Welcome to the KM7HQX station notebook.

This site is a running log of amateur radio operating, technical experiments, antenna builds, and FCC Part 97 rules notes.

Why This Notebook Exists

Amateur radio spans a vast technical landscape: from HF ionospheric propagation and Morse code to digital weak-signal modes like FT8, packet APRS telemetry, and microwave satellite downlinks.

Too much amateur radio knowledge is scattered across decades-old forum threads, dense textbooks, and tribal knowledge passed down on repeaters. This notebook is a centralized, searchable workbench reference covering:

  • Bands & Privileges: Detailed band plans, mode allocations, and operating conventions across HF, 6m, 2m, and 70cm.
  • Antennas & Feedlines: Practical dipoles, end-fed half-waves (EFHW), vertical ground planes, coax loss trade-offs, and vector network analyzer (NanoVNA) diagnostics.
  • Digital Modes: Soundcard interfaces, FT8 / JS8Call setups, APRS packet tracking, and Winlink emergency email.
  • Field & Portable Ops: Power budgets, LiFePO4 battery sizing, solar field deployment, and portable operating.

More bench writeups and technical guides will be posted here as projects come together.

73 de KM7HQX.