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A Yukon CW Sweepstakes adventure

April 24, 2023

I travelled to Whitehorse, Yukon, to visit VY1CO for the ARRL CW Sweepstakes in November 2022. Read the article that appeared in the Jan.-Feb. 2023 edition of National Contest Journal.

Update: Summer sporadic-E season on 6M

August 4, 2021

Long weeks of poor conditions from the Pacific Northwest still left room for a few great openings to Europe and Japan. As the 2021 Es season winds down, we recap how it all went.

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.

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 […]

Zone Zero: February packed with activity

February 1, 2021

The month of February promises something for everyone, as several major international contests and some pretty neat regional activities fill the calendar. We’ll take a look at what’s on the near horizon in this episode of Zone Zero.

Zone Zero: Top Band action in CQ 160M CW

January 26, 2021

The latest edition of the Zone Zero radio contesting podcast takes a look at the upcoming CQ 160M CW contest, and the antennas used for transmitting and receiving at a modest station that produces plenty of fun in the contests.

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.

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