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What most new Technicians use first: FM repeaters, digital voice and VHF data.
Digital data
On the air since the 1980s
Position reporting, messaging and telemetry riding on packet.
Digital voice
On the air since 2001
The amateur-designed digital voice system, with data alongside.
Digital voice
On the air since 2019
An open-source digital voice mode, free of proprietary codecs.
Digital data
On the air since 1978
AX.25 Networking over radio. Older than the web, and still running.
Digital voice
On the air since 2013
C4FM Yaesu’s digital voice, with automatic fallback to FM.
Next Steps
Open to a Technician on parts of 10 m, 6 m and (for CW) some HF bands, and across the HF bands once you upgrade to General.
Digital data
On the air since 2017
Tiny, automated exchanges that get through when nothing else does.
Phone
Single sideband, phone The workhorse voice mode on HF, and how most long-distance conversations happen.
More to Explore
Keyboard, picture, email and beacon modes. Most live on HF, where a General license gives you the most room.
Propagation
On the air since 1960
Bounce VHF and UHF signals off the Moon for contacts between continents.
Digital data
On the air since the early 1990s
Error-free HF data from Germany, long used for Winlink and marine email.
Digital data
On the air since 1998
Real keyboard-to-keyboard conversation, in almost no bandwidth.
Digital data
Radioteletype Mechanical teleprinters, minus the teleprinters. Still a contest mainstay.
Digital data
On the air since the late 1950s
Slow-scan television Sending pictures over HF, one line at a time.
Beacon
On the air since 2008
Whisper Not for contacts. For finding out where your signal actually goes.
WSJT-X, fldigi, JS8Call, Direwolf, BPQ32, Winlink Express — what each one is for.
Getting audio and keying between your radio and your computer without hum or RF problems.
Related Reading
Antennas
Question of the Month: How Do Long Dual Band Verticals Develop Gain?
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.
Digital · Operating · Getting started
The digital mode that fills the HF bands. What it is, what you need, and how a contact actually goes.