AE5X

An ongoing question on various online forums is "What is a good antenna for airline travel?"

The beta version of the upcoming (new) POTA website is live and uses the same login you have for the current POTA site.Besides being much more visually appealing, the filtering and the ability to "sticky" post are very beneficial.IOW, if you post something

I've been getting a few emails asking for more info on our upcoming trip to Albania.Thanks to Col at DX World for the image and to Bernie at the Daily DX - and to both of them for publicizing this holiday style operation that will begin in October.I'd like

The low-frequency capability of Hans G0UPL's QDX-M proved its worth in Alberta last week.Rescuers attempting to retrieve a cave explorer made use of a QDX-M built for the 2200 meter band (136 kHz) which, evidently, will allow communications through solid…

We've arrived at cooler temps and have been at our AirBnB for several days now, located between Courtenay BC and Strathcona Provincial Park.

We are currently in Oregon, en route to Vancouver Island - a long way from Florida in a lot of ways.Up to now we've been mostly focused on laying down the miles.

Sometime between 1600-1900z today I'll be activating US-0004 in Utah for 30 minutes.

I've been home from my TAT ride for several weeks now.

ArkansasHeavy rains made for muddy riding through a beautiful state.

A few folks have asked about what I'm using on the road, particularly in regard to the antenna and how it is mounted.I'm currently taking a day off the ride to wait out the heavy rains due here in central Arkansas which gave me time to put a short video t…

Two days on the TAT now and making a fast progression west - not due to any skillful or fast riding on my part, it's all due to the fact that the TAT from Tennessee eastward is mostly paved roads.

TAT/QRP will begin on the morning of 3 June, starting near Chatsworth GA.It's impossible to predict with any reliability how much radio'ing I'll be doing (and when) since weather and POTA proximity to the TAT are big factors.But the TAT passes directly th…

I've now gone through six charge/discharge cycles of my KX2's internal battery using the new KXUSBC2 to charge it and I've used different sources and USB-C cables for each charge.Regardless of the charging voltage used, the KX2 battery gets a complete cha…

(Also shown: Iniu 20AH power bank, KWS-1902C USB-C power meter) 13 May: Updated info, including notes from its designer, Manuel HB9DQM.

The little QMX has come a long way since it was first released as a CW/digital transceiver, and I don't just mean the addition of SSB.Far more significant to me are the very recent firmware updates that corrected two major shortcomings with the radio:Stri…

The manual for the KX2's internal battery charger (KXIBC2) allows for a variety of input voltages, up to a maximum of 15V, to be used to charge the radio's 2.6AH lithium battery.

I've had a hankering to build something lately and happened across a relatively new offering from the 4 States QRP Group: the Hilltopper Tallboy, a monoband QRP CW transceiver kit.Available for 15 to 40 meters (and maybe 60m soon), I ordered a 20m version.

I went into the contest with the goal of testing the performance of the HL2+ in crowded CW conditions.Rather than writing a dry narrative of "How I spent my weekend" (actually only four hours of it), I'll just sum it all up in bullet points:I used the HL2+

With the arrival of my Apache Labs 10E, I finally worked up the courage to put my HL2 under the knife for the surgery required to convert it to a Plus version.No, it didn't get fatter; it just got better.The update required removing a 0603 ferrite bead, a…

I went through the rest of the bands today and the HL2 looks good on all of them.

While waiting on an "Your Anan-10E is ready" email I thought I'd test a claim on Apache Lab's website regarding SDR radios that use the AD9866 processor - ie, the Hermes Lite 2.Apache Lab's comparative chart claims that the HL2 is not compliant on 10 mete…

I was rearranging the rat's nest of cabling that constitutes the best-unseen space between my operating desk and the wall yesterday when it happened...Once everything was satisfactorily cleaned and ship-shape, I fired up the Hermes Lite 2 and the Neptune…

The recent purchase of a UV-Pro has me in need of a satellite antenna for the "Easy-Sats" and International Space Station.Arrow makes the perfect antenna but I thought I could homebrew one at a much lower price.The main component that differentiates the A…

We've been in the Black Hills region of South Dakota for a few days now with about a week left before we head north.The area is amazingly beautiful.I finally got around to two very brief activations today, both CW-only with the FT-891 and magnet-mount 17'…

An interesting concept from WD4ELG: a very brief summary of various QRP rigs.