Category: survival guide
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Ham Radio on a Budget: Building a Complete Station for Under $500
The perception that amateur radio requires a significant financial investment has deterred many potential operators from pursuing their license. While it’s true that you can spend thousands on high-end equipment, the reality is that a capable and enjoyable ham station can be assembled for under $500—sometimes well under that amount. As someone who started with…
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Software-Defined Radio Revolution: Getting Started with SDR in Ham Radio
Software-defined radio (SDR) represents one of the most significant technological revolutions in amateur radio history. By replacing traditional hardware components with software processing, SDR has transformed the capabilities, flexibility, and price points of radio equipment. For today’s ham operators, understanding SDR opens up exciting new possibilities while significantly reducing the cost of entry to advanced…
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The Ultimate Ham Radio Field Day Guide: Tips, Gear, and Strategy
Field Day is amateur radio’s largest annual event, drawing tens of thousands of operators across North America for a weekend of emergency preparedness exercises, camaraderie, skill-building, and yes—a healthy dose of competitive spirit. Equal parts emergency exercise, contest, social gathering, and public demonstration, Field Day represents ham radio at its finest. As someone who has…
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HF DXing for Beginners: How to Talk to the World from Your Backyard
There’s something magical about turning on your radio, making a call, and hearing a voice respond from thousands of miles away. This is the allure of DXing—the pursuit of distant (“DX”) contacts in amateur radio. Despite challenging solar cycles, changing propagation patterns, and increasing urban noise, today’s ham radio operators are still making incredible worldwide…
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Build Your Own Antennas: 5 DIY Projects from Beginner to Advanced
In the world of ham radio, the antenna is arguably the most critical component of your station. A modest radio with an excellent antenna will consistently outperform a top-of-the-line radio connected to a mediocre antenna. The good news? Some of the most effective antenna designs can be built at home for a fraction of the…
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Digital Modes Revolution: Guide to FT8, DMR, and Digital Voice for Ham Radio
The amateur radio landscape has transformed dramatically over the past decade with the rise of digital communication modes. What was once a hobby dominated by voice and Morse code now features a rich ecosystem of digital protocols that offer remarkable capabilities—from making contacts when signals are too weak for the human ear to detect, to…
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Ham Radio for Emergency Preparedness: How to Stay Connected When Disaster Strikes
When natural disasters strike, modern communication systems often fail. Cell towers become overloaded or damaged, internet services go down, and power outages disable home phones. In these critical moments, ham radio operators frequently provide the only reliable communication link between affected areas and the outside world. As an active participant in emergency communications exercises…
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Easiest way to survive a European heatwave in 2023
Climate change is finally showing its effects all around the world. And Europe seems to be the one hit hardest by it; and there can be multiple reasons for it but the one that makes sense is that Europeans are used to a colder and more stable environment as compared to rest of the world.…