QSO Today Podcast - Interviews with the leaders in amateur radio

Out of the ashes of ten years of ethnic repression and the Kosovo War in 1998, the amateur radio service in Kosovo was reborn in 2012. Vjollca Belegu, Z61VB, Kosovo's (Kosova) first YL ham radio operator, survived this dark period in Kosova's history, and 25 years after ham radio was closed in Kosova is helping to re-birth the amateur radio service as the President of the Kosova Amateur Radio Association, in the new Republic of Kosova. Vjollca, Z61VB, tells this important story in this episode of QSO Today.

Fred Cady, KE7X, took his love of radio and electronics as far as he could go - that was to a PHD in Electronic Engineering where he settled into teaching at Montana State University. Now retired, Fred is the author of fourteen books on using and operating the Elecraft transceivers and accessories. Fred is also an avid contest operator and DXer. We will dig into this and more on this QSO Today.

Mike Bohn, KG7TR, has been building his own amateur radio equipment since he first entered the ham radio hobby over 50 years ago. Mike builds around the parts he has on hand creating beautiful vacuum tube transmitters, receivers, and high power amplifiers that rival the look and feel of early Collins radio equipment. We take a deep dive into the construction technique of KG7TR in this QSO Today.

DuWayne Schmidlkofer, KV4QB, is one of the amazing creators of homebrew projects from conception to the finished package. He uses microcontrollers combined with RF circuitry to make some pretty cool and mostly inexpensive projects. His blog is a great read where he documents each of his projects from beginning to end. In this episode, we discuss construction techniques and his home brew projects. KV4QB is my QSO Today

Glen Popiel, KW5GP, author of two popular books on Arduino for amateur radio and a book on mesh networking for amateur radio joins QSO Today once again. Glen told his ham radio story in Episode 49, almost three years ago. We catch up with Glen to get an Arduino update and to hear about his current and future projects.

Richard Newstead, G3CWI, as an avid outdoor radio enthusiast, co-founded SOTA or the Summits on the Air program. When he needed the right gear to take to the mountaintop, Richard had to create and import his own equipment, ultimately resulting in the creation of his company, Sotabeams, our new sponsor on QSO Today. Richard's story includes operating from a research station in Antarctica during the Falklands war to the founding of Sotabeams our new QSO Today sponsor.

Rick Karlquist, N6RK is a long time amateur radio operator who likes contests, DX, and over the years acquired a large square of property in California's Central Valley to have enough room to build his antenna farm. In this episode we discuss building 90 foot vertical antennas with irrigation pipe, and using the falling derrick method to raise tall masts and towers. Rick has acquired a wide range of experience from his amateur radio and professional life, some of which he shares in this QSO Today.

Bernie van der Walt, ZS4TX, is a South African ham for many years. He loves to contest on HF, and operates two remote control EME or Moon bounce stations on two and six meters away from the noise pollution of his residential neighborhood. We discuss these subjects and more on this episode of QSO Today.

Mitch Gill, NA7US is the New editor of QRP Quarterly Magazine, the official journal of the QRP Amateur Radio Club International and a former columnist for both Popular Communications and CQ VHF. Mitch has a love for all things amateur radio and is now retired from active military service where he operated at YI9TU in Iraq. Mitch tells this story and more in this QSO Today.

Tomas Hood, NW7US is the propagation editor of a number of shortwave and amateur radio magazines, and has a wide variety of websites, that grew out of his love for all things radio, and for listening on the bands to far off DX and commercial broadcast stations. Tomas shares his understanding of propagation and the lessons we can learn from listening, really listening to the QSOs and exchanges during contest operation.