Free Republic

Before you can get on the air, you need to be licensed and know the rules to operate legally. US licenses are good for 10 years before renewal and anyone may hold one except a representative of a foreign government. In the US there are three license classes—Technician, General and Extra.

Trading firms are asking FCC to open shortwave frequencies to greater commercial use Ham radio operators are sounding the alarm over the latest threat to their beloved hobby—and this time, it is coming from Wall Street. A group of high-frequency trading firms is asking the Federal Communications Commission to open shortwave frequencies to greater commercial use, so they can use radio to zip financial data around the world in milliseconds. Prominent members of the amateur-radio community say interference from traders’ broadcasts could ruin their hobby, which often involves tuning in to weak radio signals so they can chat with fellow...

On Wednesday, Salt Lake City public lands officials hiked for hours up a snowy trail to remove a mysterious device – one that’s popping up all over the foothills. It consists of a locked battery box, a solar panel, and an antenna, according to Tyler Fonarow, the city’s recreational trails manager. “These towers have been bolted into different peaks and summits and ridges around the foothills,” Fonarow explained, “and it started with one or two, and now it might be as much as a dozen.” The first ones appeared about a year ago, but Fonarow said many more were found...

I'm looking to purchase a good Ham Radio and need guidance. Is it difficult to get a license? Looks like we'll need one in the near future, so I may as well get started. This beginner learns fast, but needs some direction to start. Thanks in advance.

A powerful solar storm is set to hit Earth on Thursday (March 31) with spectacular aurora displays accompanying it after the sun fired nearly 20 flares from a single sunspot in just two days. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), spat out from the overactive sunspot AR2975, on Monday (March 28), are heading toward our planet and might trigger a geomagnetic storm rated as G3 on NOAA's five-point scale.

Radio amateurs in Ukraine appear to be diligently maintaining radio silence as the state of emergency declared there just prior to the Russian military invasion remains in effect. A February 24 decree from President Volodymyr Zelensky included “a ban on the operation of amateur radio transmitters for personal and collective use.” The Ukraine Amateur Radio League (UARL/LRU) reported this past week that it has received many messages of encouragement from the worldwide amateur radio community.“The LRU informed international amateur radio organizations about Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine,” said the message from UARL Vice President Anatoly Kirilenko, UT3UY. “To date, there...

Ok fellow Freepers. Drag out the junk box and dust of the Key and Dipole. I believe this is about to get nasty and communications in a cyberattack will be target one.

Another day, another Deep State participant outed. ICIG Michael Atkinson altered the whistleblower form to allow for second-hand information, which allowed suspected Schiff whistleblower Eric Ciaramella to present a bogus accusation on the President. Atkinson also oversaw the FBI lovers who altered the FISA warrant. This will soon be reported in the DOJ IG’s FISA Abuse report. Today we point out that Atkinson’s wife is connected to Fusion GPS. What a mess! Last weekend we learned from another leak to the Washington Post, that an individual in Obama’s FBI altered documents that provided support for a FISA Warrant obtained to...

When first responder communications networks failed after 9/11, the government decided to build a nationwide wireless emergency communications network that would actually work. It took a decade of general histrionics and dysfunction by Congress, but in 2012 the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act formally created the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). FirstNet is an entirely new federal agency tasked with coordinating the build of a 700 MHz LTE-based coast-to-coast emergency broadband network. But since its creation the effort (tell us if you've heard this one before) has been plagued with dysfunction, allegations of incumbent carrier cronyism, and...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

WASHINGTON -- Two pipe bombs left at the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees, discovered just before thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, were actually placed the night before, federal officials said Friday. The FBI said the investigation had revealed new information, including that the explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, the night before the riot. The devices were not located by law enforcement until the next day. It is not clear whether that means the pipe bombs were unrelated to the next day’s riot...

Breaking Mark Meadows — ‘Trump asked me to declassify new spygate documents this morning’ Here's Meadows revealing that the president requested to declassify the documents that Devin Nunes asked for, which include the second and third Danchenko interviews. Of course you can always count on the Fox & Friends crew to completely miss the momentousness of that news. pic.twitter.com/oVzqqXPhGv— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) October 5, 2020   And here's what Nunes asked for, specifically the underlying evidence that shows that Danchenko and Steele were hired to "cover up what the Clinton campaign was doing", as well as the Danchenko interviews. pic.twitter.com/UryZpsi3uv—...

A quick test of the 3.4GHz PCB yagi that came with the SG-lab (http://www.sg-lab.com/amateur.html) 3.4GHz transverter. I also compare it to the WA5VJB LPDA 2-11GHz model, PCB antenna

In continuation to my previous post, I will start discussing how I solved the wireless distribution at my church in an economical way with a DIY Wireless Microphone Antenna Distribution setup. One of my many hobbies include amateur radio, which is the personal & experimental use of specific radio frequencies established by the FCC. My callsign is KD7QCU. Basically, I am a big nerd of radio stuff. I get to talk to people all around the world with my radio and antennas outside of my house. It is quite a fun hobby and our technological age with regards to RF...

Patch antennas are regularly used in ATVs, beacons, MIMO, wi-fi applications, AMSAT, GPS, repeaters, wireless systems and dish feeds. But what are the pros and cons of using them?

I received a log periodic antenna designed by ham radio operator WA5VJB from Kent Electronics. They are rated from 2 to 11 GHz, so this model will cover several of the ham bands. These antennas are made on PCB's and are ideal for use in the amateur microwave bands as compromise dish feeds. In this video I do a test of such a feed versus my patch antenna on the 3.4 GHz band. https://www.wa5vjb.com/products1.html I mounted one in place of the original dipole feed on a 2.4 GHz (13cm) gridpack at the same focal point. Whilst gain will be down...

UKuG Yagi Antenna talk by Kent Britain WA5VJB

Robert Glorioso, W1IS,who describes how he solved some problems in making dual-band J-poles(intended mostly for field use) function well on both 2 meters and 70 centimeters.

This talk should be of interest to anyone interested in building their own Yagi antennas for the VHF and UHF bands. The talk lasts for about 38 minutes with a short 10 minute Q&A session after it. WA5VJB also has his own website which has antennas and equipment for the microwave bands here... https://www.wa5vjb.com/index.html Posted by John, EI7GL at Thursday, February 18, 2021

Operating on satellites is relatively straightforward, but over the years many tips, tricks, and secrets have been discovered which make operating more efficient and pleasant. Here we are collecting information of use to both the new and experienced operator. Fox-1 Operating Guide, updated for 2019, includes pointers on getting started and provides a handy reference to the Fox-1 cubesat operating frequencies. This color PDF file is designed to print double-sided. Two different resolution versions are available: Low resolution PDF suitable for on-screen display (~300KB size) High resolution, press quality PDF for hard-copy printing (~1.6 MB size) The AMSAT Hamfest Brochure...