Human communication, fraught with the possibility for misunderstanding even when done face-to-face is facing (pun intended) another set of challenges when done via modern means of telecommunication, such as the now ubiquitous video conferencing platforms (i.e. Zoom, Teams, etc.). The…
Recently I’ve come across Franz Kafka’s short story „A Little Fable“ which I found both hilariously entertaining and profoundly sad. It seems to me as if it captures the very essence of life within just one paragraph. Initially I learned…
This year’s European SOTA Activity Day 2022 took place on Saturday, 17th September 2022. It coincided with the ALL OE SOTA Activity Day 2022 as well as the OE5 SOTA Day 2022. Here’s the blog article containing the recap of…
On Sunday, 20th February 2022 ARISS Europe has conducted an experiment using the ISS cross-band repeater to transmit digitally encoded SSTV images. The down-link frequency of the ISS cross-band repeater is 437.800 MHz FM. Images have been encoded using KG-STV…
This year’s European SOTA Activity Day 2021 took place on Saturday, 18th September 2021. It coincided with the ALL OE SOTA Activity Day 2021 as well as the OE5 SOTA Day 2021. Here’s the blog article containing the recap of…
The Yaesu FT-817ND and its successor, the FT-818 is a versatile multi-mode radio covering the ham radio bands 160 – 10 m plus 6m, 2m and 70 cm. However, it’s also a QRP radio with maximum output power limited to…
WSPR (pronounced „whisper“, Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) is a digital radio protocol for probing potential propagation paths with low-power transmissions. The WSPR protocol can decode signals with a SNR (Signal-to-noise ratio) as low as -28 dB. A typical transmission contains…
The Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver has four different transmitter output power levels: 5 W, 2.5 W, 1 W and 0.5 W. However, the visual indicators can be confusing as the differ slightly depending on whether the radio is powered via its…
Exchanging QSL cards to confirm radio contact with other ham radio operators is part of the hobby for many hams. Although it’s easy to rack up QSOs (contacts), manually filling out QSO details on the back of a QSL card…
A famous Chinese proverb says, “Every journey begins with a single step.” From getting my first ham radio license, to earning the coveted Summits on the Air (SOTA) “Mountain Goat” award with more than 1,000 SOTA activation points (not there…