@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoToday's #HamRadio project was making elevated radials for an HF vertical. I have a 25' whip, a JPC-12, and some random parts I made. My idea is to have more efficient elevated radials, but unlike ground-coupled radials, elevated radials need to be tuned.
I thought this would take me 1–2 hours.
It took about 5 hours.
When you have ground-coupled radials, you have only o…
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoThis morning was my first experience of teaching a #HamRadio study course to prepare prospective hams to take the Technician test. Unlike @…, we don't fit it into one day; we are doing three successive Saturdays, with testi…
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoWhile Rob Sherwood is unlike to test the QRP-Labs QMX as far as I know, #HamRadio
@laf0rge@chaos.social @mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoToday I learned about #HamRadio
@hex@kolektiva.social#DearLazyWeb ( #Nederland #HamRadio edition): I have small kids. My oldest is just turning 7. I have an idea of starting to introduce radios to them and some other parents are also interested.
I'm starting with walkie talkies and basic radio protocol. My thought is to try to play a few games of "keep talking and no one explodes" over walkie talkie, then trying to expand that out into an informal radio net or something. I have some other ideas for projects, like downloading weather satellite data or something (but I think this may be a bit too advanced, perhaps).
I've also been thinking about playing a bit with LoRa radios (meshcore or reticulum), but I haven't yet figured out an application that would be fun for kids.
One parent suggested a kids radio broadcast. In the US it's possible to get a local FM license (within about 2 kilometers) for community stations and educational use and such. Is there any similar program here in NL?
Extra question for #Ham operators: are there other simple kid friendly projects you can think of?
For parents (to gauge interest outside of my weird little circle): one goal here is getting kids into radio to build the next generation of disaster communication. Is this something you would be excited about for your kids? Is this something you would be interested in seeing as an after school program?
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoI've seen so many excited (or annoyed) notices about the changes to the 60m #HamRadio band in the US. Many of them seemed to think that they were in effect already (wrong) and those that didn't make that mistake would just say "soon" (not helpful).
It turns out that 13 February 2026 is the day that you can use the additional band allocation on you…
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoI keep seeing #HamRadio antennas using all sort of huge devices to create links between band segments. Alligator clips. Wago blocks. Mueller clips. Mostly with the antenna wire tied to something stiff that makes it hard to roll up neatly, rather than using flexible cord. I keep looking for and not finding examples of my approach to linking.
My solution is so simple, neat, and tidy…
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoAnyone want to be first QSO for a new #HamRadio Technician trying 10m POTA? QSY to 28.367 and take KR4KZA's CQ. 😁
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoDX Engineering maybe should turn off their "upcoming" feed for... certain times of year 🤣
#HamRadio
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.infoOne more #HamRadio operator in the family as of this evening, just waiting for a call sign to be assigned. 🎉