I’ve activated a few parks around the area as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. But while browsing around on their maps I noticed one state entity that was not present. I’d hiked at a couple of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area sections before. But I could not find it on the […]
On September 1st, 2026 I activated the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. I logged 48 contacts using FT8 on 20M, 17M and 15M using a small end fed long wire antenna strung up between two trees. It was not a bad little outing based on those […]
Guglielmo Marconi is widely considered to be the “father of radio”. The Italian inventor shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 and built a large multinational company to develop and exploit his inventions. He even helped set up Vatican Radio for the Pope. As my wife and I started to clear out some things […]
The Activity Group of Belarus (AGB) offers a large number of Amateur Radio operating awards. Several of their awards are based on the zones of the world created as part of CQ Magazine’s Worked All Zones program. Zone 7 covers countries within Central America. AGB offers up the Zone 7 Award for working Ham Radio stations just within that zone. The […]
The longest “normal” callsign in Amateur Radio consists of 6 characters. My callsign of KA5WSS is such an example. But there are special event stations that often utilize longer callsigns that include a word or acronym indicating the event or place being highlighted. You can obtain the Long Call Award by working at least 10 […]
I helped out the Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club‘s Field Day effort in 2026. Once again we mounted a 3A entry here in the San Francisco section. Two transmitters were connected to triband beams and the third utilized either a dipole or an R7 vertical. Despite not burning the midnight oil while operating […]
I just discovered recently that I had 75 cards at the W5 incoming QSL bureau and no envelopes on file! I’ve sent a payment in for more envelopes and anxiously await what they will bring in the future. For now, here are a few cards that have trickled in over the last couple of months. […]
I made the short drive to Sonoma State Historic Park on June 22nd, 2026 to activate the park as part of the Parks on the Air program (POTA). In the end I logged 39 contacts on 20M, 17M and 15M using FT8 and FT4. I worked stations in the US, Canada, Japan and China. At […]
There are many awards you can chase that base achievements on the number of grids worked. Maidenhead grid squares were introduced in 1980 to replace the QRA locator system used for VHF activity in Europe. The new grid scheme could be applied worldwide and its popularity exploded. Though originally intended for VHF/UHF operations, its use […]
The VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) is the world’s premier VHF/UHF operating award. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) offers the award for all bands above 50 MHz (with a couple of exceptions noted below). The requirements for VUCC vary widely depending upon the band in question. The lower VHF bands requires contacts with stations in […]