Radio equipment lends itself ideally to multimedia presentation. Manufacturers seem not to have noticed this.
Back when contemplating the purchase of a K3, I posted a brief note to the Elecraft reflector inquiring whether anyone in my local area would be willing to let me have a look-see of their K3. The two hands-on demos that resulted allowed me to see & hear how the K3 performs and was an eye opener and resulted in the K3 now sitting front and center on my desk.
Two options now have my interest: the P3 panadapter and the sub-receiver.
I know a lot of folks contemplating the purchase of a radio-related item look first to eHam product reviews (because they’re conveniently available), then to opinions of owners via various YahooGroups. Then it’s on to write-ups and reviews from QST and other magazines.
But with radio being a hobby that is better heard (and now “seen” with various panadapter displays) than read about, YouTube offers a far better method for evaluating certain aspects of equipment available within our hobby – a huge step closer to being there than any other method short of a touchy-feely session. Continue reading 'YouTube as a method of product evaluation'»
I recently posted a question to the Elecraft reflector asking (among those who have them) what might be the most efficient upgrade to a bare-bones K3 in a contesting or DXing situation. Thoughtful replies were made both to the list and to me via email.
Here is a synopsis of those replies: Continue reading 'The most beneficial K3 upgrade: Sub-Receiver or Panadapter?'»
It’s always a good day when that 5×7″ envelope arrives from the W5 buro. Nothing rare in this batch but some nice cards for sure.
Nice to get a card from a rare-ish country w/o first requesting it with my own card
. Continue reading 'That manila envelope from the buro'»
Old news to anyone who has a K3 but I’m gonna write it anyway…and I’m kicking myself for not recording the whole thing. I will next time since I’m not aware of any YouTube videos specifically demonstrating the K3′s amazing selectivity and how that characteristic manifests itself in a pile-up.
Wayne Burdick N6KR recently made a posting to the Elecraft reflector on how he goes about DXing on CW with his K3 and P3 panadapter. I’m pretty bare bones here – just the 100W final and a 400 Hz filter. Not sure what I may eventually add to mine as it seems perfectly suited to the task I use it for as is, but who knows… Continue reading 'Tonight’s 9X0TL pile-up and the K3'»
I think Silvano I2YSB is more responsible than any other single person for enabling me to add new countries to my logbook. As Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing”.
A retired Italian Air Force officer, Silvano’s niche in ham radio is traveling around the planet and activating rare countries for folks like me (and you?!).
Somalia, Niger and Tokelau are in my log on several bands courtesy of the strong signals and excellent ops on these DXpeditions. Continue reading 'Togo: Another I2YSB DXpedition'»
An otherwise busy Saturday allowed me a few minutes to get on the air today and I was greeted with amazing conditions.
Not many stations were on 15m but those that were, were DX and different parts of the world were copyable at the same time.
I listened to the two strongest and was surprised upon their ID’ing that it was a Spanish station (EA5DWS) and a New Zealander (ZL1BYZ) in QSO with each other, both 589 here in Houston. I’d recently worked the ZL so I called EA5DWS for a quick exchange of reports. I think we both wanted to maximize our use of these conditions while they lasted. Continue reading 'Excellent conditions on 15/17 meters today'»
Some years ago, G4ZFE wrote and made freely available a handy Java-based log search applet. It was (and is) put to good use by DXpeditions so that those who’ve worked them can confirm that they made it into the log. This avoids unnecessary “insurance QSOs” allowing others to more easily work the DX station.
Non-DX stations also use it for a variety of reasons including as a way of accessing the logbook from a remote location. Continue reading 'Have we met?'»
Being offered for sale to finance this new (for me) type of kit whose purchase I don’t want to be out of pocket…besides, if I haven’t built them yet it’s time to admit that I ain’t gonna.
Continue reading 'Unbuilt kits for sale'»
While researching the various QRSS “grabbers” that are online as I tinker with my 100 mW beacon, I happened across Murray ZL1BPU’s website and read quite a bit of info that I don’t believe is available elsewhere – at least not in one place.
Of particular interest (to me) is CMSK described as “sophisticated high performance narrow-band DX system”. Continue reading 'Unique operating modes from ZL1BPU'»
Back in The Day, RCA put out a short series of articles called Ham Tips which, unsurprisingly, made use of RCA products.
Original issues turn up on eBay and at hamfests from time to time but N4TRB Continue reading '“Ham Tips” from RCA; “Ham News” from GE'»
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Radio
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K3, multimedia, reviews, TenTec 
Themocracy