Issue 228 December 29th, 2018

For this final email of the year, I pulled the most clicked links from each issue and complied the top 10
as a "look back" on the world of Amateur Radio in 2018. Enjoy! –Cale K4HCK

A short guide on baluns
Unless precautions are taken to minimize it, all coax fed antennas will have significant current flowing on the outside of the coax shield while transmitting.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club (Issue 211)

Trouble Free HF Antenna For The Apartment Dwelling Ham
One enterprising local amateur has combined early established antenna fundamentals along with sound engineering to arrive at an elegant and highly successful solution.
VE7SL (Issue 206)

A new antenna using single atoms
We may be on the verge of so-called "atomic radio," thanks to the development of a new type of antenna capable of receiving signals across a much wider range of frequencies (more than four octaves) that is highly resistant to electromagnetic interference.
Ars Technica (Issue 221)

J antenna variations
Here we see five variations on the basic J antenna (aka J-pole).
hamradio.me (Issue 195)

Explaining the current capacitor shortage
We are in the middle of a global capacitor shortage the likes of which the electronics manufacturing industry has not experienced since 2008.
WAi (Issue 208)

Did the FCC just make Baofengs illegal? Short answer: No
What is illegal is selling radios without FCC certification or selling radios “outside of their designed use.”
KB6NU (Issue 220)

Ham Radio HAT for Raspberry Pi
Board provides audio support, GPS for clock accuracy, 12v input, and 2 radio interfaces.
NW Digital Radio (Issue 224)

FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?
What will kill amateur radio is if we we cease to innovate, become old and grumpy, and no longer bring new blood into the hobby.
K5SDR (Issue 223)

How-to: Ham Desk Project
The last Ham Radio shack desk I ever need.
K0PIR (Issue 227)

Yaesu FT-817 replacement details leaked
Finally, the replacement for the very successful Yaesu FT-817 is about to see the light of day.
QRPblog (Issue 194)

Azimuthal map
Azimuthal map with DX spot reporting.
HA8TKS (Issue 199)

A better antenna for dualband handhelds
I wondered how well the antenna is really performing so I did a side-by-side comparison with the Smiley 2m halfwave.
AmateurRadio.com (Issue 191)

Thank you for reading.
73