Category: Amateur Radio
Choosing Coaxial Cable: RG-58, RG-213, LMR-400 and More
The antenna gets all the attention – yet the unremarkable piece in between often decides between success and frustration: the coaxial cable. The wrong cable quietly burns off much of your transmit power and weakens every…
VHF/UHF Repeaters in Austria: Network, Technology, and Operation
Repeaters are the backbone of VHF/UHF communication in amateur radio. Thanks to their elevated locations on mountains and buildings, they enable radio contacts far beyond the direct line of sight. Austria has a dense network of…
Alpine Propagation: How Mountains Affect VHF/UHF Propagation
Knife-Edge Diffraction Mountain ridges act as edges where VHF/UHF signals diffract. Enables QSOs over mountains. 2m/70cm benefit most. Mountain Reflection Smooth slopes reflect signals — dual-path effect causes fading. Optimal Locations High-elevation sites (alpine meadows, summits)…
Towers and Masts: Planning and Installing Antenna Supports
In amateur radio there is a simple, almost uncomfortable truth: height beats power . If you put your antenna a few metres higher and more in the clear, you often get more out of the band…
Cross-Border Radio Operation: OE-DL-I-S5 in the Alps
Austria is a landlocked country with eight neighbours – and for radio amateurs that is a gift. If you live in the west, south or north, the border is often within sight. With a valid OE…
Receive Antennas for Low-Band: Beverage, K9AY and Flag Antennas
On the low bands — 160, 80 and 40 metres — a DX contact is rarely decided by transmit power, but by the station's ability to hear . Atmospheric noise (QRN) is so high here that…
Digirig Mobile: The Compact Digital Interface for Portable Operation
Anyone who wants to run FT8 , JS8Call, WSPR , or Winlink in the field knows the problem: a laptop, a transceiver, and between them a tangle of cables — USB sound card, CAT cable, PTT…
CW Operation in Practice: From First Key to QSO
CW – telegraphy in Morse code – is the oldest mode in amateur radio and at the same time one of the most alive. While other modes come and go, the plain little "dit-dit" has stubbornly…
Receiving and Decoding Weather Radiosondes: Tracking High-Altitude Balloons with RTL-SDR
Every day, thousands of weather balloons rise around the world, equipped with radiosondes that measure temperature, air pressure and humidity – and transmit their measurements by radio to the ground station. With an inexpensive RTL-SDR dongle…
futureGEO: The Future of Geostationary Amateur Radio Satellites After QO-100
Since February 2019, QO-100 on Es'hail-2 has proven that geostationary amateur radio satellites work — and work brilliantly. Thousands of radio amateurs across Europe, Africa, and Asia use the narrowband and wideband transponders daily for SSB…
Learning CW in 2026: Modern Training Methods with Apps, Web Tools, and AI
Morse code is the oldest digital mode in amateur radio – and one of the most fascinating. CW (Continuous Wave) works with minimal power, gets through where other modes fail, and has a worldwide community that's…
Aviation Radio and ADS-B: Tracking Aircraft with RTL-SDR
Alternative: HackRF PortaPack with Mayhem Firmware If you already own a HackRF PortaPack , you do not need a separate RTL-SDR dongle: The Mayhem firmware includes a fully functional ADS-B receiver built right into the device.…
