Smoke & Mirrors: Tales from the RF Underworld

All Dispatches

• The Poking Ape and The Ham Radio Crashed Course

  YouTube antenna drama is entertaining… right up until bad measurement habits become “RF truth.” In this piece, ON6URE (RF.Guru) breaks down the claims, the test setups, and the assumptions behind the debate — separating what’s genuinely useful from what’s just vibes.

  Expect practical RF corrections: what a tool can (and can’t) prove, where fixtures and parasitics quietly ruin conclusions, and how to test in a way that actually answers the question you think you’re asking.

   
• Heinrich von Resonanz

  Heinrich von Resonanz didn’t operate a station… he ruled one. In his world, every knob was ceremonial, every mismatch was a moral failure, and “50 ohms” wasn’t a target — it was a lifestyle.

  This is the (slightly exaggerated) origin story of ham radio’s most resonance-obsessed character — a satire for anyone who has ever stared at an SWR meter like it personally insulted them.

• Captain Radials: Why I Don’t Want an SDR Ham Radio Stop the presses: Captain Radials has finally cracked the case. SDRs are apparently the downfall of modern ham radio, and the only cure is a “real” receiver with “real” knobs and “real” vibes. Before you sell your rig and return to the sacred warmth of analog audio, let’s do something outrageous… separate preference from physics.
• Space — Compromise — Works — Good enough In the alleys behind 7.100 MHz, where certainty thrives and questions fade, a four-word mantra is whispered like a protective charm: Space… Compromise… Works… Good enough. This satirical reflection pokes at the cult of “it works” in amateur radio — where convenience often trumps measurement, and mismatched expectations become justification.
• The Formula Unlock the thinking behind how we value antennas—not just how they perform on paper, but how they feel in real-world use. The Antenna Value Index™ (AVI) blends practical performance, usability, grounding behaviour, and cost into a single, intuitive expression.
• The Cult of the Sacred Stubs Step into the mythical side of ham radio with “The Cult of the Sacred Stubs” — a tongue-in-cheek exploration of one of the more extravagant antenna folklore phenomena.
• The Man With the Magical AI Detector The man with the magical AI detector is very sure he can unmask every “fake” text on earth. Then his tool proudly flagged my old work as AI… and Job 41 as well.
• You Won’t Believe How Light Weight and Efficient This Coax Is (!) It’s like comparing apples to coax — the title promises miracles, but the numbers tell another story. We dig past the hype to see just how “lightweight” and “efficient” this wonder cable really is.
• The Etsy QRO Miracle: Five Ferrites to Rule Them All Think five tiny clamp-on ferrites can handle your 10 kW station? Sure—if your goal is toasty coax and warm feelings. Here’s what real high-power chokes actually look like.
• The Gospel According to Professor Wattson – Part II Professor Wattson survived storms of impedance dogma and SWR heresies… but now he faces a fiercer foe: the proofreader.
• The Cult of the 4:1 Balun Why everyone obsesses over the 4:1 balun — and why they shouldn’t. When a 4:1 makes sense, when it doesn’t, and what to do instead.
• The Gospel According to Professor Wattson A witty essay on readability over rigor, the longevity of radio wisdom, and the art of elegant error.
• Homo Ignoramicus Technicus Meet a curious breed of radio amateur — the kind who proudly owns a shiny transceiver yet can’t tell a coax cable’s input from its output.
• Over the Limit: Because Who Doesn’t Love a Smoldering PA? When “more watts” becomes a personality trait: what you gain, what you break, and why the regulator doesn’t laugh.
• The Legend of the HAREC Who Thought Antennas Die When Grounded Fresh license, confidence at eleven, and a misconception so loud it could create QRM.
• RG-58: The Spaghetti Cable of the Past Once a workhorse. Now a limp bowl of RF spaghetti. A roast of why it belongs in the pasta aisle.
• COAX VS. GARDENHOSE: WHY SOME HAMS STILL WATER THEIR SIGNALS From “chokes are snake oil” to treating coax like a gardenhose: why your feedline leaks RF like a busted sprinkler.
• Field Day 2025: How to Burn Operators, Fry Radios, and Call It “Fun” A scorched-earth roast of Field Day chaos: overkill tuners, choke deniers, bleeder neglect, and logging disasters.
• SWR Derangement Syndrome Symptoms, diagnosis, and cures for “SWR Derangement Syndrome”—why 1:1 isn’t holy and folklore misleads.
• The 10 Worst Ham Radio Antennas of All Time A sarcastic countdown of the 10 worst antennas ever — and why you’ve probably tried a few.
• Half the Hassle, Same Low Angle: Why Two Half-Squares Beat a Four-Square Why wrestle with a complex four-square when two simple half-squares give the same low-angle DX with less hassle.
• The Magical Mystery Wire: Confessions of the End-Fed Believers The EFHW revival, the 49:1 fairy dust, and why “1:1 everywhere” can still mean “ERP nowhere.”
• Reciproke or Go Broke: Why Your "Universal" Antenna Belongs in a Museum Retiring the one-size-fits-none radiator to a museum of optimistic brochures and dashed hopes.
• NECtasy and the Myth of the Perfect Polar Plot Polar plots so clean you can eat off them—until weather, height, soil, and coax say hello.
• The Cult of Reciprocity™ – CMR is a Conspiracy, RDF is Elitism and Patterns are Truth A playful heresy against “it’s the same on RX and TX”—in the real world, the environment votes.
• Still Listening Linear on NVIS? You propably like QSB? If you enjoy QSB rollercoasters, keep it linear. Otherwise, pattern control is your friend.
• A Vertical Follows the Propagation with it's built-in GPS A mock infomercial for the self-aiming miracle stick that magically knows where DX is tonight.
• The Modern RF Engineer and the Ohmic Oracle Where resistance is futile, impedance is destiny, and the multimeter is a crystal ball.
• The Cult of the Mirrored Bifilar Choke: Where Symmetry Goes to Die Because nothing says “balance” like copying the mistake twice and calling it symmetry.
• The Sacred Copper Rod: A Love Letter to the Most Useless Piece of Metal in Your Shack A romantic ode to the rod that solves nothing yet appears in every guru’s “ultimate fix.”
• The Common Mode Conundrum: When Physics Meets Folklore Folklore says ignore CMC; physics says enjoy RFI, skewed patterns, and a fried LNA.
• HamRadio: The Faith-Based Wireless Religion A tongue-in-cheek sermon on testimonies, miracles, and the sacred SWR screenshot.
• The Sacred Faraday Blanket of Saint QRMbert Wrap it around your router and behold: thou shalt smite QRM (or at least feel warmer).
• Resonance Is Bliss: The Cult of the Perfect Match When “1.0:1” becomes a lifestyle brand and efficiency quietly slips out the back door.
• Noise is the New DX – The Urban Operator’s Guide to Misguided RX If your S-meter reads 9+ all day, congratulations—you’re hearing everything except signals.
• When Your Antenna’s “Wideband” Isn’t Wide Anything Portable dreams meet physics: wideband claims, narrow outcomes, and the hungry camper logbook.
• Height Is Might — Until Your Noise Floor Is King Yes, height helps—until your feedline becomes a noise antenna and the neighborhood joins the QSO.