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100th Anniversary of Three Sisters Radio Towers

| February 20, 2013 | 8 Comments

At a period in the history of Arlington, Virginia, long ago, there was an area called Radio, Virginia. It was a neighborhood named for the old U.S. Navy Wireless Station in the vicinity of Columbia Pike and Courthouse Road. A trio of radio antennas – known to locals as “The Three Sisters’’ – towered over […]

A Ham in the Family

| February 2, 2013 | 0 Comments

Forty years ago, singer and songwriter Jim Croce was enjoying new found success after signing a recording contract with ABC Records.  Croce released two albums and several singles, including You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels), and Time in a Bottle.  His biggest single Bad, Bad Leroy Brown hit […]

QSONet delivers virtual ionosphere for amateur radio

| January 27, 2013 | 0 Comments

QSONet is a good, timely resource for hams: The Cormac Propadex – Current Ionospheric Conditions: Propadex is updated four times per hour Eight hours of history is shown on the graph. When the Propadex is high, it means the F2 maximum useable frequency is higher than average for this time of day. Technical Details: The […]

U.S. Frequency Allocations Wall Chart

| January 22, 2013 | 0 Comments

Any ham knows that the radio spectrum is crowded. How crowded? Well, nothing drives home the point better than this PDF wall chart from the Department of Commerce.  Click here to access the PDF.

Leisurely and impressive DXing on HF

| December 26, 2012 | 0 Comments

By John Duggan, WC3Q The year 2012 comes to a close and it’s been a busy one. I’ve not been able to participate in regular RACES nets due to work commitments, but 2012 has been a successful time for “leisurely DX’ing.” I’ve finally lived in the same spot long enough to earn WAS and DXCC […]

Silent Key: Sean Smith, KG4WSS, Killed in Consulate Attack

| September 20, 2012 | 0 Comments

Sean P. Smith, KG4WSS, of Falls Church, Virginia, was killed when the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked on September 11. He was 34. Smith was one of four Americans, including Chris Stevens — the US Ambassador to Libya — who was killed in the attack. Smith, a native of San Diego, enlisted in […]

Amateur radio support for the 37th Marine Corps Marathon

| August 24, 2012 | 0 Comments

By Gerry Greenwood, N3EVT The 37th annual Marine Corps Marathon will be held on Sunday, October 28, 2012. Amateur radio has traditionally supported the foot race with radio operators positioned all along the 26 mile course and at key medical facilities staffed by Navy medical. In addition those certified Arlington RACES personnel have supported Arlington […]

W4AVA’s remote receiver system

| August 23, 2012 | 2 Comments

By Dave Jordan, WA3GIN The typical remote receiver system is comprised to two Kenwood Land Mobile Radio transceivers; one UHF transceiver for the return transmit audio LINK and one VHF transceiver listening on the repeater input frequency, with dedicated DC power supply, UPS and generator. The receive audio from the VHF radio is matched and […]

Open Air Choke Balun

| August 23, 2012 | 0 Comments

By Dave Jordan, WA3GIN We hear a lot and see many articles about using balun technology to reduce RFI, provide better matching to balanced antennas like ½ wave dipoles or to reduce feed-line interaction with yagi and vertical antennas. There are naming conventions for baluns as well, such as voltage, current and open air choke […]

1950s era AM Transmitter gets ready for new life

| August 20, 2012 | 7 Comments