Issue 446 November 7, 2026

Top links

An Amateur Radio operator told a satellite to play ‘Doom.’ And it listened.
The experiment marks the first known time a satellite has received and acted on a voice command from the ground.
Gizmodo

QSL Shack
Free social network for Ham Radio operators & enthusiasts.
QSL Shack

The depiction of Amateur Radio in the movies and TV
Comedy, hero, or excentric. Which are you?
Hackaday

Thermal noise communication
Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated a fascinating new approach that could reduce the energy needed for wireless communications by up to 1,000 times.
WIA

2027 Ham Radio history calendar
The calendar features fourteen high-resolution colorized photographs from the golden age of Ham Radio.
The Radio Historian

Beans on the air, or, I ate my CW key
I would later find out though that changing brands showed a significant improvement in keying.
EI3LH

Apps

Cadenza: Learn Morse by ear
Operators do not read Morse, they hear it. Cadenza teaches it that way from the first minute: one character at a time, at full speed with wider gaps, until the rhythm arrives as a letter instead of a puzzle.
Trifoil Trailblazer

Pocket Shack
Pocket Shack puts the AllStarLink network in your pocket. Connect to amateur radio repeaters and hubs around the world, listen to what's happening, and talk with a tap, from your iPhone, Mac or Apple Watch.
Cygnus Strategy

Nexus
Nexus decodes, logs, maps, raises alerts, and shows the panadapter in one window, with one log, for one radio, or up to three.
hamradiotools.io

Morse Code Translator
Type text to get Morse code, or type dots and dashes to get text. This Morse code translator also reads code from a recording, a video or a photo, and plays any message as sound, light or vibration.
Morse Code Tools

QRPedia: The low-power radio reference, built by homebrewers
Calculators, core data, and build notes for homebrew QRP operators.
QRPedia

QSO Transcriber
The app transcribes speech on your iPhone and uses local QSO analysis to suggest callsigns, signal reports, names and QTH details.
OV9PL

DXTRA WorldStation 5.0
The WorldStation™ Hub is the breakout box for the modern receiver — it takes the radios you already own and adds AI decoding, shadow demodulation, a live panorama, and secure remote access, all from any device.
DXTRA

Video

Installing Xara on Linux
Xara is a free, Open Source, VARA compatible HF and FM modem built natively for Linux.
KM4ACK

Editor's Corner

Hi, my name is Cale (K4HCK) and I'm the editor of Amateur Radio Weekly.

The most-clicked link from last week's newsletter was an article about an app that sends you notifications telling you how far away your CW message was received.

Speaking of apps, you may have noticed a new "Apps" section that consumed most of this week's newsletter. With the rise of tools like Claude Code, I'm seeing an absolute flood of Hams creating their own applications. This week I published all the apps from Hams that emailed me requesting to be featured in the newsletter. If this pace continues, or increases(!), it's going to be a challenge trying to highlight everyone's creation. We'll see if the onslaught continues next week. It might be an opportunity for someone to create Amateur Radio Applications Weekly.

General feedback regarding this newsletter or the content within is always welcome. Got a link to share? Simply hit reply.

73
Cale
K4HCK

P.S. Thanks to Emma for providing the service that delivers these emails into inboxes each week.