Operating
DXing
By OneShack Staff
How to work distant stations: when and where to listen, how to handle pileups and split, and how to confirm the contact.
OneShack Staff
Getting Started · Operating
Your First Contest
By OneShack Staff
What contests are, how the exchange works, how to log and send in your contacts, and where a beginner can start without pressure.
Getting Started · Operating
How to Use a Repeater
By OneShack Staff
How repeaters work, how to find them, and how to make your first call with good habits, proper ID and room for emergency traffic.
Equipment · Getting Started
How to Program a Handheld Radio
By OneShack Staff
Load repeaters and simplex channels into a handheld, from the keypad or with free software, and save a backup before you start.
Getting Started · Operating
Nets and Net Control
By OneShack Staff
How directed and open nets work, how to check in, and what it takes to run a net as net control.
Getting Started · Operating
Your First Satellite Contact
By OneShack Staff
Work an FM satellite with a handheld and a small Yagi: find a pass, handle Doppler, and keep your first contact short and sweet.
Operating
QSL Cards and LoTW
By OneShack Staff
Paper cards, the QSL bureau, direct requests and Logbook of The World: how hams confirm contacts today.
Antennas · Operating
NVIS: Working the Next 300 Miles
By OneShack Staff
The stations closest to you are often the hardest to hear. Near-vertical incidence skywave is how you cover your own state and the ones next door, and it wants a low antenna, not a high one.
Antennas · Equipment
Ferrites and Common-Mode Chokes: Stopping RF Where It Starts
By OneShack Staff
RF in the microphone, a meter that reads differently when you touch the radio, noise that follows you from band to band — most of it is one fault, and a handful of ferrite cores fixes it.
Antennas · Getting Started
Antennas When You Can’t Put One Up
By OneShack Staff
Covenants, a landlord or a small lot do not have to end it. What the FCC rules do and do not cover, and four antennas that work without announcing themselves.