Today on the Bands — Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Tuesday brings a fine mix of mountaintop camaraderie and bench-side experimentation, from a West Coast SOTA outing to machine-learning digital voice on HF. We've also got Italian antennas, imaginary shortwave stations, a call for ARDC volunteers, and a radar drone that refuses to stop leveling up. Grab your coffee and dig in.
- 01 Extraordinary SOTA on Vetter Mountain with N6ARA, KD7DTS, and K6ARK
K4SWL heads west for a Vetter Mountain SOTA activation with three well-known QRP operators, a reminder that summits are best shared with friends.
Read at source ↗ - 02 Manufacturer Spotlight: New and Tried-and-True Products from I0JXX
If you've admired I0JXX's innovative Italian antenna designs, this spotlight surveys both their newest offerings and proven favorites now available stateside.
Read at source ↗ - 03 More classical jams served up in the radio room
The latest Imaginary Stations schedule serves up classical programming on 9395 kHz, giving SWLs and SDR owners a reason to warm up the receiver Wednesday at 0200 UTC.
Read at source ↗ - 04 The ARDC wants you
ARDC is recruiting its 2027 volunteer cohort through October 30, so if you've got expertise to lend to amateur radio's future, applications are open now.
Read at source ↗ - 05 FreeDV RADE: Digital Voice for HF with Enhanced Speech Quality
FreeDV RADE blends machine learning with DSP to squeeze better speech quality out of HF digital voice, an intriguing open-source leap for weak-signal ragchews.
Read at source ↗ - 06 Synthetic Aperture Radar Drone Gets Interferometric Imaging
Henrik Forstén's homebrew SAR drone now does interferometric imaging, a jaw-dropping example of what a determined experimenter can build with radio and patience.
Read at source ↗
The HamDaily digest — five minutes, the whole band.