Longer reads for hams: how-tos, explainers and a bit of history. Pick a topic, or browse everything below.
Featured Writer
Bill Rinker, W6OAV
Longtime Elmer, and writer for many amateur radio club newsletters in Colorado and California.
Antennas · Operating
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.
Equipment · History
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
Before digital readouts, knowing where you were transmitting took two dials, a crystal oscillator and a half hour of warm-up. How hams in the 1950s and 60s got onto the right frequency.
Antennas · Operating
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
A magnetic loop and a pair of Hamstick whips, each set up in a covenant-controlled yard and compared against a full size reference vertical over a week of real contacts.
Antennas
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
Lengthening a vertical past 5/8 wavelength should send the signal skyward — yet commercial dual band antennas are longer than that and still claim gain at the horizon. Here is how they do it, and how to read their gain figures.
Antennas · Equipment
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
An SWR of 3:1, or even 10:1, costs far less than most operators think — provided the feedline is good and the tuner is doing its job. And the same fact gives you one wire that works on every band.
Equipment · Operating
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
Your portable station is only as reliable as its power source. Choosing between sealed lead acid, lithium-ion and LiFePO₄, sizing the battery, estimating operating time, wiring it safely and keeping it charged with solar.
Equipment · Getting Started
By OneShack Staff
A tour of one ham's station: what each box on the desk does, why it's there, and what a newcomer really needs from it.
Antennas · Equipment · Getting Started
By OneShack Staff
A low SWR reading at the radio doesn't always mean a good antenna. Here's why, and how to find out what's really happening.
Antennas · Equipment
By Bill Rinker, W6OAV
Plenty of antenna ads quote a gain figure that means nothing at all. Here is how to read them: what a dB really is, how dBi and dBd differ, and the three rules that protect you from a misleading claim.
Digital · Getting Started · Operating
By OneShack Staff
The digital mode that fills the HF bands. What it is, what you need, and how a contact actually goes.