Dayton Hamvention remains the single best event in North America to take the pulse of amateur radio. It’s where major manufacturers introduce us to upcoming products, where builders and experimenters compare notes in person, and where operators leave with practical knowledge, and a trunk full of new gear. The theme…
Avoid first-byte collisions in trace path and manual path tools MeshCore’s trace path tool is essential for understanding how packets travel through the fascinating ether of our beloved multi-hop mesh network. Trace path helps us understand not only the path but the signal strength at each hop as well. In…
It’s Time to Sync Up: The Reason WWVB Exists WWVB started not as a radio station, but as a measurement problem in need of a reliable solution. By the middle of the 20th century, the United States had reached a quiet inflection point. Electrical, telecom, and broadcast providers; transportation and…
I’ve always felt that the 60-meter ham band was somewhat of an oddity with limited capability and not really worth the effort. Other factors, like channelized operation, low power limits, and secondary status are puzzling and off-putting. But now, a new order from the Federal Communications Commission helps to solidify…
Winter Field Day isn’t a contest in the traditional sense. It’s an operating event, an “experience” if you ask its founders. If you approach it like a sprint for raw QSO counts, you’re missing the point, and worse, you’re missing what Winter Field Day does reward: Versatility, planning, and realistic…
MeshCore repeaters are showing up everywhere these days and I am thrilled to see it happen. As folks place these repeater nodes on high-rise rooftops, hillsides, and on ham and commercial towers, they’re discovering that the key to smooth wide-area repeater behavior isn’t just about height or terrain—it sometimes comes…
For the Ham Who Builds, Hacks, and Tinkers Finding the perfect gift for a ham radio operator or electronics tinkerer doesn’t have to be a guessing game. This holiday gift guide highlights tools and gadgets that every maker, experimenter, and radio hobbyist will actually use—and love. From soldering stations and…
The MeshCore Trace Path tool is one of many useful diagnostic features built into the MeshCore client. Similar to how the traceroute utility provides insight into TCP/IP networks, MeshCore Trace Path gives you visibility into how packets travel through the mesh network—whether you’re checking a single station or tracing a…
For a region that’s home to Silicon Valley innovation, it’s surprising and downright embarrassing how far behind the San Francisco Bay Area has fallen in MeshCore deployment and adoption. Across the Pacific Northwest, from Portland to Vancouver, operators are building resilient MeshCore networks that tie communities together with long-range, reliable,…
If you’re like me, you’ve always had a fascination with the way radio signals radiate from a source, travel through space, and induce a usable current in a wire far, far away. Ham radio to me is not just making the contact, but understanding the path, the conditions, the why…
