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A Guide to June 2025 Ham Radio Contests—Field Day Edition

Also, 13 Colonies is less than a month away. Are you ready for a clean sweep? Is ARRL Field Day a contest? Technically yes, but those who have spent decades lugging gear and setting up temporary stations in the summer heat know there’s a higher purpose behind the QSOs and friendly competition. The contesting aspect […]

It’s All in the Cards! QSL Cards from Top Ten Most Wanted DXCC Entities – Part 3

In our overview of the rarest of the rare DXCC entities, today we’ll be looking at number six on the Most Wanted List per Clublog: Johnston Island. OnAllBands asked the team at DX Engineering to scour their QSL card collections for contacts made with this seldomly activated location—and they delivered. With years of DXing conquests […]

Steve’s MTR3B-V4 Field Kit in a Rothco Shoulder Bag

Many thanks to Steve (KV4AN), who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit, which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page.  If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, read this post. KV4AN’s MTR3B-V4 Field Kit by Steve (KV4AN) The convergence of Solar Cycle 25, lots […]

Bitten By the Bug? Staying Safe from Ticks, Mosquitoes, and Other Blood-Sucking Nasties in the Field

If you’ve been following my field reports for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of activating in wooded, remote, and sometimes… bug-infested places. But one thing I never take lightly is protecting myself—and my family (including Hazel!)—from ticks, mosquitoes, and other biting bugs that can really ruin an outing or worse. […]

New Xiegu WR12: Add Wideband RX (to 1 GHz) to Your X6200

If you own the Xiegu X6200, there’s a new add-on that might interest you: the Xiegu WR12 Wideband Receiver Module. For $69.99, it adds continuous receive coverage from 54 MHz to 1 GHz, giving you access to HF, VHF, and UHF signals—including ham bands, shortwave broadcasts, and potentially aviation and marine comms. It’s designed specifically […]

Ham Radio Contesting 101: The Contest Station Is Never Done

Editor’s note: OnAllBands is pleased to post a series of articles written by accomplished amateur radio contester and DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist Kirk Pickering, K4RO. The articles, originally published in the National Contest Journal and updated with current information, offer valuable insights for both contesters new and old. *** Our first three columns focused mainly […]

En Route To Dayton: WD8RIF and I Activate Great Seal State Park near Chillicothe, Ohio

This field report picks up where we left off after my last post earlier this week at Lake Alma State Park (May 14, 2025). Eric and I planned to hit two parks en route to Dayton, Ohio. Lake Alma was a successful park number one. The next park we planned to activate—another new-to-me park—was Great […]

Hams Around the Globe Earn ATNOs with the Marshall Islands During the V73WW 2o25 DXpedition

Gear Provided by DX Engineering Helps Make It Possible The youth-oriented V73WW DXpedition team recorded more than 103,843 CW, SSB, and Digital QSOs (160-6M)—including 2,000-plus RTTY QSOs—during their February 11-25 operation from the Marshall Islands. The QSO total far exceeded the operators’ goals of 60,000. “A huge thank you to all the hams who have […]

Field Day Gear Part 4: Headsets & Headphones

There is a long list of amateur radio sayings that veteran operators often recite to new hams, but none is truer than this one: You can’t work ’em if you can’t hear ’em. It’s an adage that highlights the importance of having reliable, high-performance amateur radio audio equipment to log more QSOs, make weak-signal contacts […]

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