Ham Radio Workbench Podcast

In this episode we meet Adam Kimmerly, K6ARK, and avid outdoorsman, hiker, and ham radio operator.  Adam has achieved Mountain Goat status by earning over 1,000 points in the Summits On The Air program.  In addition to his outdoor adventures, Adam, a professional mechanical engineer, has designed some very innovative antennas, CW paddles and other cool ham radio accessories.  Adam also has a very good YouTube channel.  You can find him by going to "K6ARK Portable Radio" on YouTube.  You can find Adam's products on his web site at k6ark.com  

In this episode we meet Pat Hensley, W5WTH, a prolific designer and project builder.  Pat has made several intersting radio and non-radio related electronic projects and he features them on his blog site WhiskeyTangoHotel.Com Some of Pat's projects are very useful and some are just plain fun.  Many projects are a blend of hardware (Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, etc) and software (c, Python, etc).  Pat publishes all of his source code for us all to learn from.  If you want to be inspired to build your first project you have come to the right place. 

In this episode we bring back Rick England, KC6UFT, the designer of the 18650 battery tester.  In a previous episode, Rick told us all about the need to test 18650, and other batteries, under load to determine their health.  Rick has refined his tester design and shares his experiences and learnings with us on this episode.  You will learn all about the proper way to test these popular lithium batteries and plans for making the testers available.

In this episode we meet Morten LB0FI, Kjetil LB4FH, Tobias DL3MHT, and Bård (Bob) LB5JJ from the European Ham Radio Show on YouTube.  Walt, K4OGO, was not able to make the show this time. The European Ham Radio show is hosted by Morten and the team talks about many aspects of ham radio on their weekly YouTube show.  Topics include radios, antennas, homebrew and a big dose of portable operating.  We were invited to join them on their show a few months ago and had such a great time, we wanted to introduce them to our HRWB audience.  We hope you enjoy the discussion of ham radio from a European perspective.  

In this episode we talk with Alan Wolke, W2AEW, an expert in electronic test equipment.  Alan has a fantastic YouTube channel where he educates us about test equipment, circuit design and electronics theory.  Alan talks about the projects on his bench and discusses the use of various types of electronic test equipment and has advice for setting up your own electronics workbench.

In this episode we meet Scott, N1VG, the owner of Argent Data Systems.  Scott is a long time maker and innovator that has brought several ham radio and commercial communications products to market including TNC's (Terminal Node Controllers), APRS trackers, weather stations and even a LED illuminated hula hoop ! We talk about Scott's inspiration, design and manufacturing process and learn what it's like to start up a ham radio businses from scratch. 

In this episode we meet famous YouTuber, Randy, K7AGE, and Hoodview ARC VP Josh, K7OSH, to talk about our Field Day experiences and what makes a good club Field Day event.  Josh is the Field Day Chairman of the Hoodview ARC and organized a great FD event.  Randy came up to join us for the FD weekend, did some operating and shot some great videos of the event.   The rest of the HRWB crew described their Field Day experiences from mobile to portable.  We discuss what worked and what could be improved. Hoodview ARC Randy K7AGE YouTube channel

In this episode we bring back our good friend Dan Quigley, N7HQ, to talk about restoring older radio equipment.  Should you return an old radio to it's original state or repurpose the chassis for a more modern project with the look and feel of a classic radio of the past?  We explore various approaches to restoring radio equipment including tools, test equipment and process. Dan is the director of strategic programs at Flex Radio and brings decades of professional engineering and ham radio experience to the discussion.

In this episode we meet Colin Vallance, KC8DHY, a professional network engineer who also manages the WiFi network at DefCon and other events.  We talk with Colin about how to set up your network in the ham stack.  We also have a round table discussion about our plans for Field Day 2024.

In this episode we meet Hamilton Carter, KD0FNR and his daughter, Hamie Carter, KO6BTY.  This amazing father / daughter team have build and deployed multiple creative radio projects.  One in particular, Project TouCans, puts a QRP transciever right at the dipole antenna feed point eliminating coax cables and communicates with the operator's station over Bluetooth. Follow along on thier radio adventures on their blog page at https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com