A practical first look at radio using a cheap USB receiver: broadcast FM, amateur radio, aircraft, radiosondes, weather satellites, the ISS, antennas and a little GNU Radio.
Topics
Radio Content
Amateur Radio
Portable operating, antennas, field builds, and the practical bits of getting signals off the ground.
A task-first FT-857D field console with quick operating cards, function-row lookup, searchable menu settings, connector checks, and the printable PDF reference.
How OrbitDeck learned to control the IC-705 over Wi-Fi, what it borrowed from icom-lan, where it diverged, and the session logic that finally worked.
A wire-level reference for the IC-705 WiFi control path used by OrbitDeck, including handshake order, packet layouts, CI-V wrapping, and the implementation details that proved necessary in practice.
Repairing an ID-5100A head unit with replacement touch screen and LCD parts sourced directly from Icom Australia.
A field warning box built around a XIAO ESP32-C6 and AS3935, with a local display and alarm first, and networking added only after the basic warning path behaved itself.
A practical look at the 2026 WIA band plan revision, including the main HF changes, the tradeoffs behind them, and original comparison charts that point back to the official WIA documents.
Inspect, reconcile, map, repair and export amateur-radio logs locally in the browser.
Taking a very predictable 40 m EFHW, hanging it under a kite, and finding out what happens once the antenna refuses to sit still.