HRWB 235 - Ham Radio Reviews and Buying Used Gear

In this episode we meet Roger Coude, VE2DBE, the author of Radio Mobile.  This amazing software package allows the user to create a cross sectional plot of a radio path between two points on Earth.  The software includes a terrain database so the path includes obstructions and the curvature of the Earth.  This software can be used to determine link paths, repeater coverage, simplex point to point link budgets and more. Roger has developed this software many years and makes it freely available to ham radio operators.  A truly generous gift to the ham radio community.

In this episode we are joined by Paul WD9GCO and Josh K7OSH, part of the HRWB family, and we talk about Hamvention 2025.  We met soooo many great people who stopped by the booth to say hello.  In this episode we recap what each of us learned at Hamvention and describe the overall experience.  We wrap up the episode with a brief roundtable discussion about our Field Day plans for this year.  

In this episode we have Eric, co-founder of Elecraft, on the show to talk about the K4 radio architecture and how it's designed to be operated remotely.  Eric talks about the design considerations, process and the various ways to control the radio for a seamless experience.  

In this special episode, we meet Steve Hicks, CTO of Flex Radio.  Steve announces a new radio in the Flex Radio product line.  This new radio is a combination of the features of the current 8000 series of radios plus a built in 500 watt power amplifier, antenna tuner and AC power supply all integrated into a package the size of the current 8000 series radios.   This remarkable new radio uses a new transmitter architecture that doubles power efficency resulting in an integrated package that is smaller, consumes less power, generates less heat, and is quieter than current equipmemnt on the market.  

In this episode, our resident expert on writing ham radio gear reviews, Thomas, K4SWL, walks us through the process of writing a good ham radio review.  How can you tell a good review from a bad one and tips for how you can write good content. Vince gives us some great tips when it comes to buying used gear.  How do you find it, evaluate it and figure out a fair price.  

In this episode we meet Len Koppl, KD0RC, the designer of the Teensy Maestro remote control head for a Flex radio.  Len is a professional software developer and project manager and brings many decades of technical experience and ham radio hands-on to his projects. In tis episode we learn about multiple projects including the Teensy Maestro, an open source hardware remote control head designed to control a Flex radio.  Based on the Arduino Teensy microcontroller, we learn about Len's journey of development and some of the interesting technical challenges he faced in this project.

In this episode we have an extended conversation with Kirk, NT0Z and Paul WD9GCO. Kirk is the Amateur Radio columnist for The Spectrum Monitor; former columnist for Monitoring Times and Popular Communications; Author of Stealth Amateur Radio (www.stealthamateur.com) and former QST Assistant Managing Editor. Paul is a news anchor for Amateur Radio Newsline and the professional announcer for the Ham Radio Workbench podcast. Kirk and Paul have some great stories and general ham radio wisdom to share with our listeners.  It's so much fun to spend time with them that this turned into the longest episode we have recorded, and that's saying something !

In this episode we meet Richard Desaulniers, VE2DX.   Richard has been licensed since 1990 and has a background in emergency communications serving at disaster events in Quebec. He enjoys hunting DX, Island Activations and DXPeditions. Richard is also an experimenter and founded VE2DX Electronics in 2020. With the founding of the company, he wanted to create inexpensive and simple electronic products to help the Ham Radio Community. Among his creations are products like TrueTTL, TrueCIV, and TrueCAT thes were implemented and applied to all VE2DX Electronics Design creation to help eliminate problems with RFI, EMI, Signal Loss and other signal issues, thanks to Heavy Shielding, RFI filtration of Power, Signals and Grounds, Signal processing, and signal automatic leveling. Join us in a great conversation with Richard VE2DX, Vince VE6LK and Thomas K4SWL.

In this episode we talk all about our second on the air operating event, Ham Radio Workbenches On The Air.  We had so much fun the last time, we decided to do it again.  We talk about whats on our workbenches and go over all the details about operating HRWBOTA. The operating event will be Sunday March 16.  For all the details go to https://hrwbota.com We meet Alan, N7AKG, the developer of the Ham Radio Instant Scoring Service, HISS, that allows operators to create their own contests and show scores in real time.  We also meet Andrew, KC2G, the developer of several interesting projects including the HRWBOTA tracker web site.

In this episode we meet Patrick, KJ7SZU, the owner of the company that makes the digital clock and information device, Geochron.  The mechanical Geochron clock has been around for over 40 years.  When Patrick saw his first mechanical Geochron clock he was hooked !  He was so impressed with the idea that he bought the company and completely remade the Geochron as an internet connected information display device on a large screen 4K video display. Join us for this fascinating story all about Patrick's journey to the present time with the Geochron.