Foundations of Amateur Radio

Onno (VK6FLAB)
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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?".

  1. vor 1 Tag

    CME, Wind, Flares, Flux and Geomagnetic Storms .. say what?

    Foundations of Amateur Radio When the Sun burps, something that it does regularly, the mainstream media starts talking about aurorae and optionally the end of the civilised world, not always as clinically as that. What's not talked about, let alone explained, is the nature of the solar burp. You've likely heard the terms Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, Solar Flare and perhaps Solar Wind, Solar and Geomagnetic Storm, and Solar Flux, but what do these terms actually mean and how do they relate? Let's start with some basic numbers. Our Sun is 150 million kilometres away from Earth. As seen from Earth, the Sun rotates on its axis every 27 days, called a synodic rotation period, because while the Sun is rotating, Earth is moving too. If that wasn't enough, the Sun isn't solid, depending on where you're looking at it, rotation happens at different speeds, faster at the equator, slower at the poles. You might have heard of the Solar Cycle, an 11 year period during which solar activity steadily increases, near the maximum activity its magnetic poles flip from North to South and activity slowly decreases until the cycle starts again. Until quite recently we've deduced this by counting the number of dark areas, called sunspots, on the surface of the Sun. All this to say that our Sun is one massively dynamic environment and with it come a whole lot of processes that science is still discovering. The YouTube channel Astrum has a fascinating video called "We Didn't Predict the Sun Would Do This", that describes much of what we're still learning. We experience the Sun as a source of light, but as a radio amateur you know that light only represents a small set of frequencies in the radio spectrum, it's better to think of the Sun as a radio source, emitting many frequencies at once. The strength of this is measured at 2.8 GHz three times a day at 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00 UTC at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. This measurement, the Solar Flux gives a good indication of the level of solar activity. Adjusted for the varying distance between Earth and the Sun, a Solar Flux Index, or SFI, below 70 means that solar activity is very low, above 150 is considered very high activity. In addition to radio waves, the Sun also spits out a continuous wave of particles. Different parts of the Sun emit these at different speeds, varying between 300 and 800 km/s. These particles, the Solar Wind, exist throughout our Solar system. Because the Sun rotates and the particles aren't being emitted evenly we experience the solar wind as having a 27 day cycle. Think of a water filled beach-ball hanging from a rope with a hole in it, spinning, creating spirals of water. Stand in one spot and every time the ball rotates, you get hit by water. When the Sun burps, often at a sunspot, where concentrations of magnetic fields cool the surface, bursts of electromagnetic radiation are generated throughout the radio spectrum. Measured in Watts per square meter, this radiation is called a Solar Flare. Travelling at the speed of light, it takes about nine minutes to arrive at Earth. Sunspot and solar activity is used to model and predict the potential for solar flares. Strength is classified in four stages, class B being the weakest, through C, M, and class X being the strongest, each ten times more powerful than the previous. Within each class, numbers 1 through 9 serve to provide additional resolution, X2 being twice as strong as X1. The most powerful flare on record was estimated to be about X45, recorded on 4 November 2003, when at strength X17 the sensors overloaded. Some solar flares coincide with a massive eruption of particles, some of which are ejected violently, called a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME. A slow CME, travelling at 500 km/s might take three days to hit Earth, an extreme CME, travelling at up to 2,500 km/s might arrive in 16 hours. As the CME particles arrive, they distort Earth's geomagnetic field and depending on the severity, might cause a geomagnetic storm where fields are pushed closer towards Earth causing visual effects as aurorae. Recovery generally takes up to two days, but in extreme cases has been observed to take four. Disturbances of Earth's magnetic field are highly variable and are expressed in several different ways, the K, Kp, A, Ap and G indices. The K-index measured at individual observatories, ranges from 0 to 9 over a three hour period represents the maximum horizontal fluctuation in the geomagnetic field. Values of 5 and above indicating a geomagnetic storm. The planetary Kp-index represents a weighted average of 13 mid-latitude observatories. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA uses a G-scale, between 1 and 5, equivalent to a Kp-index between 5 and 9. The A-index is derived over eight K-index readings over a 24 hour UTC period at a particular observatory, below 20 is calm, between 20 and 50 is unsettled and above 50 is a stormy day. The Ap-index is an averaged planetary index based on data from a set of specific Kp stations. There's more. In 1760, a publication by Swiss polymath Leonard Euler indicated the existence of three stationary points between any two large bodies, known today as L1, L2 and L3. In 1772, Italian born, French mathematician, physicist and astronomer, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, discovered two more stationary points, L4 and L5. Known as the Euler-Lagrange, or Lagrange Points, some of these locations are being used today for solar observations, predictions and early warning systems. Launched on 24 September 2025 and in orbit at L1, between the Sun and Earth, at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, the SOLAR-1 satellite acts as an early warning for solar storms. Since particles travel slower than the speed of light, this provides about 15 minutes warning for extreme CME's and longer for slower events. It became fully operational on the 10th of June, 2026. As part of the same Space Situational Awareness Programme as SOLAR-1 is the European Space Agency's Vigil space mission. Intended to be placed at L5, 150 million kilometres from Earth, it will be able to observe solar activity as the Sun rotates towards Earth and reports indicate that this will increase early CME warning by two to four hours. Vigil will also allow for four to five day space weather forecasts. It's planned for launch in 2031, mind you, it's going to take three years to get to L5. Aimed with all that information, I was actually, for the first time, able to at least understand the solar report in my Mastodon feed. "The Sunspot Number has dropped to 88. The Solar Flux Index has risen to 149. G1-class geomagnetic storms are predicted for today. A-Index is 14, K-Index is 2. Chance of flares today: 55% for M-Class, 10% for X-Class." Armed with that information I'm going to make myself a cuppa and figure out what my WSPR beacon has to say about all this. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  2. 18. Juli

    The power of patience and pacing

    Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the more, let's call it challenging, skills to learn in amateur radio is the pace of the process. For many new amateurs I meet, face-to-face, on-air or online, the excitement to get started, to get on-air, to make a contact, to do something, anything, is contagious. It's absolutely delightful to hear the reports of victory and triumph in the face of adversity, and truth be told, it's worth celebrating, more than we often do in this community. So, let's start there, if you've made it on-air, congratulations, well-done, very nice! If you feel so inclined, perhaps you'd like to document this achievement. I'll hasten to add, this documentation is for your own records, more on that in a moment. I will point out that you are under absolutely no obligation to create documentation, and even less obligation to make it public, you know, aside from any record keeping requirements set-out by your regulator. Now that you've made this first on-air contact, your obvious next activity is to do it again, perhaps with a slight variation in frequency, location, antenna or radio. This process will likely continue until at some point making contacts like this is no longer exciting or rewarding. Some amateurs stop here and are never heard of again, and while that's disappointing, that is absolutely your prerogative, since this is a hobby, more precisely, your hobby. I'm mentioning this because it's all too easy to forget this fundamental aspect of our community, especially when you're swept up in the excitement of it all. Over the years I've experienced the excitement associated with this hobby and the community first hand. I've also witnessed the activities of others, amateurs who come in with their tail wagging, running from here to there, sniffing all the bushes and drooling all over their homework, imagine a puppy exploring their new forever home and you'll get the idea. Just like puppies, these excited amateurs get to a point, about two or so years in, sometimes more, sometimes less, and then basically stop, exhausted, dissatisfied, disillusioned and disheartened they depart the hobby, never to be seen again. It reminds me a lot of new employees at the computing help-desk where I used to work. After about six months of running around, putting in long hours, pleasing every customer, putting on a smile all day long, dealing with the emotions of being the first point of call for every problem, many succumbed to burn-out and quit. It occurred to me the other day that the radio puppies are following the same pattern, albeit over a longer time span. And with that insight comes the realisation that we can do something about this. As I told my new colleagues at the help-desk at the time, to slow down, I can use the very same advice to you and for similar reasons. The field of computing is bound by imagination, so, essentially it's unlimited. The same is true for amateur radio. The hobby you perhaps unwittingly stepped into turns out to be unlimited as well. The implications of this are that one lifetime is not sufficient to know everything about either computers or amateur radio, and much more than three lifetimes if you choose both, ask me how I know. With that comes the realisation that patience and persistence pays off. The journey, not the destination, is the reward. So, if that's the case, what does this mean for you? For starters, it means that each contribution you make is valuable. It means that finding new stuff is inevitable and it means that you're not alone on this journey. So, next time you feel that you've done all there is to do in this hobby, think again. Each time you do something, anything, celebrate it. I did say I'd come back to documentation. Hopefully, by now you'll understand what the meaning of it is. If not, permit me to make an observation. If you don't know or remember what you did, how will you know that you're on a journey? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  3. 11. Juli

    The things you hear when you least expect it.

    Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day a friend of mine mentioned in passing that they'd hooked their Home Assistant dashboard to an RTL-SDR dongle to listen to the various ISM bands. If that sounds like gibberish, let me elaborate. "Home Assistant" is a tool that, among other things, allows you to control devices throughout your house, think lights, vacuum cleaner, air conditioning, and power sockets. It turns out that there are various plug-ins that allow you to connect it to a tool called "rtl_433", more on that in a moment. ISM, or Industrial Scientific and Medical, is a global collection of 13 radio bands, regulated by the ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, where devices are permitted to transmit all different types of signals, think microwave ovens, NFC, or Near Field Communications, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, but also weather stations, security devices, battery monitors, tyre pressure monitors, remote keyless entry, garage door openers and plenty more. The most "well known" ISM band is 433 MHz, but the most used ones are those we think of as Wi-Fi bands, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. It sometimes comes as a surprise that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi share the same frequencies with each other and many different bits of technology. While I'm here, I'll also point out that there are ISM allocations within the HF bands and up to 245 GHz, so plenty of spectrum to explore. A different friend heard about my challenges with two remote controls, came by for a coffee and dropped off a frequency counter and left me to determine what type of remotes I had in my hands, since labelling was absent. After charging this sparkly new gadget I spent a while trying to make it do the needful, but ultimately, despite trying in multiple locations without local interference was unsuccessful, this likely caused by the nincompoop behind the controls, but I digress. It occurred to me that an RTL-SDR dongle is perfectly suited to the job, as long as I can scan through the various frequencies and discover just which ones were associated with my cantankerous remotes. As is my want, I got distracted by installing "rtl_433". I have to tell you, just plugging in an antenna into an RTL-SDR dongle, I'm currently using my 2m and 70cm dual band antenna, running the tool and looking at the log, in the last half hour alone, I've seen 372 reports, across 16 devices, including several cars and a truck, weather stations, security devices and plenty more; half an hour later we're up to 22 devices and 771 reports, and 24 hours in we're up to 128 devices, nearing 17,000 reports. I'll note that this is using an RTL-SDR dongle, no fancy radio, no filtering, no interference rejection, all straight from the device. As you might expect, the reports keep trickling in, every 15 seconds or so there's a new decode and at this point I'm pretty sure I don't need to invest in a weather station in the near future, and if I figure out which Hyundai is driving around with low tyre pressure, I'll let them know. Also, because I'm not just lollygagging, my remotes don't appear to emit anything that rtl_433 can decode, but I did notice that the reports stopped coming in while the remote was active, so I suppose that's progress. In-case you're wondering, within "Fifty Things you can do with a Software Defined Radio", this is number "11: Read your neighbors'[sic] sensors". At this point I hear the calls from the peanut gallery: "But .. but .. but, this isn't amateur radio" .. to which I say, "Really?" In other words, amateur radio is what you make it and right now I'm interested in figuring out why my remotes are acting up and what better way than to play with radio, at whatever frequency takes my fancy. I wonder if there's any HF gadgets I can monitor. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  4. 4. Juli

    What does expertise look like?

    Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the years I've had the opportunity to operate my station with other amateurs in close proximity. From a community perspective, this is loads of fun; from a radio perspective it's been frustrating to put it mildly. For example if you're operating on say 40m and your friends are playing on 20m or 15m, if you're not careful, you'll all end up hating each other at the end of the weekend due to the harmonic nature of the amateur bands. Imagine my surprise when Keith W6KME mentioned in passing that together with the other members of the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club, callsign AA6CV, managed to operate 25 stations within a 300 meter circle from each other, without commercial electricity. Oh, did I mention, the antennas have to be within the circle and they operated on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m and 6m, no doubt there were other bands that I'm not aware of, and if that wasn't impressive enough, about a third of the space was allocated to public information. You can see their efforts at cvarc.org Mind. Blown. Given my less than exciting experiences to date, my first question to Keith was about inter station interference and Keith pointed me at a freely available article published in the May 2026 edition of QST magazine, titled "Station Setup Techniques to Prevent Field Day RFI" by Conrad N2YCH, which discusses a whole range of stations, including the AA6CV field day station. Very informative. One takeaway was that this is within the realm of doable for all of us. Another takeaway was that the stations in the article all appear to be high power, which is not something I have experience with, nor the budget for. I recalled that my local friends had done some abortive attempts at using so-called coax-stub filters. Essentially several specific lengths of coax that act as filters at particular frequencies, either to pass that frequency, so you can hear it, or to block the frequency, so you don't hear it. If you have a roll of coax, this could be a pretty cost effective way of making some field day filters. Somewhat tangentially, the other day I was having a conversation with a friend about technology in the world. We're both of a similar age and memories of Commodore Vic 20, MOS Technologies, bulletin boards and serial port multiplexers punctuated our discussion. At one point my friend commented on the vast knowledge and expertise held by a respected colleague, the implication being that we did not fall into that category. Given that we'd just spent the better part of 90 minutes discussing technology going back multiple decades and their impact in the world today, I pointed out that we too fell into that "expert" category. It's funny, even though I've been in computing for over 40 years and written over 780 articles on the topic of amateur radio, I don't particularly think of myself as an "expert". I think I know enough to know that there's plenty I know absolutely nothing about, and lots I know enough about to know that I'm dangerous. Imagine my surprise when I searched for "rg6 coax stub filters" and discovered a post on Hackaday, called "Coax Stub Filters Demystified". It opens up with the sentence "Unless you hold a First Degree RF Wizard rating, chances are good that coax stubs seem a bit baffling to you." and goes on to introduce some interesting observations and links to a YouTube video by "Fesz Electronics" cunningly titled "Coax Stub Filters", which includes a whole lot of detailed information, simulation and visualisation of various aspects of this phenomenon, including the impact of different types of coax, combinations of these and countless other variations, that I think is aptly captured under "RF Wizard", even if some Hackaday comments were dismissive. It brings me back to the underlying conversation around expertise. Everyone brings their own journey to this hobby. For some a coax stub filter is trivial, for others it's magical if not magic. I think that given the complexity of the interaction between multiple filters as shown by Fesz Electronics in their video, it's more complex than might appear at first glance. Now all I have to do is figure out if it's possible for me to create a set of stubs for my next shared field day. I'm thinking it would help if it was modular, so we can mix and match, but that's a challenge for next time I'm left alone near a pile of coax with a VNA, cutters, coax strippers, compression tool and a packet of F-type compression connectors. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  5. 27. Juni

    Failure is a dirty word

    Foundations of Amateur Radio It's a curious thing, this hobby of ours, in that the more you want out of it, the more challenging it becomes. For example, you might start your journey with a VHF or UHF handheld radio, sometimes referred to as a Walkie-Talkie or a Handy, and you start listening to the local repeater, or you try to make contact with a friend. Then you discover that it doesn't always work, so you learn about interference, terrain and antenna gain. You start looking for higher elevation or a better antenna and you discover that now you hear more, but you still can't talk to your friends and before long you're building filters and testing other gear and the journey continues unabated. This same incremental experience happens across every aspect of the hobby and it happens to all of us, perhaps unwitting participants on this amateur radio journey. Sometimes this experience leads to becoming discombobulated, discontented, disinterested and ultimately leads to disengagement, which in my opinion, does not need to be the case. Throughout our community we often talk about failure, as-in, a failed contact, a failed activation, a failed antenna or failed design, and on and on it goes. It occurs to me that we're not the only people who have this experience. "But the student will find that experience is the best teacher. The reason why I get along with comparative ease now is because I know from experience the enormous number of things that won't work. For instance, I start on a new invention to-morrow. From the great number of experiments I have made, and the vast amount of information I have stored up, I am saved a great deal of time and trouble in not having to travel over barren ground." If that sounds somewhat familiar, and reminds you of a quote about light-bulbs and failure, you're in good company, since those words were written in 1882 by the very same inventor of the light-bulb, Thomas Edison. In other words, the process of doing something doesn't end in failure, it's an experience, a point of learning, or if you want to be scientific about it, it's another data point. Just because something didn't go as expected, doesn't mean that it failed, just that something unexpected happened. I'm talking about this because we live in an increasingly complex world where our chosen hobby is made up from the very foundation on which we understand everything around us, the electromagnetic spectrum and all that it implies. Our adventures, frustrating as we might find them, are built upon the shoulders of giants who became silent keys long before our parents walked this Earth. Your participation, little by little, increases our global knowledge, experience and understanding and when something unexpected happens, it's time to celebrate, rather than give up in disgust. I've only been playing with radios for a short time, especially when I compare it with my experience in other areas of technology, but I can say, that framing matters. "Failure" is, in my experience, regularly thought of in a negative light and all too often it leads people to stop playing, because who really derives joy from banging your head against a wall? So, next time, when you're about to use that dreaded F-word, consider what might happen if you thought of it as a piece of experience earned instead? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  6. 20. Juni

    Building a new resource: How do you get into Amateur Radio?

    Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was asked a question on social media. Having answered this question several times before, I admittedly .. initially .. groaned, then provided the bare bones of a response. A little while later, I recalled that I had provided a detailed response to this same question, as it turns out, five years earlier on a different social media platform, so I added another response that included the link to that answer. It all still felt very incomplete and inadequate and I couldn't leave it alone. Which leads me to the anxiety generating question and my response to it. Here goes: "[h]ow do you get into amateur radio? Is there like a 101 guide you could link me?" This is a question I've been answering for quite some time. Searching for the word "start" across the titles of my podcasts, there's 17 articles on the topic. So, having searched previously and fruitlessly for something resembling a universal answer, this to disclaim that I didn't look again and perhaps someone else has done something about it, I started a new project, because of course I did. I named it: "Getting Started in Amateur Radio" and published it on my GitHub repository. The intent of the project is to give the visitor a gentle introduction to the hobby, provide some idea of why you need a license, how it's different from things like the Citizen's Band, how you'll be starting on a life-long journey and introducing the concept that each country is slightly different. Think of it as an onramp into the hobby and our community. To deal with those, essentially legal differences between countries, I also consulted the International Telecommunications Union, the ITU, and created a folder structure of Regions and within it a folder for each country that the ITU as a United Nations specialised agency recognises. Before you ask, Yes, I'm aware that the UN doesn't recognise some countries that you might. I don't know how the International Amateur Radio Union, the IARU, our global representative body deals with that. If you know, get in touch. Since I'm based in Australia, I started with populating the information there. It contains some information about the regulator, representative bodies, callsigns, links to more information and hopefully initial information sufficient to "find" the community. It's still a work in progress, but it gives a good idea of the intent. Now comes the hard part. You. My log processing tool, "awstats", tells me that there are 209 different countries in my logs that represent you listening, reading and sharing my articles. So, I daresay that between all of us there is enough to cover pretty much all of the globe and with it, personal knowledge on how to become an amateur in your country. So, as one amateur to another, let's get on-air and make some noise! Let's try and document what's needed to become an amateur in your country. Please supply issue tickets, patches, emails, whatever you like, to get the information pertinent to your experience into one central place, so next time someone asks any of us: "How do you get into amateur radio?", there's a place we can share, that you contributed to and that contains the information pertinent to anyone who'd like to play. Look forward to hearing from you. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  7. 13. Juni

    Telling Stories to Strengthen a Community

    Foundations of Amateur Radio When was the last time you told a story? The hobby of amateur radio represents as diverse and disparate a group of humanity as I've come across in my life. While that might mark me as living a sheltered existence, I have been around the globe and experienced some of what life celebration looks like. One thing I never tire of is hearing stories from the people I meet, each unique and worthy of my time and consideration. Over the years, in the context of broadcast radio and subsequently producing amateur radio news for over seven years, I've had the opportunity to interview people and record their stories and share them with the world. There are stories I keep retelling and others I'll never share, depending on what I've been entrusted with. I'm mentioning all this because I think that our stories are what makes us a community, a group of humans with different lives who have a common itch to scratch, conveniently labelled "Amateur Radio". With social media increasingly manipulated into highlighting and emphasising our differences, it's good to remember that we can use it to celebrate our common ground, glued together by this crazy, beautiful, rewarding, frustrating and experimental hobby we share. So, next time you get on-air, behind a keyboard or rub your finger on glass, remember, we can share our stories and be richer for the experience. I should point out that the nature of the stories we tell each other is dependant on you. While telling tales with embellishment is attractive, I rather think that it's remarkable, all on its own, that we can use minuscule amounts of energy, captured by a piece of random wire to communicate with someone on the other side of the world, so much so, that glitter is rarely required. You don't need to feel compelled to narrate your life story either, although that's entirely up to you. I'd encourage you to share your adventures, one story at a time, to inspire those around you to embark on their next journey of discovery. And if you're shy and you're not sure how to start, start small, one story at a time, practice makes perfect. Also, if your circuit board narrative smells of chicken, you're holding the wrong end of the soldering iron. Meanwhile I'll persist with the recalcitrant SoapyAudio software in search for the final missing puzzle piece.. Ha! .. to make this infernal contraption do what I can imagine, if only that cursed Yak would stand still, but that's a story for another day. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

  8. 6. Juni

    Bald Yak 20: More Pi with the Soap

    Foundations of Amateur Radio The thing I think I love most about the hobby of amateur radio is the challenges it represents, not in terms of life or emotional ones, though I will admit that there's some of those .. in no small part due to the variety and complexity associated with being human and a member of the community, more in terms of figuring out how stuff works and then how much stuff there is. I was first licensed in 2010 and since then I've attempted to document the experience of being an amateur and discovering just what that might mean. This week has been interesting, if not quite as productive as I was hoping for. I spent a full day working on SoapyAudio, you might recall, it's one of the potential puzzle pieces in my Bald Yak project. I can report that it compiles fine on a Raspberry Pi 2, and when I get a moment I suspect that it will also work just fine on a Pi Zero. When I got to the point of packaging it all up, I spent hours trying to get my head around the Debian packaging system. For reasons I don't understand, nobody appears to have written anything that monitors the standard 'make install' step, save for one project called 'checkinstall' which has some serious bugs, like overwriting the system password file, and is not recommended. While in the middle of that adventure I discovered that SoapySDR and associated modules, utilities and support tools are already packaged in Debian. I'll confess that I emulated a stunned mullet when I noticed that. While this might mean that I essentially spent three days shaving a Yak for apparently no good reason, it did allow me to discover that SoapyAudio is currently receive only, but adding transmit doesn't look like an unsolvable problem. I still don't know why I went down the compilation steps but it allowed me to peruse the source-code which helped discover how some of this hangs together and I'll hasten to add that my understanding is currently incomplete at best, but that's par for the course. After discovering the existing packaging I installed 'soapyremote-server' on the Pi and it worked out of the box .. something which I'm happy to say is a regular occurrence with Debian packages, perhaps this is why packaging is so complex, another thing to investigate as time permits. I then added an external USB sound card with the audio going into the rear DATA socket of my FT-857d, and together with the CT-62 compatible USB CAT cable, that's Computer Assisted Tuning, allowing remote control of the radio, the Pi was ready to be the network interface to my copy of GNU Radio. Well, not quite. There's some secret incantations that I have still to divine, but thanks to random forum posts with hints at how to format the command string required, I'm making progress. GNU Radio can see the Soapy Server, has passed the checks to control the radio, which happens behind the scenes thanks to Hamlib, but stumbles on the audio card side of things. If it weren't for other life affirming activities in my diary, I would be reporting success, but I can tell you that I can taste it. Now, why does this make me excited? Well, it means that I can now use my FT-857d across the room, technically across the Internet even, to receive and process RF within GNU Radio. You might recall that this is one of the stated aims of this whole endeavour. In terms of "50 things to do with an SDR", this one will end up in the "Listen to conversations on the 2-meter amateur radio band" pile. While it's not particularly exciting to listen to the local repeater across the room, something which I can do by turning up the volume or getting a long headphone lead, it represents a small milestone in the pursuit of my Bald Yak project which aims to create a modular, bidirectional and distributed signal processing and control system that leverages GNU Radio. It's called Bald Yak because by the time I'm done, the Yak is likely well and truly shaved. So .. micron by micron I'm getting closer. Also, "like a stunned mullet" means to be dazed and uncomprehending, feel free to use it in public. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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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?".

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    Onno (VK6FLAB)
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