Out of the immense number of topics that are useful for helping new Ham Radio folks pursue, on the technical side of ham radio, there are a few areas of discussion that are particularly useful and important at this early stage of effort. Perhaps the easiest way to go about this, in this page of helps, is to start by adding those topics that cause a lot of struggle for most of us at the onset. These short presentations cannot possibly be as a substitute for the wealth of good material available, but hopefully they can provide some additional insight into some "simpler ways" of learning these things.
"Db's the Easy Way", without calculators or complicated formulas.
Resistor Color Code in 18 minutes!
So just what is meant by the "Characteristic Impedance" of a length of coax?
What's so special about the so-called "Quarter-Wave Shorted Stub"?
Power Supply Basics, Understanding
Various Power Supply Systems and Regulation.
You might find these outlines (in progress) somewhat informative
Digital Mode Interface .Home-Brew (a 94Kb pdf file for printout)
Interested in breadboarding your own Iambic Morse Code Keyer? (a 138Kb pdf file for printout)
How the Keyer Circuit works.
New material in process:
Time Constants, Reactance, Imaginary Numbers, Phase Angles, and Impedance How to quickly learn Hexadecimal Codes How Binary/Octal/&Hexadecimal Codes run CPUS's
Special Links about Antennas:
Commercial Antennas: Construction Projects: Antenna Design: Antenna Theory: GAP Vertical Antennas Antenna Projects by AC6V Antenna Design Books Antenna Theory & Practice SuperAntennas by W6MMA ARRL Wire Antennas Design Your Own J-Pole Antennas! by W4RNL Ant. Systems & Supplies Invisible Antennas, WD4BIS 2 Meter Copper J-Pole Verticals without Vertigo J-Pole, Yagi Building Doppler Antennas Eggbeater Loop W4RNL (SK) Ant. Serv. & Edu !!. Shoestring Antennas Building Antennas Antenna Modeling Cubical Quad Antennas Small Beams J-Pole Antennas http://www.uksmg.org/stack.htm Copper Cactus J-Poles
Antenna Traps WA7RSO Packet J-Pole Antenna Antennas
Other Special Links about Antennas: Comoros DXpedition Ant. QRZ Article on W4RNL (SK) General Links:
EZNEC by Roy W. Lewallen W7EL (Antenna Modeling Software)
Amateur Radio RF Safety Calculator (Antenna RF Radiation)
ARRL
Evergreen Intertie (Northwest Repeater Interconnecting System)
Morse Code:
W1AW CW Practice -- On-The-Air
Morse Code Software - See what AC6V has to offer, and really good links:
Note especially the Morse Code Training Programs
I especially recommend CW Player (by F6DQM) and NuMorse, and they will run the the following Data Files very nicely:
"ReadMe" (please)
Morse Code Data Files Here's what I have used for many years for helping folks achieve their morse code proficiency. I originally had it on audio tape, but it works very well with these Morse Code programs as a Data File. It helps by comparisons with those areas that sound so much alike, and how to deal with those dificulties. See Group Selections for a more detailed view of these test files.
Morse Code Data HTML File (given here as an html, which can be converted to a data file)
For an explantion of the philosophy of these groups.
Initial Difficulties of the beginner and those experiencing difficulty in progress.
"Straight Key" operation made easy.
More General Links:
Digital Modes: Software: Documentation: DigiPan PSK Stream MFSK HamScope New Digital Modes (by KB2EOQ) MixW32 G-Psk31 & KPSK - Linux Versions WinPSKse (more later)
Repeaters: Open Amateur Repeaters Puget Sound Repeater Group
Links to Amateur Radio Clubs:
New Jersey QRP Club
Snohomish County Hams Club (WA7LAW)
Local Washington Area Repeaters
Radio Club of Tacoma - W7DK
Federal Way Amateur Radio Club - WA7FW
Mike & Key Amateur Radio Club - Seattle - K7LED
Boeing Employees (BEARS) - K7NWS