Episodes

As the national association for Amateur Radio in the US, ARRL offers programs and services for its members across the country. Many of these are made possible by the ARRL Field Organization, a network of ARRL member-volunteers who give of their time and knowledge to other hams, as well as to the Amateur Radio Service itself. Field Organization volunteers are positioned all over the country, in the various ARRL Sections, doing everything from offering technical advice, to liaising with government...

For many new operators, nets are one of the easiest and best ways to connect with other hams. Some nets are focused solely on emergency communications, others provide the opportunity to pass formal traffic throughout a region, while others are purely social occasions where you can get to know other active hams. Scheduled nets can take place monthly, weekly, or daily, and no matter their frequency (see what we did there!), nets are a great way to practice using your radio and get comfortable with...

Even if you’re accessing a repeater, the range of your VHF/UHF handheld can be a bit constraining. You’ll probably never achieve coverage of, say, the entire US Eastern Seaboard or the Continental Divide in the lower 48. But with a couple of handhelds and the right Yagi antenna, you can access satellites in low Earth orbit that will provide you with a much wider “footprint” than just about any repeater. Sean Kutzko, KX9X, characterized satellite operation as “a bit of a competition. It’s a bit o...

Building an antenna doesn’t have to involve yards of aluminum tubing and long runs of coax. It can be as simple as soldering and snipping (carefully!) a length of lamp cord. Frequent On the Air and QST contributor Dino Papas, KL0S, provides insight into the construction and tuning of this J-pole antenna, which he built for On the Air from a design by John H. Unrath, K6JHU. Along the way he and host Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, uncover a bit of J-pole history and dig into why an antenna analyzer is a...

Building an antenna doesn’t have to involve yards of aluminum tubing and long runs of coax. It can be as simple as soldering and snipping (carefully!) a length of lamp cord. Frequent On the Air and QST contributor Dino Papas, KL0S, provides insight into the construction and tuning of this J-pole antenna, which he built for On the Air from a design by John H. Unrath, K6JHU. Along the way he and host Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, uncover a bit of J-pole history and dig into why an antenna analyzer is a...

Building an antenna doesn’t have to involve yards of aluminum tubing and long runs of coax. It can be as simple as soldering and snipping (carefully!) a length of lamp cord. Frequent On the Air and QST contributor Dino Papas, KL0S, provides insight into the construction and tuning of this J-pole antenna, which he built for On the Air from a design by John H. Unrath, K6JHU. Along the way he and host Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, uncover a bit of J-pole history and dig into why an antenna analyzer is a...