Back on the Air After 15 Years

28/07/2026

I got my license back in 1997, and radio amateurism was a big part of my life for years — right up until around 2010. After that, life got busy, other things took priority, and the hobby quietly slipped into the background. My gear sat mostly untouched for over a decade.

In 2025, I slowly started picking it back up. Not with a big plan at first — just curiosity, a bit of nostalgia, and the itch to get on the air again. That itch turned into a proper project once I realized how much had changed, both in the hobby and in my own situation.

A Space Problem

If you want to build an HF station, most of us will quickly run into space constraints. For me, the challenge was that we live in a cohousing community: 15 other families and I share a site where every housing unit, and therefore also every private garden, is small. There is, however, a larger shared space and garden. More information about our community can be found here: Kerselaar Oostakker.

Building antennas in those shared areas isn't straightforward. My desk, though, is located in a shared space that I share with the neighbors. Fortunately, we have a stable IP network connecting all locations across the cohousing site, and that's where the solution came from.

A Remote Station

Remote station

I solved the problem by building a remote station. An IC-705, along with all its peripherals, sits neatly tucked away in a cabinet. From my PC, I connect to that station over the network using wfview.

I started this blog to document my adventures as a (re-)beginning radio amateur. At the time of writing, I can already listen on the bands via wfview. Transmitting doesn't work yet. I'm still dealing with some EMI issues I need to sort out first. More on that soon.

The Antenna

EFHW

Right now I'm using an EFHW tuned for 40m, with a loading coil and extension for 80m.

pole

I put up a pole in the garden, but the garden is only 10m deep, so the rest of the wire runs over the house. Far from an ideal setup, but there's still plenty of room for improvement here too, and I'll definitely be writing more about that on this blog.

Why QRP CW

Given the limited space, the proximity to the neighbors, and the need to keep my budget in check with 3 children, I've decided to focus on QRP in CW. Less power, less impact on the neighbors, and a nice technical challenge to still get out there with just a few watts.

Where Things Stand

Everything described above is the initial build I put together in 2025. I'm now picking that back up to finish it properly, and there are a few concrete problems still standing in my way:

RFI on the home automation. While setting up the antenna, I ran into a serious issue: transmitting on HF causes interference on the domotica installation, both mine and my neighbors'. Our houses start to develop a mind of their own — lights switching on and off, screens opening and closing, and so on. This happens even at just 5W. It's honestly what demotivated me from finishing the station back then, but it's now the problem I'm actively working to solve.
Remote CW keying. Through the remote setup (wfview), CW is currently sent as typed text rather than real keying. Since I'm learning CW using a paddle and keyer, I want to be able to send that over the remote link as well, not just type messages.
Learning CW. I've been spending a lot of time lately learning CW, and it's slowly starting to click. That's another reason I want to get the rest of the station finished.