CQ Amateur Radio

CQ is the magazine for active hams, with a focus on the practical. Every article is clearly written and aimed at involving you, the reader...whether it's a story of operating from some exotic location, an article to deepen your understanding of ham radio science and technology, or a fun-to-build project that will have practical use in your ham shack. Join us on our monthly journey through the broad and varied landscape of the world's most fascinating hobby!

CQ Amateur Radio

announcements

ham radio news

zero bias: a cq editorial • Finding Common Ground

News From CQ… • Updated CQ Contest Policy Relating to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Emergency Communications Special: news bytes • “The Swiss Army Knives of Radio Receivers”

Emergency Communications Special: EmComm From the Ground Up • Amateur radio emergency communications was basically non-existent in Poland until just a few years ago. “Miles” Muszlski, SQ5EBM, past president of MASR, the country’s best-known emergency network, explains its origins and its success in a part-personal, part-organizational, story shared here.

Emergency Communications Special: emergency communications • “Go Kits” – A Philosophical Approach

Emergency Communications Special: Developing Your Radio Voice • Professional broadcasters often have a “radio voice” they use on the air that may be different from how they sound off the air. What W9JU describes below isn’t quite the same but the goal is identical: Getting the message across clearly and accurately.

Emergency Communications Special: EmComm from the 1950s and ’60s • Providing emergency communications is a century-old tradition in amateur radio. WØRW gives us a glimpse at ham radio EmComm in one major city — Los Angeles — in the 1950s and ’60s. It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same…

Emergency Communications Special: Six Meters to the Rescue! • OK, so this isn’t your typical amateur radio emergency communications article. But it still involved using amateur radio to help a friend out of a very slippery situation!

Emergency Communications Special: Amateur Radio on the Home Page • One important element of success in emergency communication is having a good relationship (before the emergency) with served agencies. WØRW shares an off-air benefit of one club’s good relationship with the local sheriff’s department.

MFJ At 50 • There’s a very good chance that your shack contains at least one item from MFJ or one of its sister companies — Ameritron, Mirage, Vectronics, Cushcraft, and Hy-Gain — which together constitute the world’s largest radio accessory product company. MFJ Enterprises is 50 years old this month, and W7SSB put together this look back at founder Martin F. Jue, K5FLU, and the company’s first half century.

MFJ—A Little Bit of Everything • CQ takes you behind the scenes at the headquarters of one of America’s best-known amateur radio equipment manufacturers.

what’s new

Calibrating Smart Batteries with Impedance Tracking • Chances are good that at least one of your multitude of “devices” is powered by a “smart battery.” But what makes those batteries so smart and what helps them accurately keep track of their “state of charge”? The answer lies below …

The Space Age at 65: How High School Hams Tracked Sputnik • Sixty-five years ago this month, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik-1 into orbit. A high school ham radio club in Cleveland, Ohio was better able to track it than the U.S. government and their story was reported here in CQ (see this month’s “CQ Classic”). One of the participants recalls the excitement.

Fame and Fortune Via “Sputnik” I

ARISS to the Max • Seven Challenger Centers Join in a Ham Radio Contact...