Posted in Digital Modes Projects

Connecting an old Weather Station to APRS

Is it possible to take an old weather station with no computer connectivity and pull the data to send to APRS? Turns out, this is a fairly doable project with certain models of weather stations. In my case, an older Acurite 5-in-1 weather station with a remote display worked perfectly. Let’s take a look at how!

Operating on Field Day
Posted in General

Is Amateur Radio Still Relevant in 2019?

Amateur Radio often conjures the image of an individual sitting in a dark room, surrounded by antique equipment making ominous beeping sounds, trying to hear another voice through a wall of static. With the advent of Social Media, Smartphones, and online chat rooms, isn’t this method of communication obsolete? What keeps Amateur Radio relevant?

Ham Station
Posted in Events Operating Tips

Contesting Tips

Contesting in Ham Radio is a great way to test your station setup, and see how well your signal is getting out. It can give great experience in both managing pile-ups and getting through to a station in pile-up situations, depending on whether you’re calling CQ or hunting for stations. This article lays out some general operating tips for successful contesting.

FCC ULS site during the government shutdown
Posted in News

Government Shutdown and Amateur Radio

With the US Government still in shutdown, and no end in sight, how does this affect Amateur Radio operators, or new operators looking to start in the hobby?

Decoded image from the ISS
Posted in Digital Modes Events

Russian ISS SSTV Event

The International Space Station is currently running a special SSTV event to celebrate the Russian Cosmonautics Day. Amateur Radio operators are able to receive images from the ISS with nothing more than a VHF radio.