x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Starting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or HAM Radio can be daunting and challenging but can be very rewarding. Every week I look at a different aspect of the hobby, how you might fit in and get the very best from the 1000 hobbies that Amateur Radio represents. Note that this podcast started in 2011 as "What use is an F-call?".

education how to

All Episodes

8:08

About Australian Callsigns

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/07/06

Foundations of Amateur RadioAustralia has a long relationship with callsigns. Over time the regulator, today the ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has seen fit to introduce different types of callsigns and restrictions associated with those callsigns. The change that made the most waves most recently was the introduction of the so-called F-call. It's a callsign that looks like mine, VK6FLAB. It has a VK prefix for Australia, the number 6 indicating my state, Western

en-au

5:33

How does the IARU work?

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/06/29

Foundations of Amateur RadioOver the past week I've been attempting to work out what the IARU, the International Amateur Radio Union, actually does and how it works. I started looking into this because the IARU is this year celebrating a century since its foundation in 1925. You might think of the IARU as one organisation, but behind the scenes there are actually four, one for each so-called "Region" as well a Global organisation called the International Secretariat, headquartered at the ARRL in

en-au

5:01

Problem Solving or How to Access a Radio Remotely?

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/06/22

Foundations of Amateur Radio So, I have a confession. I don't know everything. Shocking right? Over the past too many months, actually, come to think of it, years, I have not been on-air with my station on HF using FT8 or Olivia, modes that use tools like "WSJT-X" and "fldigi". This has not always been the case. For a time I used a tiny computer running those tools. It had plenty of issues related to its size and capacity. Overwhelmingly it was slow, unsurprising since it was released in 2009

en-au

6:51

Identity in Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/06/15

Foundations of Amateur RadioThe recent "incident" at the ARRL in which it disclosed that it was the "victim of a sophisticated network attack by a malicious international cyber group" brings into focus some serious questions around our community in relation to identity and privacy. Let's start with your callsign. Right now in Australia you can use the official register to look for VK6FLAB. When you do, you'll discover that it's "Assigned to Foundation". That's it. No mention of who holds it,

en-au

4:49

Long Wave Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/06/08

Foundations of Amateur Radio If you've heard the phrase "shortwave listeners", you might have wondered what on earth that was all about. It relates to the length of a radio wave used to transmit information. The length of a radio wave is tied to its frequency. The longer the wave, the lower the frequency. When radio amateurs talk about bands, like for example the 40m band, we're talking about a range of frequencies where the wavelength is around 40m. From a frequency perspective, this is around 7

en-au

6:08

The ARRL incident of May 2024

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/06/01

Foundations of Amateur RadioToday I want to talk about something that might feel only tangentially related to our hobby, but it likely affects you. Recently the ARRL announced that it was "in the process of responding to a serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems". A day later it sought to assure the community that the "ARRL does not store credit card information" and they "do not collect social security numbers" and went on to say that their "member

en-au

6:21

The origin of our amateur bands

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/05/25

Foundations of Amateur RadioThe origin of our amateur bands It's hard to imagine today, but there was a time when there was no such thing as either the 80m or the 20m amateur band, let alone 2m or 70cm. Picture this. It's the roaring 20's, the 1920's that is. Among a Jazz Age burst of economic prosperity, modern technology, such as automobiles, moving pictures, social and cultural dynamism, the peak of Art Deco, we're also in the middle of a radio boom where the world is going crazy buying

en-au

4:45

On the nature of Inspiration ..

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/05/18

Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the years you've heard me utter the phrase: "Get on air and make some noise!". It's not an idle thought. The intent behind it is to start, to do something, anything, and find yourself a place within the hobby of amateur radio and the community surrounding it. Since starting my weekly contribution to this community, thirteen years ago, almost to the day, I promise, this wasn't planned, you'll see why in a moment, I've been working my way through the things that

en-au

5:18

Automatic FM DX decoding

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/05/11

Foundations of Amateur Radio Much is made in our hobby about working DX, that is sending and receiving distant radio signals. How distant is up for debate. Depending on where you are, DX might be outside the continent, outside the country, or in my case you could easily say, anything outside of my state, since the nearest border is about 1,240 km away from here. For giggles, the distance between Albany in the South West and Wyndham in the North East of the state is 2,400 km and that's via radio

en-au

4:58

A place for everything and everything in its place..

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/05/04

Foundations of Amateur RadioSome life lessons require additional reinforcement from time to time. This week I was strongly encouraged to remember a lesson that can be summarised as: "A place for everything and everything in its place." It was first uttered like that to me a quarter of a century ago by a client who used it frequently around their staff. It means that all the stuff that fills up the space around you, in this case, physical stuff, needs to have a specific home and if you're not

en-au

7:44

The origins of the International Amateur Radio Union

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/04/27

Foundations of Amateur Radio In the early 1920's long distance communication using radio was a growing interest. At the time it was thought that communication that we take for granted today, over long-distance HF, was limited to long wave or extremely low frequencies, the lower the better. With that restriction came massive antennas and high power transmitters, available only to commercial and government stations. Then radio amateurs let the cat out of the bag by discovering that so-called "short

en-au

4:18

Weaving radio into your life.

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/04/20

Foundations of Amateur RadioA great deal of energy is expended on the notion of operating portable. I've talked about this plenty of times. Issues like power, antennas, suitable radios, logging, transport and time of day all come to mind. Some activities are framed specifically as portable operations. Things like Summits On The Air, or SOTA, Parks On The Air, or POTA, World Wide Flora and Fauna, or WWFF. There's field days, portable contests and specific activities like the 2014 activation of

en-au

4:02

RF is all around us ... starting your own station...

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/04/13

Foundations of Amateur RadioAs a self-proclaimed radio nerd I'm aware of the various amateur bands. Depending on your license, your familiarity will likely vary. I've never been on 6m for example, but I have a good working relationship with the 10m band. Amateur bands aside, there's plenty of other activity across the radio spectrum. It occurred to me that I've never actually stopped to take note of what specifically I can hear from my own station. Think of it as a station frequency

en-au

5:45

It's all just text!

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/04/06

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I had an interesting exchange with a contest manager and it's not the first time I've had this dance. As you might know, pretty much every weekend marks at least one on-air amateur radio contest. Following rules set out by a contest the aim is to make contact or a QSO with stations, taking note of each, in a process called logging. Using logging software is one way to keep track of who you talked to, a piece of paper is another. If your station is

en-au

4:24

Are you up for a global party?

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/03/30

Foundations of Amateur RadioDid you know that on the 18th of April, 1925 a group of radio amateurs had a meeting in Paris? During that meeting they formed an organisation that still exists today. Before I get into that, let me share a list of names. - Wireless Institute of Australia - Radio Amateurs of Canada - Radio Society of Great Britain - Vereniging voor Experimenteel Radio Onderzoek in Nederland or if you don't speak Dutch, can't imagine why, the Association for Experimental Radio Research

en-au

5:45

What's with all that lack of noise?

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/03/23

Foundations of Amateur RadioDuring the weekend I participated in a contest. Before you get all excited, it was only for a couple of hours over a few different sittings and while I had plenty of fun, of the eleven QRP, or low power, contacts I made, nine were on VHF and UHF, two were on 10m HF. Mind you, 3,200 and 3,500 km contacts are nothing to sneeze at. It has been a while since I've actually been on HF, so long that it felt like turning on a new radio and getting used to it all over again. If

en-au

5:06

The skyhook dilemma ...

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/03/16

Foundations of Amateur RadioWhenever I'm out in the bush in the process of erecting some or other wire contraption, uh, antenna, I cannot help but think of the iconic Australian rock band, Skyhooks, not for their glam rock inspired music, nor for their pure mathematics and computer science degree holding guitarist, but for their name. In antenna erection, a skyhook is called for when you point at a spot in the sky and will into being an attachment point for the wire antenna in your hand. It's

en-au

7:25

Technology at its finest ...

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/03/09

Foundations of Amateur RadioSo, the 19th of February 2024 came and went. As it was, my day started with the highest minimum that month, 27.5 degrees Celsius, that's the minimum overnight temperature. The maximum that day here in Perth, Western Australia was 42.3 degrees. The day before was the highest maximum for the month, 42.9. If you're not sure, that's over 109 in Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit's scale. That same day the Australian regulator, the ACMA, launched a new era in Amateur Radio. Moving

en-au

3:31

The Art of finding an operating location

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/03/02

Foundations of Amateur RadioWhen you operate your station portable, either for fun, or for points, you might be surprised to learn that getting on air and making noise isn't quite as simple as bringing a radio and turning it on. Aside from the need for a reliable power supply, batteries, generator, solar panels, or a magic mains socket, there is the requirement for bringing enough gear to get on air, but not so much that setting up takes days, or even hours. The decisions you make are influenced

en-au

6:19

Getting things done .. or not.

Foundations of Amateur Radio ·

2024/02/24

Foundations of Amateur RadioHave you ever had a day when nothing you started actually got anywhere? I've had a fortnight like that. Several weeks ago I wrote a couple of articles about emergency communications and its tenuous relationship with our hobby. As a result I managed to get a week ahead of myself and started using that week to do some long overdue analysis of the WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter data set. I've started this process several times and I finally had a whole fortnight

en-au

567 results

Similar Podcasts

Science Talk

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

五分钟心理学

柠檬心理

Daily Facts

Amalia Dupray and Montgomery Jones.

Les dents et dodo

BFMTV

Veterinary Clinical Podcasts

The Royal Veterinary College