Collaborate Disseminate
For amateur radio operators, the quest for the perfect antenna never seems to end. Perhaps that’s because our requirements are always changing. We never quite seem to get to one …read more Continue reading Pocketable Yagi Antenna Really Shoots for Distance
Like any hobby, amateur radio has no upper bounds on what you can spend getting geared up. Shacks worth tens of thousands of dollars are easy to come by, and …read more Continue reading Listening to the ISS on the Cheap
Yagi-Uda antennas, or simply “Yagis”, are directional antennas that focus radio waves to increase gain, meaning that the radio waves can travel further in that direction for a given transmitter …read more Continue reading Printing Antennas on Circuit Boards
Ever since the first artificial satellite was launched into orbit, radio operators around the world have been tuning in to their space-based transmissions. Sputnik 1 only sent back pulses of …read more Continue reading Hunting for Space Pirates
It may come as a shock to some, but TV used to be a big deal — a very big deal. Sitting down in front of the glowing tube for …read more Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Measuring TV Audiences with the “Poll-O-Meter”
A recent writeup by Tom Nardi about using the 6502-based NES to track satellites brought back memories of my senior project at Georgia Tech back in the early 80s. At our club station W4AQL, I had become interested in Amateur Radio satellites. It was quite a thrill to hear your …read more
Antenna design can be confusing, to say the least. There’s so much black magic that goes into antennas that newbies often look at designs and are left wondering exactly how the thing could ever work. Slight changes in length or the angle between two elements result in a vastly different …read more
Continue reading Lowering the Boom on Yagi Element Isolation
If you are looking for a fun project while you are cooped up and you have some spare coathangers, why not try this 4-element Yagi antenna (PDF)? [Pete N8PR] showed it off at his local ham radio club and it looked like something good for a lazy afternoon. If you …read more
Continue reading Beat Your Coat Hangers into Antennas, Not Plowshares
If your neighborhood is anything like ours, walking across the street is like taking your life in your own hands. Drivers are increasingly unconcerned by such trivialities as speed limits or staying under control, and anything goes when they need to connect Point A to Point B in the least …read more
Continue reading Keep an Eye on the Neighborhood with This Passive Radar
For hams and other radio enthusiasts, the best part of the hobby is often designing antennas. Part black magic, part hard science, and part engineering, antenna design is an art. And while the expression of that art often ends up boiling down to pieces of wire cut to the correct length, some antennas have a little more going on in the aesthetics department.
Take the discone antenna, for example. Originally designed as a broadband antenna to sprout from aircraft fuselages, the discone has found a niche with public service radio listeners. But with a disk stuck to the top of …read more
Continue reading This Mostly 3D-Printed Discone Antenna Is Ready For Broadband Duty