What Antenna is this?? (POTA KG5HOK Activation)

Keith successfully completed his POTA activation under a gorgeous blue sky at the San Jacinto Battleground Historic site on Wednesday March 19.  Keith deployed his homebrewed multi element Chameleon Spider antenna.  This is a variation of the buddipole design, using a pair of rigid elements to form a dipole.  However, the Chameleon Spider can be … Read more…

JSC Student Intern Update

March 14 Soldering 101 @ Gilruth Scuba RoomJeff AB4ME and Kelvin K5KGH hosted 6 interns learning how to solder.Using our 2 LED blinker kit, they had a great time building up a working electronic project while learning about electronic components, PCB assembly, and through hole hand soldering. March 18 Congrats to Diego Padilla KO5IMH- Newly … Read more…

Greater Houston Hamfest 2025- March 8

Celebrity sightings:  George AD5CQ, Paul KJ5JIO, Jerry N5FWB, David KB5PGY, Joe K5KUA, Keith KG5HOK (and Sophie!), John AB5SS, Ken K5RG Friday afternoon was a slog- tight fisted spenders, few great deals, but fun atmosphere.  The best deal was a pristine old Colling 75A4 with stocked filters for…. $200.  It sold immediately.  I also saw a … Read more…

UH Students visit W5RRR March 3, 2025

Kurt Rowland K6URT (founder and trustee of the UH Ham Club KI5UCW) sponsored a group of about 20 students from University of Houston for a visit to the W5RRR shack. Jerry N5FWB and David KG5URA both co-hosted the group consisting of UH Amateur Radio Club (UHARC) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) student … Read more…

JSCARC POTA @ Brazoria National Wildlife Reserve 3/7/25

A classic gorgeous day out by the Brazoria National Wildlife Reserve (US-0545).  In attendance were Joe K5KUA, Jeff AB4ME, David KG5URA, George AD5CQ, and Dave W5OC. We setup relatively close together at the Discover Center/Information area.  Joe smartly setup at a table about 100′ down the road; Jeff took to the elevated wooden platform above … Read more…

2025 Spring JSC Student Interns tour of W5RRR

Many thanks to Jerry N5FWB for a short notice tour of the W5RRR radio shack. This semester’s spring students include: Left to right: Christine Goh KJ5FGT (committee lead), Diego Padilla, ( ), Amna Al-Azdee, and Mizan Mohammed. Gabriel Farris was there too but missed the picture.  We’ll let the reader try to figure out which … Read more…

1st POTA for 2025

Our first POTA activity for 2025 landed up back to San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Site, aka US-3511 (POTA designation).This was our first Sunday AM POTA outing, which is mostly unpopular because of the events and obligations that are typically reserved at this time. We had a last-minute cold spell run through Houston, so the … Read more…

KG5URA Shows Guts.. of his Go-Box

David KG5URA has graciously given us detailed insights into the recent buildup of his newest Go-Box for travels.  We showed photos this box in December’s blog post, but here are some more descriptions for those that may wish to leverage his ideas into yours. As an avid and experienced POTA operator, David has refined his … Read more…

Excessive noise on your radio?

I took my Yaesu FT991A to my daughter’s house last week.  Once again, I was unpleasantly confronted with a very high noise floor on the radio.  At times, it was so bad that I couldn’t hear hardly anyone.  As the short video describes, it turns out to be a classic example of EMI (Electro Magnetic … Read more…