Ham Radio Workbench Podcast

In this episode we interview Derek, KD9MEQ, president of the Purdue University Amateur Radio Club.  Derek and his fellow club members have created a very successful amateur radio club that has grown significantly in the last few years.  The combination of welcoming leadership and a LOT of hands-on projects have made this an outstanding college radio club.  The club has built antennas, radio, rotors and many other projects.  Join us in this episode as we explore what makes for a successful club, how to attrack young people to our great hobby and we learn about a lot of cool projects along the way.

In this episode we talk with Rex, KE6MT, the SOTA (Summits On The Air) program manager for California.  Rex gives us an update on the SOTA program and why you should be interested in this great aspect of ham radio.  In the last segment we talk about the Wilderness Protocol and how, while it's a good start, its just not very practical.  We define a new proposal called the Adventure Radio Protocol which uses CTCSS tones to signal various type of activity on the air on a common frequency of 146.580 MHz.  Of course, as a HRWB episode, we also turn this into a hardware project that is a PCB that can handle the tone decoding and alerting.  The Adventure Radio board can be used at a base station, remote receiver or on a repeater system to alert listeners for traffic or emergencies. Check out adventureradio.info for more details.  

We are coming to you live, well recorded live actually, from the QSO Today Academy.  On this episode we are joined by our favorite mega-fan Troy K4JDA and the regular crowd including Vince VE6LK, Thomas K4SWL, Mike VA3MW, Mark N6MTS and host George KJ6VU.  We talka bout all sorts of ham radio workbench related projects and topics.  

In this episode we learn all about the Mastodon social media network.  Mastodon is becoming very popular in the ham radio commnunity.  Christopher M0YNG is an expert in Mastodon and hosts the popular mastodon.radio space for ham radio and SWLing. 

In this episode we talk with Don K9AQ who has build many HF RF amplifiers.  We take a dive in to the details about modern solid state amplifiers using LDMOS semiconductor technology.  

In this episode, Gary, W9XT, tells us all about Beverage antennas.  Invented in the 1920's by Harald Beverage at AT&T, the Beverage antenna is widely used by serious DXers on the low HF bands including 160, 80 and 40 meters.  The Beverage antenna reduces the received signal strength and greatly reduces noise to make it easier to pick out weak signals.  

In this episode we meet Garrett Dow, Kd6KPC, the owner of the popular web site Repeater Book.  We talk abour how Repeater Book came to be and also Garrett's radio trailer build projet.

In this episode, Thomas K4SWL, Mark N6MTS, Rod VA3ON, Mike VA3MW and Vince VE6LK join George KJ6VU to talk about the projects on their workbenches and take a deep dive into Field Day 2023.  The crew discuss what they did for Field Day, what worked and what they would do differently in 2024. 

In this episode we talk with Vance, N3VEM, all about ham radio, POTA and rocketry.

Encore presentation of our talk with Bill Meara of the Soldersmoke podcast.

In this episode we prepare for field operating !  Spring is in the air and it's time to get your radio gear organized.  We offer up tips and tricks to do just that in time for Field Day.   We also talk about several projects on our workbenches.

In this episode we talk with Jon and Andy from SDR Play.  Jon gives us the background on the company and hardware and Andy talks about the development of the software that drives the SDR Play radios.  SDR Play makes some of the best, user friendly and cost effective, SDR receivers on the market. 

In this episode we meet Skip, VE6BGT, a prolific builder and EME microwave operator.  Skip tells us about his microwave radio, amplifier and antenna projects.  He also recently put  his old mechanical RTTY station back on the air featuring a model 28 teletype.  Skip has a great YouTube channel.  Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@VE6BGT  

In this episode George KJ6VU and the team are joined by Troy, K4JDA, to talk about our projects and ask questions of the HRWB team including Vince VE6LK, Mark N6MTS, Mike VA3MW, Rod VA3ON and Thomas K4SWL.    

In this episode, Ben, AI6YR, tells us all about SatNOGS, a community project to build a large network of satellite receive only ground stations.  These staions can be remotely accessed to receive anateur and non-amateur satellites.   

In this episode Jeff, W9KW, tells us all about battery technology and how to select a battery and properly take care of it.  At the end we take a dive into battery conditioners and talk about how useful they are especially if you are an avid field operator. 

Come join us at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo on March 25th and 26th.  We kick things off on Friday March 24th at 6 PM Pacific Time with the Ham Radio Workbench live stream !  See you there. https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/  

In this episode Marcel, AI6MS, explains everything you ever wanted to know about the popular 18650 rechargable batteries.  Rick, KC6UFT, talks about his desire to build 18650 battery packs that led him to design and program his own Arduino powered 18650 battery tester.

In thi episode, our very own Vince, VE6LK, tells us about his recent POTA (Parks on the Air) adventures where he operated from several parks in snowy Alberta Canada as part of the RAC Portable Operating Challenge.  Vince shares his advice on portable gear, operating tips and challenges of operating in cold weather.   By the end of the adventure Vince racked up 3,114 km of driving, 1,300 activator QSO's in SSB, CW and Digital, 32 unique POTA locations, 9 grid squares and one oil change over 14 days.

In this episode we learn all about transverters with Dan Quigley N7HQ.  Transverters let you operate on higher frequency bands like 2m, 220, UHF, 902 and up with a common HF radio.  With Dan's experience at Flex Radio we take a close look at how these feature rich software defined radios can be used with transverters.