Radio Resources

Ham Radio Forum
Formus (mainly UK based) with fairly frequent posting and some knowledgeable members.

SM3CER Contest Service
Detailed listing of contest schedule and rules for Amateur Radio HF contesting on 1.8 - 50 MHz.

WA7BNM Contest Calendar
Detailed information about amateur radio contests throughout the world, including their scheduled dates/times, rules summaries, log submission information and links to the official rules as published by the contest sponsors.

Graphical UK Bandplan (GW6ITJ)
A very handy PDF graphical band plan for the UK. Visually lays out each band, highlighting sections for different modes and uses. Great as a quick reference tool!

Full UK Bandplan in Handy PDF (HFLink)
Handy PDF containing the full UK bandplan in text. Ideal to have on your mobile phone for when out in the field or mobile!

Q Code Conventions (WikiPedia)
Common Q codes and their meanings.

G3USF's Worldwide List of HF Beacons
List of worldwide HF Beacons.

Maidenhead Grid Square Locator Google Map (K2DSL)
Interactive Google Map with ability to highlight location based on address, call sign of grid square. The ability to enter a callsign and use the tools QRZ.COM lookup to immediately zoom in on the QTH is great!

Google Map Long/Lat/Locator Display (F6FVY)
Interactive Google Map allowing you to click anywhere and it returns the Long, Lat & grid square for that position. Also allows you to query by callsign.

Amateur Band Analysis
Article discussing the behaviour of HF, VHF and UHF bands, their performance in relation to propagation, when they are open and expected DX distances.

Introduction to Antenna, Propagation and Matching (GW6ITJ)
An eight part introduction covering radio waves, antennas (height, gain & angles), propagation and matching. This article covers to a good depth and is a definite recommended read.

Introduction to Propagation (M0ZMO)
High level introduction to propagation and the Ionosphere. Useful graphics and explanation.

Propagation & Transmission modes
A very useful site covering topics such as propagation, moonbounce, transmission modes, abbreviations and QSL cards.

Antenna Notes for a Dummy (W5ALT)
Features various detailed articles covering topics such as electromagnetic waves, dipoles, ground plane verticals and radials. A very useful resource.

ON4SKY Propagation & Antennas
A very useful site covering many topics include propagation, antenna systems and technical reviews.

Amateur Radio Utility v1 (M1BWT)
A home logging program designed & developed for Windows (by me!) to help radio operators keep track of their on-air contacts.

Ham Radio Delux (HB9DRV)
Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) is a suite of free Windows programs providing computer control for commonly used transceivers and receivers. HRD also includes mapping, satellite tracking and the digital mode program Digital Master 780 (DM780).

DXLab Suite
DXLab is a freeware suite of eight interoperating applications that interoperate to support your Amateur Radio DXing activities. Includes transceiver control with bandspread, rotator control, solar prediction, gridsquare lookup, logging, QSL card generation, award tracking etc etc!

GreatCircle Maps (SM3GSJ)
Software to generate Great Circle maps from any location in the world. Very useful to help visualise paths from QTH when considering antenna placement.

DX Atlas (VE3NEA)
Scrollable World map with smooth zoom, DXCC territories, province/state prefixes, Grid Squares, CQ and ITU Zones in the rectangular, azimuthal and Globe projections, 3D relief, Gray Line, city and island index, unique hierarchical prefix database, local time with DST for all cities, islands and call areas, unique ionospheric maps.

Koch Morse Code Learning Tool (G4FON)
A great tool to help you learn CW receive - see my full review on my Learning Morse Code page!

Kock RX (KB2TQX)
Use with above to help automate CW testing - see my full review on my Learning Morse Code page!

Morse Learner(Wilfred Verkley)
A great tool to help you learn CW sending/receiving - see my full review on my Learning Morse Code page!

Morse Trainer (Android App)
A useful app for your Android smart-phone for CW receive practice. See my full review on my Learning Morse Code page!