Ham and Shortwave Radio
Radio-Hobbyist is a personal blog run by Canadian amateur radio operator Rick Blythe (VE3CNU), offering approachable guides, tutorials, and equipment reviews for ham radio beginners, shortwave listeners, and scanning enthusiasts. Perhaps you’ve come across my YouTube channel: The Radio Hobbyist, with over 9,000 subscribers. Common Challenges for Beginners in Ham Radio – And How This … Read more
If you are reading this in late 2025, congratulations: you are alive during one of the best HF propagation windows any living radio amateur will ever see. Solar Cycle 25 has already shattered almost every forecast. As of November 2025, the 12-month smoothed sunspot number sits between 145 and 160 and is either still climbing … Read more
For decades, amateur radio’s digital voice landscape on VHF and UHF was dominated by a handful of proprietary systems. That changed in 2019 when Wojtek SP5WWP and a small group of hams started the M17 Project with a simple but radical goal: create the first fully open-source digital voice and data protocol specifically designed for … Read more
Below are the widely recognized “best” AM frequencies, including the official or de facto calling frequencies where activity is usually concentrated. Amateur radio operators who enjoy Amplitude Modulation (AM) have a dedicated following, especially on the HF bands. While SSB dominates most voice communication today, AM offers a warm, rich sound that many hams prefer … Read more
Let’s be real: 99 % of us will never own a 100-ft tower with stacked SteppIRs.Most of us have a normal backyard, trees if we’re lucky, an HOA if we’re not, and a budget that tops out somewhere south of a used car. So here is the “real-people” ranking of DX antennas — the ones … Read more