As Penny and I have settled into our home in Sonoma I’ve taken on an increasing interest in getting more active in Amateur Radio once again. Getting a station back on the air was a critical step. This new site is also part of that effort. I’ve never had an impressive personal station and that […]
There is no shortage of acronyms in Amateur Radio. That applies to the sub-hobby of Amateur Radio Awards Hunting. Here is an incomplete list of acronyms you might come across when hunting for wallpaper. AJD – All Japan Districts DXCC – DX Century Club GCR – General Certification Rules JCC – Japanese Century-Cities JCG – […]
Flash: Hold off on sending in your outgoing QSL cards to the ARRL, at least until May 15th. When I got more active in Amateur Radio recently I was a bit taken aback by the much higher rates for the ARRL Outgoing QSL Service. Having been licensed in 1985 I’m getting old enough to wax […]
I just got my second award from Grupo DX Cuba, this time the Diploma America. This award is earned by confirming Amateur Radio contacts with Hams in countries throughout North and South America. There are several classes of awards, making it easy to get started on this one as you work your way up. Diploma […]
The Japan Amateur Radio League sponsors the All Japan Districts (AJD) award. This was one of my earlier Amateur Radio awards and I think a pretty sharp looking one as well. Given the issue date I almost certainly made all of the required contacts from the University of Texas ARC station (W5EHM at the time, […]
I think the Rag Chewers Club (RCC) was the first Amateur Radio award I qualified for. To qualify, one need only provide evidence of having made a single QSO that lasted more than 30 minutes. The implication being that such a contact involves interacting with another Ham to cover more than the abbreviated signal report […]
The well known Worked All Continents (WAC) is a popular award that represents an easy entry into the pastime of Amateur Radio awards hunting. But the International Amateur Radio Union’s (IARU) version is not the only game in town. Like the popular Worked All Continents award, the Czech Radio Club’s S6S award does not require a […]
CQ Magazine’s Worked All Zones (WAZ) is one of the oldest, most prestigious and highly sought after awards in Amateur Radio. Their 40 zone dicing of the world is not the only way to carve up the Earth’s landmass. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) does the same thing with the planet using their ITU zones. […]
I’ve rolled out a new LogConv website to replace the pages that used to reside on this site. It’s still a bit threadbare, but more will be added in the future. LogConv is my simple utility which allows for the conversion of Amateur Radio log files from one format to another. Current file types supported […]
This is not an operating award in the most traditional sense. No contacts need be made to achieve it. But it does require radio reception and a certain skill called CW copying. For some time now the ability to accurately copy Morse Code has been removed as a requirement to obtain an Amateur Radio license. […]
The old saying that timing is everything applies to many facets of life. Sports, comedy, etc. But it also plays a critical role in Amateur Radio. We all know about the use of UTC to avoid issues of time zones for Hams spread around the world. But precise timing is critical for some of the […]