When it comes to Amateur Radio, things that I think I’m building or installing for temporary use sometimes end up becoming a permanent fixture of my station. What was intended as a “kludge” gets used longer than it should have. This was the case for the rope-and-pulley system that supported my first HF antenna, an …
On a chilly February day, FARA members conducted another fun Fox Hunt. The exercise took place the afternoon of February 29th, 2020. This time the Fox Den was led by Bob, KN4SPL along with Garth, K4BOX, and Mike, KF4TEK making up the rest of this iteration of the Fox Den. The hunters gathered in a …
Here are some thoughts on one way to adjust your SDR and waterfall for “optimal” reception and viewing. This is my preferred style; there are others, but my hope is that these examples will help illustrate what each of the controls do and what the observable effects are. These examples use the AirSpy HF Discovery …
Summer is right around the corner and the beauty of the Virginia landscape is in full swing. The Shenandoah Mountains are a short skip from Fauquier County and are begging to be climbed, providing an excellent platform for amateur radio propagation. Summit on the Air[1] activations are a fun way of combining amateur radio with …
At the January meeting Frank W4NHJ presented information and demonstrated his BitX20 kit. This is a VFO controlled, 20m transceiver that operates USB/SSB. The radio is capable of ~20 watts output. Frank discussed several variations of the radio kit and where they are available online. If you would like to review his presentation, please click …
At the August meeting Harv K2PI presented information on what he considers his most useful tools and accessories in his toolkit. He provided a show and tell of these items including a presentation that documented where one could acquire these and similar items online. This was a great presentation that led into a discussion …
At the March meeting John KX4O provided us with his presentation on “Myths and facts of the J-Pole antenna and it variants”. John modeled a typical 1/4 wave length ground plane as a reference and then provided several comparisons of various J-pole configurations. He used a combination of NEC and FDTD antenna modeling software …