Category: Technology

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.…

From June 26 to 28, 2026, Europe’s largest and most significant amateur radio exhibition will take place in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance – HAM RADIO. For Austrian radio amateurs, it’s the must-attend event of the…

The year is 2025. OE8LUA is a freshly licensed ham and a total rookie when it comes to choosing the right equipment….. In May, OE8KSM was kind enough to lend me an RT-95, and through…

EMC — Electromagnetic Compatibility — is one of the biggest practical topics in radio operation, whether amateur radio, CB, PMR, or other radio services. Whether the S-meter on 40 m constantly reads S7 with nobody…

The Yagi-Uda antenna — usually just called “Yagi” — is the most widely used directional antenna in amateur radio. It focuses energy in one direction, increases gain and range, and suppresses interference from the sides…

Noise is the eternal enemy of the radio operator. Whether QRM (man-made interference) or QRN (natural noise) — the fight for clean signals is as old as amateur radio itself. But in recent years, artificial…

The paper logbook has had its day — but where should your QSOs go? The answer increasingly is: the cloud. Online logbooks offer automatic QSL confirmations, real-time statistics, award tracking, and access from anywhere. But…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

On 20 April 2026, Icom announced a new project via its official channels: the X-026. A concept mock-up set to be shown as a world premiere at the Dayton Hamvention from 15 to 17 May…