AARC Pages

Amateur Radio Technical Articles

Please see KV5R’s how-to articles on KV5R.COM, too!
Camera Stabilizers — Homemade Soap — Homemade Bread — Website Development — etc.

KV5R’s Ham Radio Articles

This is the page where new - and not so new - hams may find a wealth of articles on easy-to-build projects including antennas, radio add-ons, tips and mods, making your computer play with your radio, getting more into - and more out of - HF radio, understanding antennas without all the engineering lingo, building great (and cheap!) antennas out of hardware junk, locate repeaters and scanner lists, etc, etc.

Get the kids involved! These articles are all about having more fun with ham radio!

NEW! Video Tutorial

How to repair rubber membrane buttons

All About the Icom IC-706MkIIG

KV5R’s Icom 706MkIIG Pages - Lots of photos, mods, tips, and links

706 Introduction — Brand New Setup — Frequency Calibration — Locating the Giblets — Computer Interface — Tune Control Activator — Frequency Expansion — Filters — Microphone Ideas — 706 Links

Ham Radio Accessories

Handy little kits and things you can build.

Mic Preamp — Headset/Footswitch Adapter — DC Buss Box — LF Converter — Noise Bridge Tuner-Tuner — CW Key Base

New! Simple 2-Meter Dipole

Even easier than the the sleeve dipole! You can make and install this 2-meter base antenna in about 2-3 hours. Uses PVC pipe and foil tape.

2 Meter / 440 Dual-band OCF Sleeve Dipole

Made from coax, PVC pipe, and aluminum foil tape! — and under $20! Welcome QST readers! BIG THANKS! to Geoff Haines, N1GY, for his excellent article in August 2006 QST using this design.

OCF Sleeve Dipole Antenna

Supercharge Your Hand-held Radio

Make Your H-T Run for Days and Get Out Like Crazy!

Super Portable Station

A Basic Short-wave Book by KV5R

Understand short-wave radio listening and building great short-wave antennas

Understanding Antennas

Theory and Practice of NVIS Antennas

Propergatin’ With Really Low Antennas! Fer when higher ain’t better! My most popular article! Now even in German!

Understanding NVIS Antennas and Propagation

The Big Aluminum Dipole

Build a 40-foot telescopic aluminum vertical dipole for under $100!

KV5R’s Vertical Antenna Project (PDF)

Get Your Computer Involved!

How to set up your station to run CW, PSK, MFSK, Stream, Hellschreiber, RTTY, Packet and others from your computer. Includes lots of inline links and graphics!

Getting Started in HF PC Soundcard Digital Modes

What Digital Mode are You Hearing?

Recognizing what’s what — mp3 audio clips of various HF digital modes. MPEG audio files - takes a while to load on dial-up!

Sounds of the HF Digital Modes

Rabbit-Ears

Variable-frequency Rabbit-ears Portable Antenna
A fun and useful junk-box project

Intro to Radiogram Traffic

Not as hard as it sounds! Handle traffic without the road-rage - meet lots of nice folks, too!

Getting Started with ARES, NTS

FINALLY! Everything in One Place!

KV5R’s concise 17-page manual contains everything you need. Instructions, training, references, forms, etc.

Traffic Handler (PDF)

The Official Book for Traffic Managers

From 450 pages down to 176 — The full course by W3YVQ, expertly reformatted by KV5R into a nice two-column format (with permission from the author and ARRL).

The KV5R Reformat of the NTS-MPG (PDF)