Foundations of Amateur Radio - Morse Edition

The building blocks for Amateur Radio, one concept at a time presented as 25 WPM 600 Hz Morse Code

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Starting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or HAM Radio can be daunting and challenging but can be very rewarding. Every week I look at a different aspect of the hobby, how you might fit in and get the very best from the 1000 hobbies that Amateur Radio represents. Note that this podcast started in 2011 as "What use is an F-call?".

Onno (VK6FLAB)

Episodes - Morse Edition

000
Welcome
001
Different soil types ...
002
What radio should I purchase?
003
Amateur Radio FAQ's
004
Cabrillo and ADIF file formats
005
7Ps of Amateur Radio - be prepared
006
Tuning a dipole, bring your friends...
007
Hunting for the perfect SWR.
008
Delta Loop for Portable Operation
009
Radio Amateur - the local lunatic
010
Do your thing and find friends to play with
011
Names in Amateur Radio
012
1000 hobbies under one roof
013
What to say in a contest...
014
Phonetic Alphabets
015
Every Antenna is a Compromise!
016
Propagation predictions and operating your radio
017
Use it or Lose it ... make a contact today!
018
Antenna Calculators
019
Getting started with portable operation
020
Propagation and reality
021
Wet string and 10 Watts
022
Tools in my shack
023
How to get started in a contest
024
Change one thing at a time ...
025
Fieldstrength and Chickens
026
Radios are not quite appliances ...
027
Picking better language to talk about our hobby ...
028
We should stop requiring electronics to be amateurs.
029
SDR diversity and Ah-Ha!
030
Contesting, something for everyone ...
031
Have a look or search online at the previous editions of this podcast.
032
How to manage your first pile-up.
033
Reviewing the introduction of the Foundation License.
034
Where did all the amateurs go?
035
Sizing your battery.
036
The humble dipole ... contraption.
037
What is the best antenna?
038
Experimentation is about failure ...
039
What's in a Repeater?
040
Bandplans and Edges
041
The CAT interface
042
Lucky Lightning Escape
043
Operating Procedures
044
Q-codes in voice
045
Coax impedence, 50 Ohm and 75 Ohm, why is it so?
046
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
047
What can you say on-air?
048
Logging software ... what to choose?
049
Lower and Upper Side Band, why is it so?
050
Harmonics and calling CQ
051
A surprise might be just around the corner...
052
How to get started ...
053
Training, Traumatic or Fun, you decide...
054
The logistics of being in a contest while mobile
055
How to make contacts during a contest?
056
After the contest ... the debrief.
057
Alternating Current and Direct Current are the same thing ...
058
How old is the mode you're using?
059
The band is dead and there are no contacts to be made...
060
Don't ever yell into a microphone and other neat things ...
061
The FM Capture Effect and other Amateur Radio magic...
062
Paper Logging tips and tricks ...
063
Learning from your mistakes ...
064
Unpredictable radio waves ...
065
What is station security?
066
What is SWR?
067
How to melt coax ...
068
Make your own propagation map!
069
The birth and legacy of IRLP.
070
Propagation is everywhere!
071
DX, common ground on a common term?
072
What happens if you move the feed point in a dipole?
073
Where do you start with this Amateur thing?
074
The joy of Amateur Radio
075
DTMF is something we use regularly ...
076
Amateur Radio Satellites ... more than two in the sky.
077
Messy shacks are the way we do things around here.
078
Manufacturer drivel and antennas ...
079
Coax vertical dipole and other musings ...
080
Passion and Politics
081
SOTA goat adventures ...
082
Do we really understand our hobby?
083
Tuning up strange antennas ...
084
More strange antennas!
085
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ...
086
A nifty idea looking for a purpose in 1947 changes the world as we know it...
087
What does MARS have to do with Amateur Radio?
088
Sun-Spots and Amateur Radio
089
This hobby is dead ... NOT!
090
The spirit of our hobby ...
091
If they're shooting at you - you know you're doing something right!
092
Checking your On-Air signal...
093
What is a resistor?
094
Life's too short for QRP...
095
Adding a stroke to your callsign ...
096
What is SOTA?
097
An Amateur Radio Code of Conduct
098
Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder
099
Amateur Radio Community Standards
100
What to say on-air?
101
Things you can learn from a new operating environment ...
102
The evolution of our hobby is now ...
103
What if the Radio Spectrum was a data souce?
104
Getting an elusive contact ... fly-fishing style.
105
Using an Alex-Loop, very satisfying ...
106
Magic and Curiosity in Amateur Radio
107
Mobile experiments with high power.
108
What's in a name?
109
Quick Fixes and Maintenance
110
Our Amateur License System is Obsolete
111
Contesting Protests
112
Mechanical Filters
113
Qualifications for using a Digital Mode
114
How does RTTY work?
115
How does PSK or Phase Shift Keying actually work?
116
Amateur Radio is about Experimenting and Trying!
117
Which antenna should I get first?
118
Amateur Radio Regulation and Enforcement in Australia is Broken
119
Storing your Amateur stuff ... everywhere.
120
Tropospheric Ducting explained
121
A transistor radio curve-ball ...
122
Organisation around your shack
123
Ladder Line is not Evil
124
What to pack for a Contest?
125
Radio signals don't travel in straight lines
126
Hearing very weak signals
127
What did you hear last week?
128
How does a Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator work?
129
How can you measure what frequency your radio is on?
130
Leave judgement outside the shack ...
131
60 years of amateur radio
1
eBook Volume 1
132
How does Single Side Band work?
2
eBook Volume 2
133
Amateur Motto: Do No Harm
3
eBook Volume 3
134
No Onno, it's not slippery and other lessons ...
4
eBook Volume 4
135
What is amateur radio?
5
eBook Volume 5
136
Building a better community?
6
eBook Volume 6
137
Virtual Radio
7
eBook Volume 1 - short
138
Just enough radio ...
139
Antenna gain and polar chart magic
8
eBook Volume 2 - short
140
How should I promote my contest?
141
What do you know now that you would have liked to have known when you started in amateur radio?
9
eBook Volume 3 - short
142
What criteria do you have for your ideal shack?
143
What improbable antenna solution works?
10
eBook Volume 4 - short
144
Amateur Radio Minimalism
145
Coax Loss vs Connector Loss
11
eBook Volume 5 - short
146
Coax Loss vs Connector Loss - now with more coax
147
You and the IARU
12
eBook Volume 6 - short
148
Experience comes from doing ...
149
Shakespeare and Coax Stub Filters
150
Learning on 2m FM
151
SWR assumptions
152
Preparation for an outing ...
153
Why do you contest?
154
How does a waterfall display work?
155
How to find other Amateurs on Air
156
The Internet of Digital Radio
157
Logging of a Different Kind
158
Get a Contesting Buddy
159
The Power for your Radio
160
How to get the best Amateur Radio gear?
161
Which repeaters should I put into my hand held radio?
162
Programming Repeaters ... Revisited.
163
The Contesting Coin Toss for the rest of us
164
Heated Elements and Circuit Boards
165
Water and Electronics a match made in hell ...
166
The mysterious three phase power ...
167
Getting Started ...
168
How to start your own net ...
169
Nothing like the standard of Morse Code ...
170
How can I talk to my friend?
171
Cloud Warming in style or what is NVIS?
172
Antenna Polarisation and you
173
Is man-made noise really vertical?
174
Random bits of wire ...
175
Everything you know about dipole (calculators) is wrong ...
176
Celebrate accomplishments
177
Get on air and make some noise ...
178
Everything you wanted to know about amateur radio but were afraid to ask!
179
The Golden Age of Amateur Radio is Now
180
When failure doesn't matter ...
181
Are you an Elmer?
182
When does knowing more make it harder?
183
How do I get a better antenna?
184
Contest Headphones and glorious HF SSB
185
What are you proud of?
186
QRP EME project update #1
187
Empirical evidence and the scientific method
188
Fan Vertical Antenna
189
The reported death of Amateur Radio due to FT8 is an exaggeration
190
Brand New Callsign
191
How to select a mobile operating location
192
How effective is your station?
193
Modern Tools for a Modern Hobby
194
More WSPR adventures
195
All the power in the world and not enough battery!
196
Creativity comes with practice
197
What's in a Chirp?
198
The Station Log
199
Overcoming Microphone Anxiety
200
When you hear a distress call ...
201
Fragility of Communication
202
Antennas out of sight and out of mind ...
203
How does a Software Defined Radio or SDR work?
204
Software Defined Radio is fundamentally a different way of looking at radio spectrum
205
SDR Sample Rates: How fast is fast enough?
206
SDR: How many colours inside a Software Defined Radio?
207
Digital Origami in Software Defined Radio
208
Software Defined Radio offers another path to the same information.
209
When digging gives you more understanding, the magic of software.
210
Milking Software Defined Radio
211
From Milk to Direct Conversion in a Software Defined Radio
212
The Regulator
213
The Software Defined Radio vs. Traditional Radio choice
214
Your Software Defined Radio around the home
215
What's allowed on our bands?
216
How far can I talk on radio?
217
What's in a word?
218
It broke and now what?
219
What's in a Watt?
220
New Entrants are Everywhere
221
Gate-keeping, special people and bullies.
222
Boating adventures
223
Planning for an outing
224
Going on an outing
225
Lessons Learnt
226
Leave some bread crumbs behind
227
How to make contesting interesting to an audience?
228
World Wide Radio Operators Foundation
229
First Solo
230
In pursuit of a challenge
231
Where is North?
232
Putting a radio in a car.
233
What's in a Whisper?
234
Morse Code and You
235
The SDR earthquake will change our hobby forever
236
How did you get here?
237
Lamenting the decline of the hobby.
238
What does Amateur Radio mean to you?
239
Where do you start?
240
What's in a plan?
241
The lessons we teach.
242
Is this frequency in use and other lies we tell ourselves.
243
How I host a weekly amateur radio net for new and returning amateurs
244
How I care for my connectors
245
Exploring an understanding of filters and circuits.
246
The chicken and the egg, which comes first, the antenna or the radio?
247
The impersonal nature of digital and other myths
248
All bands + All modes + All countries
249
On the shoulders of giants we stand.
250
What level of preparedness are you at?
251
Listening from the ground up
252
Breaking the isolation one QSO at a time.
253
When was the last time you played?
254
First ever digital contact!
255
Permission to be curious
256
So, you want to be an amateur?
257
How much is a bit worth?
258
Buying and using pre-loved equipment
259
The antenna and coax you use matter.
260
The humble coaxial cable
261
How to pick a field operating position?
262
Using something for an unexpected purpose can give you many great rewards.
263
If you WSPR and nobody hears you ...
264
Your antenna is a filter (of sorts).
265
What is a repeater offset and how does it work?
266
Homebrew radio for the 21st Century
267
What's the point of this hobby?
268
What do you talk about?
269
First Digital DX contact!
270
How much do you really know about your radio?
271
Channelling RTTY
272
After channelling your RTTY ...
273
When you run into a pounce ...
274
What is so different about using software for signal processing?
275
Yak Shaving ...
276
Simplicity among the complexity ...
277
New day, new mode ... SSTV
278
csdr will rock your world ...
279
An ionospheric monitoring service at home
280
The making of a Crystal Radio
281
Antenna testing in the field.
282
The excitement is palpable ...
283
It lives ... crystal radio with three components
284
For that one special event ...
285
When one WSPR receiver just isn't enough
286
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
287
2m reciprocity and other assumptions
288
If you want to do HF in an apartment, where do you start?
289
When will it ever end?
290
Testing a link, on a band, at a time.
291
The impossible task
292
The other radios in the world ...
293
The APRS of it all ...
294
The Vagabond HAM
295
Changing of the guard ...
296
What's in a prediction?
297
Running out of things to do ...
298
You Can't Always Get What You Want
299
How many hops in a jump?
300
Word of the day: software
301
Making observations
302
The remote edge...
303
Portable experiences ...
304
When you just have to try things ...
305
The dynamic nature of your shack
306
The massive physics phenomenon just over eight minutes away ...
307
How much bandwidth is there?
308
Ergonomics in your shack
309
Getting started on WSPR with a PlutoSDR
310
Soldering Irons and Software
311
Streaming a dozen repeaters with an RTL-SDR dongle
312
Bringing chaos into order
313
What radio should I buy as my first one?
314
Removing technology for a change
315
Here be Dragons, venturing into uncharted territory ...
316
When you share the hobby grows ...
317
What mode is that?
318
What Open Source means to our hobby and why it's important.
319
Share if you care...
320
How are contests scored?
321
The diversity of our hobby is breathtaking.
322
All the things that aren't amateur radio...
323
Being an equipment custodian
324
What's in a unit?
325
Taking your shack mobile
326
What's in a sound?
327
The Fox Mike Hotel Portable Operations Challenge
328
We need more glue in our hobby ...
329
The sun shines on our hobby in unexpected ways.
330
You in the community ...
331
Standard Information Exchange in Amateur Radio
332
The inherent redundancy of a compromise antenna
333
How to run an SSB contest without using your voice ...
334
The Ripple Effects of making change ...
335
What have you been up to in Amateur Radio lately ... Gary VK2OVA
336
Defeating the Pitfalls of Predicting HF Propagation
337
The Rebirth of Homebrew
338
One Timezone To Rule Them All
339
Amateur Radio and the art of getting started ...
340
Getting Amateur Radio propagation data at home
341
How does your gear measure up?
342
What testing equipment is essential?
343
Leaving the hobby ...
344
Products made from unobtainium
345
When I said Parrot Repeater ... I likely had a different picture in mind.
346
Bringing an upconverter into your life
347
What's in a Dream?
348
Testing your radio's audio frequency response
349
Pictures can say more than words
350
How to compare radios
351
What happens when you plug it in?
352
It beeps!
353
Introduction to the terms of contesting
354
Why do we communicate?
355
Planning for an emergency...
356
In the beginning there was chaos...
357
After the chaos ... building the ideal shack
358
How far can you go?
359
The art of troubleshooting the digital world.
360
The Science of Amateur Radio
361
Augustin-Jean Fresnel, Zeppelins and a picket fence ...
362
When should I go on air?
363
The Thunder and Lightning that destroyed my station ...
364
What are the rules for calling CQ on a repeater?
365
Can you build an all HF band concurrent WSPR transmitter?
366
Smith, the chart to end all charts ...
367
How to isolate and by how much?
368
If you had money, what would your amateur adventure look like?
369
Defining a standard on Contest Scoring
370
The power supply connector dance contest...
371
Much Ado About ...
372
Take a long hard look at our community ...
373
What's with the repeater offset again?
374
The microphone gain game ...
375
A code for amateurs
376
Consideration in Amateur Radio
377
Loyalty in Amateur Radio
378
Progressiveness in Amateur Radio
379
Being friendly in Amateur Radio
380
Finding balance in Amateur Radio
380
The Patriot in Amateur Radio
381
The Amateur's Code for future generations...
382
This space left intentionally blank
383
Setting a little personal challenge ...
384
The sedentary myth of radio.
385
A plan for distributed SDR decoding
386
My Virtual Workbench
387
What's in a VFO?
388
The nature of learning things...
389
How low can you go?
390
Attenuators, the missing link...
391
Morse is dead ... long live Morse!
392
Which way did it go?
393
One Volt ...
394
What's the weakest signal that WSPR can decode?
395
Where does propagation data come from?
396
What should we be learning?
397
What is the difference between handheld, mobile and a base radio?
398
Path loss and very small numbers ...
399
The evolution of software in radio ...
400
Do you really know when the best time is to go on air?
401
Some Amateur Radio ABCs ...
402
Are all spiky antennas the same?
403
Antenna Testing Day ...
404
Acronym not found ...
405
What's with a negative SNR?
406
The Contester In Me...
407
Lost in space ...
408
How much antenna is enough?
409
The antenna system
410
Why is radio regulated?
411
Doing the same thing over and over again ...
412
Propagation during the 2023 Solar Eclipse
413
Measuring the Solar Flux Index at home ...
414
Considering the language of our community ...
415
A Linux contest logger ...
416
Accolades in Amateur Radio?
417
What is our legacy?
418
Where is your community and how resilient is it?
419
Planning and making lemonade
420
Asking a professional in the community...
421
The nature and ownership of information
422
Adventures with Morse Code
423
Is Morse really built around the most popular letters in English?
424
Will the real inventor of Morse code please stand?
425
How fast is Morse code?
426
Jumping into the unknown ...
427
Gathering Data rather than Opinions ...
428
Starting to measure spurious emissions ...
429
How much attenuation is enough?
430
Checking attenuation numbers ...
431
Wet and Blue adventures with coax ...
432
Between decibels and milliwatts ...
433
All the power in the observable universe expressed in milliwatts ...
434
Gadgets on Demand
435
How much does your coax and antenna matter?
436
Let's talk about noise ...
437
Let's talk about gain ...
438
Let's talk about reciprosity...
439
Let's compare the same antenna in different locations...
440
Failure to simulate ...
441
Spontaneously getting out and about ...
442
What about promoting the hobby?
443
Report on Radio Harmonic Power
444
The visibility of our radio community.
445
It's the little things ...
446
Finding the right frequency.
447
The Art of operating QRP
448
How to see 56 MHz of bandwidth...
449
New arrangements for Australian Amateur Radio
450
What is a repeater or a beacon ... really?
451
What is the right mode for emergency communications?
452
What is amateur radio as an emergency response?
453
Writing to the regulator about amateur beacon and repeater licenses.
454
Getting things done .. or not.
455
The Art of finding an operating location
456
Technology at its finest ...
457
The skyhook dilemma ...
458
What's with all that lack of noise?
459
Are you up for a global party?
460
It's all just text!
461
RF is all around us ... starting your own station frequency survey
462
Weaving radio into your life.
463
The origins of the International Amateur Radio Union