Why can the World Wide Award use the WARC bands? Because "it is not a contest". I'm not convinced. What's your take on this?

I had never thought that between the microwave studio-to-transmitter link (STL) receiver and the actual transmitter of a medium-wave AM station it was so important to place a modulation optimizer, an audio processor that would even have different settings for day and night so that the perceptual usefulness (not the fidelity) of received radio was maximized. I learned this by reading about the Orban Optimod-AM 9100B Audio Processor I saw in a picture.

Yet another example of grumpy old hams making it difficult for starting hams, just because they can. Gatekeeping at its best.

https://radio-uncensored.com/

#rsgb
#censorship
#foundation
#intermediate
#abroad

I joined Mastodon.radio some years ago and started following mostly hams and almost exclusively radio users. I only favour but never (almost never) boost non-radio posts. I post radio stuff almost exclusively. In spite of all that, my timeline is full of non-radio stuff: computers, AI, politics,... Is there something I've done wrong? Or is ham radio a sideshow for many of the accounts I follow?

Together with Xisco, EC6PG, I teach #cw courses in #catalan at the #cwacademy #cwopsAcademy. The CW Academy does not offer any courses in #spanish yet, but there are people who keep asking for them. If a Spanish-speaking ham out there is willing to teach (advise) a course, We have Beginners and Fundamental courses prepared, with all materials in Catalan (a sister language), and complete planning notes for advisors, and we're happy to share them; maybe they can be translated easier. Contact me.

I really can't get the hang of this software development style.
https://github.com/lquesada/qFT8/issues/11#issuecomment-4232616467

This is getting more and more common. People publish amateur radio apps promising they will publish the source. I've seen this before.

https://github.com/lquesada/qFT8

May 24 is International HEMA Day.
HEMA (http://www.hema.org.uk/) is an international amateur radio program, quite similar to SOTA but for HuMPs (summits with more than a Hundred Metres of Prominence) but Excluding Marilyns (summits with more than 150 m prominence, usually SOTA summits). On that day, H2H and regular chaser-to-summit contacts are expected. Check http://hema.org.uk/countries.jsp for mapped areas.

#HEMA #SOTA #mountains #Amateur_radio

Algerie Chaine 3 on LW 252 kHz playing classical music all day, after the death of past president Liamine Zeroual, and will be like that for 72 h. I never got the hang of using classical music as a mourning soundtrack. Spanish national radio did the same when Franco died in 1975.

The March 2026 issue of 'Solid Copy', the newsletter of CWOps (https://cwops.org/current-month/), features a paper of mine, "Empirical Findings About Morse Code Learning and the Need For Further Research". I wrote it while researching how much of current Morse code learning lore had actually some empirical support. Comments welcome!

https://cwops.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Solid-Copy_2026_March_FINAL.pdf

#cwops #cwopsAcademy

Listening to 4XZ in 6607. Morse code sent does not seem to be machine-generated, but hand-generated. Am I wrong?

In Spain, at least five #MW stations of Cadena Cope are playing a loop that directs listeners to their FM outlets if they want to continue listening to their programming:

711 kHz COPE Murcia EAK12
937 kHz COPE Ferrol EAK43
1053 kHz COPE Zaragoza EAK6
1143 kHz COPE Ourense EAK59
1215 kHz COPE León EAK25
1296 kHz COPE Valencia EAK5

This follows the complete MW shutdown of Radio Nacional de España and Radio 5.

#CQWWCW contest results in. Analysing log errors, I see that my contest call is too short (EE5E), but also that there is long-time famous contester (SE5E) and many log their call sign instead of mine.

I confess I have made the usual 0/9 7/8 2/3 and L/R errors too often. Detailed log check reports are great tools to improve one's Morse code operation.

By the way, while I understand the reasons behind Brian's AB6D's decision, I think the #sotamat app could have been free/open-source. I know there are some 'secrets' as regards suffix selection and computation, but I'm sure a FOSS app with some kind of configuration encryption would have allowed users to repurpose it for other uses.

The #SOTAMāt approach to spotting and messaging over HF and FT8 has inspired me to put together —yes, I did use *that* help— an experimental receiver for messages of the kind used by SOTAMāt (that is, a single letter, a blank, a callsign, the slash, and a hopefully meaningless suffix, as in 'Z EA5IYL/33QQ' (using 'Z' instead of SOTAMāt 'S'). Very rudimentary, but could be useful.

https://gitlab.com/mlforcada/ft8-messaging

#FT2, "the fastest mode" is currently only available on Windows and there is no source code. It should not be in our bands like that.

Just tested the #SOTAMAT system that uses free FT8 messages to send "canned" emails to my spouse when I'm up with no cell coverage. Set up a few messages on the server before you leave and load them into the SOTAMāt app on your phone. When you reach the summit, tune to an FT8 frequency on your radio and let the app squeal one of the pre-programmed FT8 messages three or four times into your mic. The skimmers pick it up, SOTAMāt gets it and sends the selected email message. It works like a charm.

Those of you who own a QMX or one of those radios that are a bit finicky about voltage might be interested in these gadgets made by my friend M9OMS: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267499078090 They're regulators with very low voltage drop (unlike the Chinese ones). I have one and they're really cool.

Of 102 valid #SOTA summits in EA5/AT, at least part of the activation zone of 54 of them is inside the area of a #POTA park; 17 of them are inside two POTA parks.

List (may contain errors): https://annuel.framapad.org/p/sota-pota-ea5-at-aj8m

Scanning the daytime MW dial in Spain from my location (Alacant, IM98ri) I have stumbled upon a station in 1287 kHz, which carries the programming of RNE Radio 1, but not listed on MWList (https://www.mwlist.org/mwlist_quick_and_easy.php?area=1&kHz=1287) nor in this official list of Radio Nacional de España MW stations (https://avance.digital.gob.es/espectro/servicio-radiodifusion/radiodifusion-om/Documents/OM-RNE/EmisorasOMdeRadioNacionaldeEspana.pdf). According to my ferrite antenna, it is located roughly SW-NE from me. That could be the Balearic Islands or somewhere in Murcia or Eastern Andalusia. What is it?