G7RDX is the personal website and station log of a licensed radio amateur based in the United Kingdom. The site covers HF and VHF operating, antennas, digital modes, contesting and the Linux software that ties a modern amateur radio station together.
What you will find here
The site has two halves. The first is a set of live tools built for practical use at the operating position: a Beacon Monitor that shows which of the eighteen NCDXF and IARU international beacons is transmitting at this moment on each HF band, a Propagation Score that turns raw NOAA solar and geomagnetic data into a single figure with a band recommendation, a live DX Cluster feed, and an amateur radio contest calendar. Each tool computes beam headings and distances from your own Maidenhead locator.
The second half is written material: build notes for antennas that have actually been put up and measured, notes on operating events worth remembering, guides to digital modes such as FT8 and VarAC, and articles on running amateur radio software under Linux.
Why the tools exist
Most propagation information online is presented either as raw numbers that mean nothing without experience, or as a widget that gives no reasoning. The tools here are built the other way around: they state a conclusion, then show the figures behind it, so a newly licensed operator can learn what a solar flux index of 90 or a K index of 5 actually means for the band they are about to try.
Accuracy and corrections
Beacon schedules, frequencies and locators are compiled from the published information of the Northern California DX Foundation, the IARU and the RSGB. Solar and geomagnetic figures come from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. If you spot an error anywhere on the site, corrections are genuinely welcome through the contact page.
Station
The station works mainly HF SSB, CW and FT8, with VHF activity on 2 metres and 70 centimetres including meteor scatter and tropospheric openings. Antennas have ranged from simple end fed wires to a full size 80 metre dipole and a multi band Yagi.