My Ham Radio Home Page

(You may have been directed here from www.ke0og.net) You’ve landed on my ham radio home page. I’m KEØOG, an Extra-Class ham radio operator. I’m active on HF, 2-meters, and 440 MHz. I use this page as an index to ham-radio-related material on this site.

What is ham radio? Watch this video from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB)

Current Geomagnetic Conditions for HF Bands

This chart shows various geomagnetic indicies and what the sun looks like now. These indicies show what HF propagation is like right now. You can use data like this to help you find a good HF band for operations. You can refresh this page to get the latest data.

Courtesy Paul, N0NBH, www.hamqsl.com

Becoming a ham radio operator

• The three amateur (ham) radio license classes. Some background material on license grades, the difficulty of the test, and the operating privileges.
• Videos to aid your self study for your ham radio Technician Class license: Technician Class Ham License – On-Line Help for Your Self Study, which you can also access directly from www.ke0og.net/training. The purpose of this series of videos is to talk you through the self study you’ll be doing with the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual. There’s one video for each section of the book, on the theory that it’s easier to study if someone’s given you a little overview.
• A similar set of videos for General Class
• A similar set of videos for Amateur Extra Class
• Randy Cassingham’s intro to ham radio
• How much does it cost to become a Technician Class (entry level) ham?
• How much does it cost to upgrade to General or Extra Class and get on HF radio?
• What do I do once I become a ham?
• Wouxun KG-UV3D: Inexpensive Dual Band HT
• BaoFeng UV-5R+ ham radio — incredibly inexpensive dual-band handheld
• Programming the Wouxun KG-UV3D and the Baofeng UV-5R+

How I do it (which will be different from the way you do it, but it’s sometimes nice to have something to compare to)

• Using a rubber stamp to turn a spiral-bound notebook into a logbook.
• My new Yaesu FTdx3000. I review my new FTdx3000. Great radio!
• New addition to my shack: Oak Hills Research OHR100A 5-watt (QRP) CW 20-meter-only transceiver. See my notes and review here.
• Ten-Tec Jupiter: My 2001 review
• Ten-Tec Jupiter: what I think of it after ten years
• The 12 vdc system at KEØOG
• Hy-gain 14-AVQ—My First Amateur Radio HF Antenna
• The MFJ-993B IntelliTuner
• HF Antenna Repairs
• Getting the 80-meter Loop Back in Shape
  
• Creating antenna masts using chain link fence top rail
• My single point ground

Getting on HF with your General Class License – a look at station necessities

• Ham radio 40-meter dipole: your first antenna
• Ham radio power supplies: 12 vdc (or 13.8 vdc)
• ICOM 9100—New HF/VHF/UHF Radio
• Kenwood’s Ham Radio HF Lineup
• Yaesu’s Ham Radio HF Rig Lineup
• Icom’s Ham Radio HF Rig Lineup
• Tuning HF SSB Signals. Tuning HF voice signals (SSB) can be a little daunting the first time around. Here’s a video that shows you how.

Special Techniques

• Packet Radio
• Using a Bulletin Board System (BBS) on 2-meter packet radio
• APRS
• APRS (and motorcycling) with pictures of my APRS tracker
• APRS vs handheld GPS location discrepancies
• Using the Wouxun KG-UV3D with TinyTrak4 APRS unit. Provides costs for each item.
• Using the Baofeng UV-5R+ with TinyTrak4 APRS unit
• APRS: Making UI-View and Weatherlink Cooperate
• Interfacing the Byonics TinyTrak4 (TT4) with various handheld radios. Pays special attention to JP8.
• Software-Defined Radio
• A presentation I gave at the Nov, 2013, meeting of the Montrose (Colorado) Amateur Radio Club on software defined radio, specifically the FiFi.
• Fox Hunting (hidden transmitter hunting)
  • Byonics PicCon Fox Controller
  • Circuit diagram for hidden transmitter hunting (my Fantastic Fox Finder), circuit by Dave Sharpe, KIØHG
  • Hidden transmitter hunting links and sites
• HF Digital Modes
• The JT-65 digital mode: my first QSO. (For some background, see this YouTube video in which Joe Taylor, Nobel Laureate, discusses his invention of JT-65, JT-9, and other digital modes.)

Computer Issues

• RS-232 Interface for Windows 7: It works!

Miscellany

• Cool QSL cards from www.hamtoons.net. Jim is a cartoonist and can make colorful custom QSLs just for you. Here’s the one he sent me. He’s got a cool website worth looking at.
  

  N2EST is a cartoonist and makes custom QSL cards. This is the card he sent me.

• App to create azimuthal maps based on where you live. Reader Rob, M6KOT, provides this link for those who want to make an azimuthal map based on your location. An azimuthal map shows the direction (azimuth) from your station to any place on earth and is handy if you want to know where to point your beam.
• Logging and QSLing for the Radio Amateur in the Electronic Age (narrated slide show). I gave this presentation on 20 Feb 2015 at a meeting of the Montrose Amateur Radio Club held in Olathe, Colorado. I added a narration to cover the main points and put it on YouTube.
• A list of things to bring next year for Field Day!
• Chronology of ham radio history, used for a presentation given at the Montrose Amateur Radio Club.
• Radio Frequency Interference in your Ham Shack: A Case Study
• A close-up view of an Electro-Bug Jr., apparently made in 1927
• ACP 131 lists all Q and Z signals. This is my old copy from when I was in the Air Force. I’ve put high-quality scanned, text-selectable pages here.
• An SET is a Simulated Emergency Test. I tried one out for the first time, and here are my notes to myself. They may help you be prepared too!
• Bob Schaeffer, KJØG, recalls early history of Montrose Amateur Radio Club
• Communicating is a critical element of preparedness (link to news article)
• Trebuchet for Punkin’ Chunkin’—Royce Seymour’s (AAØJD) 2010 PieceMaker at the Olathe (Colorado) Punkin Chunkin event
• And here’s Royce’s 2011 entry at the Olathe (Colorado) Punkin Chunkin event!
• Emergency Communications: Alternatives to Ham Radio
• NVIS Links from Dave Coombs, KØEUS
• Ham4Ham, a site set up by John Borchers, KC3ASE, for those interested in software development for ham radio.

On-the-air Activities on the Colorado Western Slope

• VHF/UHF Repeaters (voice)
• Standard packet radio, as found on 145.01 MHz
• APRS (Amateur Packet Reporting System), as found on 144.39 MHz
• HF NVIS
• The Montrose Amateur Radio Club (direct link to club website)
• 2010 Field Day with the Montrose Amateur Radio Club (photographs)
• 2010 Montrose Amateur Radio Club Field Day (video)
• A Montrose Amateur Radio Club antenna repair party. We repaired and upgraded the antennas for Field Day use.
• 2014 Field Day with the Montrose Amateur Radio Club (video).
• Near Real Time F2 Layer Critical Frequency (useful for NVIS propagation prediction—if the freq shown on the website is a bit more than the NVIS frequency you want to use, you’re in business. If less, well, try a lower frequency.

LDS (Mormon) Church ham-related activites

• Our monthly “First Sunday” net (anyone can join) Net more or less permanently in hiatus