Ham Radio And Shortwave Links

Most of this Web site is in German. But quite surprisingly my ham radio and shortwave link list attracted quite some readers from outside the German-speaking countries. So I extracted the English-language links and moved them to this page.

If you have some command of German you might be interested in my German link list.

Radio Link Lists

Yahoo Directory: Amateur Radio: A large link list
N0HR: Mostly a large link list centered on ham radio technology
American QRP Club: Link List: QRP projecs, clubs and suppliers
AC6V: Amateur Radio & DX Reference Guide: A large, lightly commented Link List and AC6V's own content. Many links are dead or link to Web sites that have not been updated for years. If you are interested in MS Word 3.1 this is your source.
XE1BEF "More Than 20.000 Radio Links": Besides his own DX reports Héctor offers many sorted links. Beware of the ads that the Web space provider inserts as soon as you follow any of the links.

Historical Telecommunication

This section provides pointers to historical information about telecommunication in general and especially amateur radio. I started it after a contact with GB5GHT.

The Portsdown Shutter Telegraph: As sad as it is: Wars always trigger advances in technology. This site is about an optical telegraph line during the Napoleon Wars.
AC6V: USA Amateur Radio History And Licencing: From the very beginnungs of telecommunications 2,500 years ago to modern US callsigns
The RMS Titanic Radio Page: Detailed information about the Titanic's wireless equipment and operation
Foundation for German communication and related technologies: A mixture of German and English texts
United States Early Radio History: From the telegraph in the wild west to AM broadcast
Vacuum Tubes: history and technology, with schematics
Ask Jan First: I am reluctant to link to commercial sites. But besides much materials you might need to restore tube equipment you find much information about vaccum tube technology - even some novel designs.

Radio Blogs And Podcasts

KE9V: Cornbread Road: The mystery unfolds in thirteen episodic adventures and its unlike any ham radio podcast you’ve ever heard before...
DXers Unlimited: The scripts of the half-hour transmissions by CO2KK over Radio Havanna, Cuba
EE-Blog: A video offering from down under: "The EEVblog is an off-the-cuff video blog and Podcast of interest to anyone involved in electronics design. Electronics professionals, hobbyists, hackers, and makers will find something of interest here." An interesting possibility to learn a special version of the English language...
With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings: For my taste to much talking and not enough facts.
Amateur Logic: A video blog living of visits to companies, ham fests and other interesting sites. The OMs use their medium quite good, but the file sizes are enormous from 100 MB for the lowest resolution
This Week In Amateur Radio: A weekly podcast that was by far the most professional - as long as it was produced.
Resonant frequency: A weekly podcast from the deep south of the USA.
Solder Smoke: Soldersmoke is issued once a month or so. The author is an enthusiast but not so deep into technology; I would not discuss the death of a single small-signal transistor for 20 min. In my view the most interesting aspect is the author's view of foreign countries. As a diplomat he has seen his share of those.

Information And News Centered On Broadcast

Radiomuseum.org: A virtual museum showing broadcast receivers containing forums, circuit diagrams and more.
The Interval Signal Data Base: At times when digital frequency displays were uncommon it was not easy to tune to a specific broadcast station. Therefore the stations had their interval signals they sent before their transmissions. The most known certainly was the Di-Di-Di-Dum of the BBC.
Shortwave Bulletin: Primarily a weekly news service for broadcast listeners. Contains a link list to product tests of SW receivers, modifications for receivers and similar.
FM Scan - Radio frequencies and transmitter maps world wide: Derived from a extensive data base this Web site computes the signal strengths of various broadcast transmitters at a given site. Other views show the listening range of long-wave and medium-wave transmitters. Great site!
The Radio Propagation Page: "The aim of this page is to provide a comprehensive listing of Internet sources relating to radio propagation at all levels from introductory to professional, and to present information on the RSGB's Propagation Studies Committee"
Euro-African Medium Wave Guide: List of all long-wave and medium-wave transmitters by frequency with data about technology, programs, addresses etc.
Hard Core DX: The name is the program.
Radio Reference Wiki: A wiki about radio themes

Information And News Centered On Ham Radio

RSGB Propagation Studies Committee: Starting point to find present propagation information for all amateur radio bands
AC6V: Callbooks: If you have a ham radio callsign and need the respective real-world address, you might find it here. For German radio amateurs you should use the official data base of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Alltop News: Ham Radio: A news portal with a dedicated ham radio page
Hamradio Daily: A news portal for ham radio only
DA sending closing message on Night of Nights 10: A video for CW connoisseurs: Denice Stoops, nicknames DA, was the first female operator of a coast station. This YouTube Video shows her while doing a message to all at KPH 10 years after QRT of the station. DA uses a semi-automatic key: The dashes must be given by hand, the dots are produces by a spring pendulum.
Space Station Crew Uses HAM Radio to Call Earth: A YouTube video out of the ISS: That is how an astronaut does ham radio. (With a short tour through the ISS)
Texting vs. CW: What is faster?: A clip from an US TC show
WSPRnet: Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network: This Google Maps Mashup shows current propagation paths of short wave. The data is provided by radio amateurs who operate QRP beacons using the MEPT_JT modulation scheme.
XE1BEF: Large ham radio Web site equally for DXers and technicians. Mostly a link list.
Simply phrases in European Languages: Standard QSO texts in many languages
Southgate Amateur Radio Club: A news portal for ham radio and all related to radio

Information and News Centered On Ham Radio Over Satellites

KA7FVV: Sattelites: Mostly a resource for starters and how to operate the FM satellites using a standard 20m/70cm handheld. Very helpful is a dual receiver rig that can receive on one band while transmitting on the other. This way you can hear yourself over the satellite.
N5AFV: Links to Useful Amateur Radio Satellite-Related Websites; Sattelite Antennas: This OM has gathered useful information for more than 10 years.
Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page: A compact, up-to-date overview for all active ham radio satelites, derived from reception reports.
Heavens Above: Here you find the information when you will be able to listen to a specific satelite.
DD1US: Historical Sounds From Space: Have you ever wondered what Sputnik 1 sounded like? Or what you could hear over amateur radio satellites? Here you find it!

Software For Radio Amateurs

Software that could not be attributed to any other topic is mentioned there. Therefore this section mentions overview pages. It relieves the technology section.

Afreet Software: VE3NEA writes software for radio amateurs. Especially DX Atlas and CW Skimmer are quite impressive. Most programs are distributes as shareware; you can test them for a month before you need to pay. A few simpler programs are freeware.
KC8UNJ: Radio Programming Software: Jim's software allows to extract configuration information from some VHF/UHF handheld transceivers in CSV format. You can use these standard-format files to backup this information. Or you can use your favorite spreadsheet program to modify it. Afterwards the software allows you to update the information in your handheld transceiver.
EA3QP: Ham Software Index: A large link list sorted by topics
CT2HGA: Downloads: A very large link list, mostly with ham-radio specific downloads
Mantaro Impedance Calculator: The ultimate answer for questions like characteristic impedance, impedance measurement etc.! This is more than a formula collection. This is more than a standard Javascript calculator. For example, you even find reasonable presets for relative dielectric constants. Someone thought it all through.
Circuit Sage: "a complete source of information to help you design great circuits fast." Links, literature hints, assorted texts and especially software support to calculate circuits. Many data sets are Mathcad compatible. They also run in an appropriate viewer, the only limitation being no save feature.
N9ZIA: Perl Scripts / Interactive Design / Software: A large list of online calculators for many purposes: dB calculation, Fresnel zone, air-wound coils etc.

Antennae

(Some sites could not be attributed to this topic. You find them in the following topic technology

YC8DDU: Download Antenna Software: A commented link list for software downloads for antenna calculation and related topics
HB9MTN Antenna Projects and more...: A few remarkable antenna recipes, e.g. the HB9RU beam there one half is missing.
N4SPP: Frank's Antenna Pages: Frank lives in a penthouse where he is to use invisible antennae. He tries to cope with a minimum of theory.
The WB0DGF Antenna Site: References to antenna simulation programs (NEC/MININEC) and compatible antenna models
4NEC2: "NEC based antenna modeler and optimizer by Arie Voors". Looks like a good entry point.
M. Walter Maxwell, W2DU/W8HKK: Another Look at Reflections: A complete book about antenna matching, importance of SWR etc. from 1974
Antennas By N6LF: A 7-part article from QEX about vertical antenna ground systems. Very good!
K1TTT Technical Reference: David operates a "farm that grows steel and alumium". In other words: Complete contest crews may visit him and use his infrastructure for a weekend. You can expect a lot of shortwave information. The site is a joy to read.
Antennas By N6LF: Rudy has done lots of measurements and experiments on shortwave antennas, e.g. optimizing of ground plane radial systems. Short form: A few radials a few inches above ground are as good as 64 radials in the soil. And if you use only few radials, they should also be shorter.
W4RNL: Ham Radio Antennas: A very large Web site about antennas, but most of it is only accessible if you pay a yearly fee.
VE3SQB Antenna Design Programs: A larger collection of specialized programs that allow to compute the element lengths of various antenna types.

Technology

The large fits all section.

SM5BSZ: Equipment For VHF DX: A wealth of information for the (very) serious VHF amateur including EME, SDR, and software
Microsemi-Watertown: The PIN Diode Circuit Designer's Handbook: A complete, 137-page book about theory and usage of PIN diodes. PIN diodes are specific RF components: A diode with a deliberately thick depleted zone (the isolation in PIN) can be used as an RF switch or in an analog attenuation circuit.
Audio Systems Group: Publications: One of the gems that are hard to find: Decades of experiences by an engineer and ham, in understandable form. Interference, ferrites, chokes and other topics in PDF documents
EB5AGV: Amateur Radio and Test Equipment Site: Here you are right if you always wished to peek into commercial measurement equipment or ham radio gear. Jose is an engineer by heart: After is day's work he relaxes by repairing equipment. His descriptions contain many high-quality pictures.
Radio Waves Below 22 kHz: Broadcasting uses 150 kHz and above, ham radio goes down until 137 kHz. Around 80 kHz there are some time signal stations. But Maxwell's equations are also valid for much lower frequencies...
RF Cafe: "Electrical / Electronics Conversions, Formulas & References"
EI9GQ homebrew radio page: Link list to home brew projects
RF Avenue Resources Directory: "RF & Microwave Resources" - a link list from Active Filters to VCO Design.
Techhnick Net: "Since 1998 Technick.net site it's a freely accessible Web site helping millions of people worldwide finding answers to their electronic and computer related problems. This website contains hardware guides, manuals, handbooks, tutorials and tools."
IW5EDI: A ham radio portal from Italy (English)
KK5DR: Tube-Type HF Amplifiers: The technical essence of several decades of QRO activity
VHF DX: Information by EA6VQ about ham radio technology, VHF and EME
Chris Trask, N7ZWY: Chris is an RF development engineer with many years of experience. He publishes tutorials and schematics.
PA0FRI: Technical Information for Hams: Frits gathered a lot of information - mostly from his own ham radio experience. Turn on your soldering iron!
W8JI: Antennas Radios Amplifiers Baluns and Receiving Systems for HF: Charles is mostly interested in the lower shortwave bands. His site contains many of his articles and references to other sites.
K0BG: A Web Site For Mobile Amateur Radio Operators: Much information about mobile operation on shortwave
ZL1BPU: Murray offers a variety of subjects, from QRSS to home-brew projects. He often uses Atmel single-chip processors.
S-Meter: A big bonanza for the technicians among the radio amateurs. Check your signal and listen to others on remote receivers. Read thousands of pages of ham radio information. Download ... radio-related design programs. There is no charge for receiver usage, any of the information, or any downloaded computer programs.
The Multimedia Electronic Literature & Learning Internet Site: Here you find lots of information to dive into electronics - from tutorials to literature hints to home-brew projects
K0BG: A Web Site For Mobile Amateur Radio Operators: The author writs from 35 years of background.
K3MT: Antenna Home-Brewing: Easy-to understand articles - e.g. about antennas that simply lay on the ground.
Clint, KA7OEI: Besides some more general topics this site is about lower frequencies (<2 MHz), direction finding, and the FT-817. Some very high frequency stuff got mixed in - from microwave to optical transmissions.
RV3APM: Software for Digital Modes: Links to ham-related software that uses sound cards