DXing

Anticipation abounds: 2021 6M sporadic-E season

May 5, 2021

Early indications are that 6M will have a good summer this year. For those new or getting back to 6M activity, here’s the current state of affairs.

Recap: 2021 WPX RTTY

February 16, 2021

Brief European opening on 20M and a hopping 80M band were highlights of WPX RTTY this year.

Matching transformer for “loop on ground” and Beverage antennas

February 2, 2021

This is a companion piece to the post “Hearing through the noise on the low bands“. Why bother? After years of thinking about it, in early 2021 I finally got serious about building some proper matching transformers for my short Beverage wire antenna along the property line and a loop on the ground laying on […]

Transmit antennas for a 160M contest

January 23, 2021

As we prepare for CQ 160M CW in a week, attention turns to transmit antennas for Top Band (1.8Mhz).

Hearing through the noise on the low bands

January 22, 2021

To improve the signal-to-noise ratio on 160M and 80M, many radio contesters and DXers use separate low-noise receive antennas. This alone can make the difference between “working them” and not even hearing them.

Real-time competition: online scoreboards

November 1, 2020

For the active contester, seeing your performance moment-by-moment ranked against the performance of other participants can be a real motivator. Welcome to online scoreboards!

When the aurora light up

October 27, 2020

A quick word on the Northern Lights, when to look up (what conditions create them), and how to enjoy these awesome night sky displays with a radio or a camera.

FT8/FT4 from a contester’s perspective

October 25, 2020

Why do I compete in the growing number of WSJT-X-friendly contest offerings? Because they are there, and even more important, a LOT of people who are new to contesting have been drawn to radiosport because they enjoy FT8 and FT4 modes.

ARRL 160M pre- and post-contest

December 8, 2017

The Zone Zero podcast featured two episodes devoted to the 2017 ARRL 160M contest. See how I thought I would do in the contest, then listen to how I actually did.

Heathkit SB-221 brought back to life

May 9, 2016

An overview of my SB-221 amplifier repair project — a notebook about what it needed and what I did.

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