by Thomas (K4SWL) Hello friends, This evening, Monday, November 2, I’ll be joining the Radio Society of Great Britain’s Tonight @ 8 livestream for a presentation called “One Pack, Any Condition: Building a Versatile QRP Field Radio Kit.” I’ll be sharing some thoughts on putting together a portable field station that can adapt to different […]
The Rove Continues: Meeting Jason and Bugging-Out at Charlotte Hawkins Brown (US-6836)
by Thomas (K4SWL) On October 13, 2026, I set out that morning to drive from the mountains of North Carolina to Raleigh. I decided it would be fun to do a Parks on the Air rove en route, so I planned to hit three different state historic sites, all of which are fairly close to […]
Ham Radio Portable Operating Insights—Combining POTA with the Pennsylvania QSO Party
One of the high points of my ham radio year is the time spent in Pennsylvania with my friends. It’s a tradition that began 40 years ago with a tent camping trip to Indiana County, PA. Over the years, we moved to other counties. The longest stretch was in Jefferson County, which ended after the […]
KI5OEB: My DX Commander Expedition Build and Field Modifications
by James (KI5OEB) I want to begin by stating that I bought a new antenna, the DX Commander Expedition. But first, I had to sell one of my DX Commander Classics to a fellow ham. I have been contemplating vertical antenna builds since the day I received my General Ticket, /AG in July of 2022. […]
Extend Your Range—Getting in Touch with Cross-Band Repeat
I have been trying to figure out a way to increase some usage on our local repeaters. I have a 2 meter and a 70cm repeater fairly close by. I have no problem hitting them from my shack on low power. But my antennas are 50-plus feet in the air. When I switch to a […]
N2YCH: Hiking the Hanging Hills for POTA and SOTA
by Conrad Trautmann (N2YCH) Back in late 2023, I wrote about a joint POTA/SOTA activation I did here in Connecticut. It was the first one of the four peaks in the SOTA program in the Hanging Hills range in Southern Connecticut, W1/HH-0002, which is also Sleeping Giant State Park, US-1717 in the Parks on the […]
Pedestrian Mobile Ham Radio: You Can Take It With You
Most hams think of mobile operation as getting into a vehicle, turning on the radio, and heading down the road. Choosing portable operation means carrying a radio, battery, and antenna to a campsite, park, mountain, or other convenient operating location. But many of us forget another option: pedestrian mobile (PM) operation. Pedestrian mobile means operating […]
SHS POTA Rove: A Bug-Out Morning at Fort Dobbs State Historic Site (US-6839)
by Thomas (K4SWL) On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, I needed to make a trip to Raleigh, North Carolina. That evening, I was giving a presentation to the North Carolina State University Amateur Radio Society. I had been invited by the Raleigh Knightlites, a QRP club based in Raleigh, to give a presentation about field radio […]
A New Ham’s Guide to Overcomplicating Everything – How Well Does My Station Work in the Field?
by Josh Stringer (VE3YTX) Being a new ham, I’m constantly coming across technical questions that I don’t know how to answer. Recently I’ve started going to my local POTA park and activating using CW (I’m currently working on my first Kilo!). I’d set up my end-fed half-wave in a tree and start sending CQ, having […]
New Amateur Radio Products for October 2026 at DX Engineering
Including four new DX Engineering branded products to upgrade your station *** OnAllBands has been working hard to cover all the new products now available at DX Engineering. The influx of fresh offerings is a good indication about the health of amateur radio, as innovators continue to find ways to enhance our enjoyment of the […]