Is FT8 popularity growing at the cost of SSB Phone and CW?

Is FT8 growing at the cost of SSB Phone and CW? This is a million-dollar question. The debate on whether FT8 popularity is growing at the cost of SSB Phone and CW modes is raging across various social media platforms as well as other forums. Amateur radio operators with diverse individual preferences often have quite different and conflicting views on the matter. Some people tend to predict a doomsday scenario for traditional modulation modes while others justify it as a natural evolutionary process. On social media forums dedicated to ham radio, we constantly read about FT8 contacts being made in hundreds while very little is mentioned about the regular SSB radiotelephony, CW, or other traditional modes… It leaves an impression that by-and-large, the ham radio community might have embraced FT8 and consequently moved away from SSB phone and CW… At least, that’s the impression we get from what we read these days. Is the above assumption true? … Perhaps NOT! … Perhaps the majority of FT8 QSOs are done by radio amateurs who are relatively newer licensees, belong to the... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Antenna

Good Antenna for any Radio Station is vital The importance of antennas for radio communications can never be over-emphasized. A radio station is as good or as bad as the antenna it has. Functioning as an efficient radiator while transmitting and as an efficient receptor while receiving are the primary objectives. The performance and behavior of antennas can be tailored in innumerable ways. The radiation pattern of antennas can be molded to control the gain, directivity and coverage area. There are two basic types of antennas, the standing-wave and traveling-wave antenna. All antenna systems are developed around either of these two types. Complex structures are an extension of the basic doublet. Most antennas are resonant, however non-resonant designs are also common. Radiating elements can be oriented vertically, horizontally or obliquely depending on the design. The elements can be extended in multiples of the fractional wavelength. Multiple elements can be placed within the near-field of the primary driven radiator to shape radiation patterns. These elements can either be parasitically driven by drawing energy from the primary radiator as in the Yagi-Uda... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

How badly can high Local Ambient QRM affect HF Radio?

Effects of Local Ambient QRM on HF Radio Local ambient QRM (Noise) from various electrical appliances and other sources in the neighborhood often adversely affect HF radio communication. The negative effects of local QRM on an HF amateur radio station’s overall capabilities are usually far more pronounced than what most operators realize. The ability to address these noise issues may either make or break the radio station’s DX coverage efficacy. In the modern day-n-age, radio amateurs who live especially in urban and suburban areas are plagued with these adverse effects with several orders of magnitude greater nuisance value than the old-timers who operated several decades ago. Although these problems could be mitigated to a large extent by carefully choosing and setting up the antenna system, the unfortunate fact is that many radio amateurs do not even realize how or why these factors affect the radio station performance. The usual trend is to set up the antenna, use a low-loss coaxial cable which has become a fad these days, adjust the SWR to as low as possible either directly or using... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

5 Stages of Grief – Collapsing Hegemony

5 Stages of Grief – Collapsing Hegemony The 5 Stages of Grief that seems to be setting in with the gradual collapsing hegemony of the west are akin to the famously described 5 stages of grief by the renowned psychologist Elisabeth Kubler Ross in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying”. Of course, the psychological state of mind that she described was in the context of the death of a person or impending death due to a terminal illness. Nevertheless, her postulates appear to be quite applicable to the current ongoing global phenomenon of the gradual death of the unipolar system and collapsing hegemony. According to Elisabeth Kubler Ross, persistent, traumatic grief can cause us to cycle (sometimes quickly) through the 5 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. These stages are a part of our coping mechanism and our attempts to process change and psychologically protect ourselves while we adapt to a new reality. The 5 stages of grief define the 5 distinctive phases where they start in a Denial mode whereby refusing to acknowledge the hard... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Propagation

Understanding Radio Propagation The study of principles of propagation of electromagnetic waves and acquiring a reasonably good working knowledge of radio propagation go a long way in enhancing the quality of on-air experience for any amateur radio station operator. It is a complex subject where many variables of nature come into play. Radio frequency spectrum is extremely wide, starting at ELF, VLF, LF and going all the way through MF, HF, VHF, and UHF into the upper microwave spectrum, L, S, C, X, Ku, K bands and beyond. The propagation behavior through various mediums at different frequency bands varies drastically. As amateur radio operators, we are mostly concerned with MF, HF, VHF, UHF, and lower segment of the microwave spectrum. Most challenging of all these is HF radio propagation. HF radio propagation is influenced significantly by several exogenous factors like seasons, Geo-magnetic field variations, normal solar activity, and transient coronal ejections from the sun. Not only the fundamental principles but also the ability to reasonably forecast propagation possibilities based on various geophysical parameters and solar radiation data metrics is important.... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Interpretation of S-Meter Noise Floor in HF Radio Receivers

S-meter Noise Floor in HF Radio Receivers In this article, I will focus on the interpretation (or perhaps misinterpretation) of the S-Meter Noise Floor levels as they prevail on HF radio receivers of typical transceivers used by amateur radio operators. Over the past year, I have covered various aspects of the difficulties that are often faced while negotiating propagation conditions on the HF radio bands. This is especially true during the current bottom phase of the Solar Cycle as we make the transition from cycle #24 to #25. This phenomenon is expected to persist for quite a while more, and therefore our discussions will continue to be quite relevant for a long time. Even later, during the healthy part of the upcoming solar cycle, the measures that we take now will continue to let our optimized radio stations perform far better than the non-optimized stations of many of our peers. Through a set of several articles, I have tried to place on the table various pitfalls of working HF DX under these conditions as well as offered various solutions to... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Skip Zone – HF

Beware of Skip Zone while working HF radio A good radio amateur friend of mine from Poland sounded quite anxious when he told me that his new antenna was behaving peculiarly. He was afraid that being a restricted-size vertical antenna perhaps it was not performing as it should. He asked for my views. After speaking to him I realized that there was nothing wrong with the antenna but the problem was entirely different. The issue that my friend was facing was a typical ionospheric skip zone situation. Although on the 20m band, he could work stations in Moscow, and various parts of Italy, and Spain which are all quite a distance away, he was unable to copy or work into nearby countries like Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, etc. I soon realized that in his hurry he had completely forgotten to account for the prevailing “Skip Zone” around his QTH. All of us make such mistakes and then scratch our heads over inexplicable results. For those who would like to visualize what was happening on the 20m band from the location... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Principles of Radiation

How does antenna radiation occur? The basic question before us is how does an antenna work? Why does antenna radiation occur? Why does a wire carrying RF current radiates to produce EM waves which travel through free space or the propagation medium across long distances? How does antenna radiation actually occur? There are many such related questions pertaining to the fundamental principles of the functioning of antennas. We will try to keep the discourse simple as we try to unravel the mysteries of antenna radiation. Does it mean that any wire carrying alternating current behaves like an antenna? The answer is both yes and no. Theoretically, when alternating current flows through a conductor (wire, pipe, rod, etc.) will potentially convert some of the electrical energy into electromagnetic (EM) wave radiation. How small or how large is the quantum of EM energy radiated from the conductor will depend on several factors which include the geometrical layout of the wire, length of the wire in relation to the wavelength (λ) or frequency (1/λ) of the AC excitation source, its proximity to another... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Impact of VHF-UHF Radio Repeater Site Location on Coverage

VHF-UHF Radio Repeater Site Location vs Coverage The significance of VHF-UHF radio repeaters’ site location for achieving the desired reliable coverage range cannot be taken lightly. Adequate due diligence is required in terms of assessment of the topology of the territory to be covered. A radio repeater site that is located on a high elevation geographic feature would usually provide a technically viable option. Of course, the physical logistic viability of the site is also equally important. Some geographic features might be technically excellent but might be difficult to access and hence might not be logistically viable. Therefore, site selection is often a tricky process that could require a lot of thought. Needless to say, depending on the topology of the land, at certain places, the best choice of a radio repeater site might be obvious and quite intuitive. For instance, a city with a hill on the outskirts that is visible from all across the town would be an ideal choice. Similarly, a suburban or rural area on a plain terrain could be served sufficiently well by a radio... Click Here to Read Full Article […]

Urban Antenna Height above ground – Facts & Myths

Urban antenna height above ground – The truth The antenna height above ground, especially in urban areas on the HF bands, poses a set of unforeseen issues that an average radio amateur is often blissfully ignorant about. An experienced operator knows all this too well but a large section of our community is often unaware of several kinds of radiation lobe pattern distortions and reduction in overall antenna efficiency that occur due to the presence of various natural geographical artifacts and man-made entities like buildings, sheds, bridges, overhead cables, water-pipes, etc that cause havoc. Despite a seemingly good antenna height, the most common problems that usually plague a typical urban antenna installation are considerable distortion in the radiation pattern. The textbook lobe patterns and gain figures of antennas may not hold true anymore. The second casualty is the overall efficiency of the antenna as a radiator. The nearby building structures and objects within the near-field zone of the antenna often absorb a certain amount of transmitter energy and may also alter the resonance and spoil the attainable SWR. I have... Click Here to Read Full Article […]