HamRadioList Blog
Articles, tips, and stories from the ham radio community — by operators, for operators.
How to Log Field Day Contacts Cleanly and Avoid Dupes
Field Day is one of the best times to get on the air, but it's also one of the easiest times to end up with a messy log. Multiple operators, multiple stations, tired hands late at night, and a steady ...
Using Practice Exams the Smart Way to Pass Faster
Practice exams are the single best tool for getting ready for an amateur radio licence test, but most people use them wrong. They run test a...
Ground Loops and RF in Your Digital Setup: Fixes That Work
If your digital station hums when you plug in, drops a USB connection mid-decode, or the radio gets twitchy the moment you key up, you're no...
Setting Up a Ham Shack in a Small Apartment
A small apartment can absolutely host a real working ham radio station. You won't put up a tower, and you probably won't run a full-size bea...
Split Operation Explained: Why DX Stations Listen Up
If you've ever called a rare station again and again with no reply, only to notice other operators getting through just fine, there's a good...
Coax Loss Explained: How Much Power Reaches Your Antenna
Every watt your transceiver produces has to travel through a length of coax before it ever reaches the antenna. Some of that power never arr...
Autumn HF Propagation: Why Fall Is a Great Season for DX
Something changes on the HF bands every year right around now. The days get shorter, the static crashes that plagued summer evenings fade ou...
Setting Up CAT Control: A Step-by-Step Beginner Walkthrough
CAT control — Computer Aided Transceiver control — is what lets a program on your computer read and change your radio's frequency, mode,...
Field Day Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide for First-Timers
Field Day is one of the best on-ramps in amateur radio: a full weekend of operating outdoors, usually with a club, that mixes contesting, ca...
Your First 30 Days of Ham Exam Study: A Daily Plan
Studying for a ham radio exam feels like a big job until you break it into small daily pieces. Thirty days is a reasonable window for many p...