Audiophobe

December 2025 Update TL;DR The $15 GPS dongle is generating severe RF noise. I was tracking down some QRM (man-made interference) in my sBitx radio that was especially bad on 10m, but still present on 15 and 20 meters. After returning from a portable activation, I noticed that the noise was gone. Then I noticed that I had not plugged in the GPS dongle. Plugged in the dongle, QRM was back. Unplugged it, QRM gone! Searching online, I found this discussion about cheap VK-162-based GPS dongles from Amazon creating QRM. I have tested 3 of the VK-162's...with u-blox drivers on both Win10 and Win11. So far, the VK-162s, while cheap and VERY sensitive, are also VERY DIRTY on HF for broadband noise. At the same time, using the same cables, the traditional hockey pucks (now $59 on Amazon, where they were $19 a few short years ago), produce no noise that I can detect. Conclusion: I wouldn't recommend the VK-162 at $12.00 to any Ham, unless someone finds the "magic cure" t...

The California State Fair ( our state fair is a great state fair ) is in full swing in Sacramento. The Sacramento Valley section of the ARRL is sponsoring an amateur radio exhibit and special event station K6C .  New this year, they are allowing licensed amateur radio operators in California to "activate" from home as K6C during the hours the fair is not in operation. So... I was operating as K6C last night from 2300-0100 local, FT8 on 20m. I made 21 contacts including South Africa, England, Asiatic Russia (2), Japan (4), Puerto Rico, and all over the US, running 15W with my little  HF Signals sBitX V3 radio from a 1/4-wave vertical on the front patio -- KJ6ER's PERformer design.  More info on K6C at:  https://www.qrz.com/db/K6C