Reporting on radio science and experiments
The BBC in the UK recently announced that their Radio 4 service on 198 kHz will finally shut down on Saturday 27th of June 2026 at 00:00 UTC. It will join a list of other radio stations in Europe that have ceased using the Long Wave broadcast band. In a statement, the BBC said... " Radio 4’s Long Wave (LW) service will close on the 27th June 2026. We will broadcast daily on-air reminders to help…
Carl, K9LA recently gave a presentation to the Madison DX club recently about what propagation conditions will like in 2026. Spoiler alert - We're on the way down off the peak of the sunspot cycle but there will be plenty of openings for a while yet. You can view the presentation below...
John, K9JMS recently received permission from the FCC to carry out propagation tests at 40 MHz (8m) and 70 MHz (4m) and he was granted the callsign WQ2XDM for a period of two years. Note that this is NOT an amateur radio licence and no two way communications are allowed. Its purpose is strictly for " scientific and engineering-based propagation research ". The 40 MHz and 70 MHz bands are NOT…
I was watching a video on YouTube recently and someone was talking about a new type of 'walkie-talkie' for cyclists. I was intrigued... how did it work? what frequencies? what modes? A quick search of the product resulted in several links including the manufacturers website and some cycling news websites describing it as a 'communications device, a 'race radio' and a 'little radio network'. The…
Is your HF radio on frequency? How accurate is it? The reality is that in most cases, your HF radio could be off frequency by 100Hz or 200Hz and you'd have no idea. On SSB and CW, you just tune in the other station. Even with modes like FT8 on fixed frequencies, you could be off frequency a bit and it will still work fine. Still though, it's nice to know what your radio is like? Is it accurate or…
Steve, VK3OT reports that the 50 MHz (6m) band was open between Europe and Victoria, Australia on Sunday 1st February 2026. The map above shows the FT8 paths as reported on the PSKReporter website. The longest path was to EB1IC in Spain at just over 17,000kms. A full list of the reported stations can be seen below... Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR VK3OT EB1IC 6m FT8 17047 km 10:19:26…
In January of 2026, the RSGB in the UK announced that they were outsourcing their QSL Bureau to the DARC in Germany. The RSGB write... " We are pleased to announce the next stage in developing our QSL Bureau Services. After a comprehensive review of long-term options, the RSGB entered into a formal Contractual Agreement with Deutscher Amateur Radio Club, to process all incoming and outgoing RSGB…
The 145 Alive concept is to have activity periods on the 145 MHz (2m) band at certain times during the year. It's not a contest, it just a net where stations are encouraged to call in and exchange signal reports with others on the band. The 145 Alive activity period is primarily in the UK and Ireland but some activity in Norway started in late 2025. These are the planned activity periods for…
Why are printed circuit boards green??? It's not exactly the type of question that would keep you awake at night but once you see it, you start to wonder... YEA, WHY ARE THEY GREEN?!?! Simon Whistler recently posted this video and I found myself going down this 7-minute rabbit hole to find out...
On the 19th of January 2026 , I noticed some posts on social media saying that the Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis was visible. Sure enough, I went outside to check and I could see the sky to the north was a red colour. I went inside and tuned across the 28 MHz (10m) band and noticed that a few beacons were audible. I was expecting to hear some distorted auroral signals but instead, the CW…
First of all, let's set the scene for a bit of context. The original TV system in the UK was known as 405-line and was in use from 1936 to 1985. The lowest TV channel was B1 with the video carrier being on 45.0 MHz. One unusual feature of this system was that the audio was AM and this was 3.5 MHz lower than the video carrier i.e. 41.5 MHz for Channel B. Pat Dyer, WA5IYX was a very active TV DXer…
The management team of the Summits on the Air (SOTA) programme have just announced their new SOTA Challenge for 2026 and it's for operating SSB & CW on the 2m and 70cms bands . Their last challenge was for the year 2024 and that was for the 28 MHz (10m) band. See previous post HERE . SOTA is a very popular awards programme and it most of the activity on the HF bands. Any SOTA activity on the VHF…
The International Reply Coupon or IRC was very much a part of amateur radio history for decades. If you wanted a QSL card from a station for a particular contact that you had made then the idea was that you would send them an envelope containing a self-addressed envelope, your QSL card and an IRC to pay for the return postage. Some people preferred to use $1 notes but they were more prone to…
Eduard, ON1AB recently posted a video on YouTube showing a remarkable contact he made on the 70cms UHF back in October of 2023. Using a Radioddity GD-77 handheld and a small 3-element antenna for the 70cm band, he managed to make a contact through a UHF repeater in Ireland, a distance of some 2225 kms. As can be seen from the photo, ON1AB was looking over the Atlantic Ocean at a location called…
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the first operational packet radio repeater! The repeater went live on the 10th of December 1980 and it operated on a frequency of 146.580 MHz The new packet radio repeater was installed by Hank Magnuski, KA6M (now SK) at his home at Menlo Park near San Francisco. In a report on the new repeater, KA6M wrote... " Since its initial turn-on in December of 1980,…
Conditions on the 28 MHz (10m) band are still very good and on the 1st of December 2025 , I noticed several QRSS (slow morse) signals just below the WSPR signals on 28.1246 MHz . Starting from the top... a) I was getting a very weak signal from WA1EDJ in Georgia and I was able to get a positive ID by piecing together the callsign over several cycles. I had a good capture of WA1EDJ from an opening…
Radio amateurs have been sending and receiving TV signals for a number of decades. First it was analogue TV and that became digital TV in more recent years. With the advent of digital TV or digital amateur TV (DATV) to give it its full title, radio amateurs have been resourceful in squeezing video signals in smaller and smaller bandwidths. This has resulted in signals being several hundred kHz…
The regulator for amateur radio activity in Norway is the Norwegian Communications Authority (NKOM) and on the 24th of November 2025, they announced restrictions on remote control of amateur radio stations. They write... " Remote control of amateur radio station Nkom has registered a growing interest in the use of remote control of amateur radio stations via the internet. This use is increasing in…
In Brazil, South America, they have what is called an ' extended FM band (eFM)' which runs from 76.1 MHz to 87.3 MHz which is used for FM broadcasting. This allows for the addition of new radio stations in areas where the traditional 88-108 MHz band is full. This is reasonably new development and the first eFM transmitters went on air as recently as May 2021. On the 19th of November 2025 , SWL &…
Good news! The licencing authorities in Spain have decided to allow radio amateurs there access to the 40 MHz (8m) band for another 18-months! Here is the story so far... The national association for radio amateurs in Spain is the URE and back in 2023, they approached the licensing authorities in Spain about permission to use the 40 MHz ( 8m) band. As a result of their detailed submission, Spanish…
A new 145 Alive activity period on the 2m band has started in Norway and the first one got off to a flying start on Saturday 1st November 2025 with the stations active making 124 contacts. The net stations were located in the areas shown above on the map and they were... LB0FI Halden 18 check-in LB5JJ Horten 42 check-in LB9EH Oslo 31 check-ins LA1PLA Molde 10 check-in LA2USA Finnoy 7 check-in…
On the 18th of November 2025, the Spanish national broadcaster RTVE issued a press release stating that they will be closing their AM network on Medium Wave at the end of 2025 . The stations concerned at Radio Nacional and Radio 5 . Some key points from the press release... 1) RNE's AM broadcasts will end before December 31st of this year , and the public will be informed through a special…
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is based in Alaska and it's a high-power, high frequency (HF) transmitter for studying the ionosphere. The principal instrument is a phased array of 180 HF crossed-dipole antennas capable of radiating 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Transmit frequencies are selectable in the range of 2.7 to 10 MHz. The research team…
Note that the chart starts at 120k to make the annual change clearer The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national society for radio amateurs in the USA and is one of the largest if not the largest such organisation in the world. They also produce the QST magazine which is one of the largest amateur radio magazines in the world. ARRL Membership ... On the 14th of November 2025, the ARRL…
In the last few months, there has been talk on the Amateur Radio media channels about something called ' Polar Modulation '. A lot of what is presented is quite technical so in this post, I'll give a very basic overview of what 'Polar Modulation' is and why it might be a game changer for Amateur Radio. First of all and to make things clear, 'Polar Modulation' is NOT another mode like AM (Amplitude…