Being a ham since less than a year, I’m not so aware about how much felt are national contests. I can speak for Italy, as I took part already twice (at first as an SWL, and then as a real player) in “ARI 40/80″ and “Bande Basse Italia”, which usually take place between the end of the year, and the beginning of the new one. Then, it happened me to witness, on 15 meters, the joyful Read more →

Fact: last Saturday I had the chance, with Giorgio IZ4AKS, to visit and operate, for a couple hours, from 4U1ITU (currently on the air as 4U1WRC), the station belonging to the International Amateur Radio Club (IARC), located in the International Telecommunications Union building in Geneva, Switzerland.

Post-fact: some colleagues and friends asked how it’s been. Read more →

Since last October, ABC is broadcasting in the US (on Tuesdays) a new sitcom, named “Last Man Standing”, starring Tim Allen. This wouldn’t make much sense here, but Mike Baxter (the character played by Allen) is an ham, and that makes interesting going through the subject. I investigated a bit how it could have happened. In the end, we’re talking about ham radio first time in a prime-time Read more →

Plan for tonight was to meet a new friend from Shetland Islands on 40 meters. He advised me, via e-mail, he was listening on 7149 kHz, so I set-up the radio and started calling. Nothing heard, but if every sked on this Earth would take place at first, then hobby could even get boring. A couple more calls, always Read more →

The new broadcasting season that begun in 2009 in Myanmar (check here the story by “Myanmar Times & Business Reviews”), with government starting to grant licenses to private companies, resulted in a “broad array of private FM channels” becoming available to listeners in various areas of the Union (namely, Rakhine State and Ayeyarwady Division, Shan State, Kachin State and Read more →

If you have, as yours truly, a good window to the east, Radio Free Asia has some interesting transmitting sites to chase. For some of them it’s also the last opportunity given to log some entities. For example, Saipan – long time home of KFBS (who hasn’t got their “Rainbow over the Ocean” QSL?!) – remains nowadays on the air only thanks to the IBB facility sending out RFA. That’s why, Read more →