The December issue of CQ is our annual Technology Special and we’ve got a dozen different articles focusing on varied aspects of the technology behind everything we do on the radio, from the basics of inductors in our “Learning Curve” column to a new theory of long-haul propagation on 2200 meters in our “MF/LF Operating” column. But we start by applying 21st-century technology to analyzing the likely propagation modes behind the “transatlantic tests” of 100 years ago in December 1921. Propagation expert Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, guides us through the technology in his article on “The Centennial of DXing” and the first observation of the “East Coast Advantage” in working from North America to Europe.
Next, AG4W takes us on the ultimate DXpedition in “A Journey to the Moon and Back,” describing the technology he assembled to build his EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) station; W4DNN keeps our eyes on the skies with “Satellite Rag-Chewing on a Shoestring;” and while we’re looking up, K3BEQ and GD0NFN tell us how to track and analyze digital transmissions from commercial aircraft. (You know the tracking apps for flights en route? You can get the data yourself and contribute to those apps’ information.)
Back on the ground, NZ0I and WB8WFK describe the Arducon – an Arduino-based controller for foxhunt transmitters (and how to generate the AM signals traditionally used in 2-meter transmitter hunts using an FM handheld); KE3FL builds an FLDigi computer interface from parts in his junkbox; W2IY shares the virtues (and limitations) of using an uninterruptible power supply in your ham shack, and PY2ZDX/LU9EFO takes us on a tour of the first WebSDR station in Brazil that’s accessible by the public (yes, including you!).
Among our columns, in addition to “Learning Curve” and “MF/LF Operating” mentioned above, N8BHL discusses meeting the needs of emergency response partners with technology already available to us, and guest “Antennas” columnists W1IS and KC1DSQ take “A Deep Dive into End-Fed Half-Wave Antennas” after discovering that the basic technology behind these popular antennas hadn’t been closely examined in decades.
