reverse Beacon Network does: a…
What Counts When Nobody Is Counting
Without points, hardly anyone would be standing on a summit at five in the morning. The programmes are a gift to this hobby. And still there is that moment when you realise: right now I am not a person to the other operator, I am a data field.
Haunoldköpfl and Antelao: Two SOTA First Activations in the Dolomites
The weather forecast, the shift schedule and the construction schedule finally make the long-planned SOTA first activations "Haunoldköpfl I/AA-059" and "Antelao I/VE-001" come true. I do know these summit tours, but 20 years ago I had…
Troposcatter and Rain Scatter – VHF/UHF DX via Atmospheric Scattering
On VHF and UHF, range normally ends at the horizon. But the atmosphere has some tricks up its sleeve that enable radio contacts far beyond line of sight — without the ionosphere, satellites, or the Moon.…
SO2R: Single-Operator-Two-Radio for Contesters
A contest lives and dies by rate: as many contacts per hour as possible, as many multipliers as possible. And there's an uncomfortable truth here – while you're calling CQ and waiting for an answer, nothing…
Old Open-Ended Amateur Radio Licence? This Deadline Matters
Anyone who received their amateur radio licence up to and including 30 November 2018, and had it issued as "open-ended" back then, will lose it – on a cut-off date that depends on the year in…
