Sunday, February 01, 2026
Welcome to Issue #002! This week is packed with massive breakthroughs in open-source SDR, “Make in India” military radio news, and some very clever DIY projects for your weekend shack time.
🔝 Top Links of the Week
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Open.Space: Open Source SDR Phased Array for Moon BouncingThis is a game-changer. An upcoming open-source project that uses tiled 4×4 MIMO SDRs to create affordable phased arrays. The “Moon” configuration aims to make Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication possible without a massive dish. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/open-space-an-open-soure-sdr-based-phased-array-for-bouncing-signals-off-the-moon/
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Indian Army Procurement of Indigenous SDRs A major milestone for Indian engineering. The Army has signed a deal for the first set of locally developed Software Defined Radios (SDR-Handheld) from DRDO and BEL, replacing older legacy systems with modern, secure MANET technology. https://elitewealth.in/indian-army-signs-deal-for-first-indigenous-sdr-systems-developed-by-drdo-and-bel/
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DX Alert: 3Y0K Bouvet Island DXpedition Prep One of the rarest DXCC entities is about to go active. If you are a DX hunter, February is the month to watch. Ensure your HF antennas are tuned and your amplifiers are ready for the pile-ups. https://www.dx-world.net/
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ADSBee: ADS-B Reception on an RP2040 Can a $4 microcontroller decode aircraft signals? Yes. This project uses the Raspberry Pi RP2040’s PIO pins and a clever analog front-end to decode 1090 MHz ADS-B data. It’s a masterclass in minimalist RF design. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/adsbee-ads-b-and-uat-reception-and-decoding-on-an-rp2040-microcontroller/
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The 2026 SOTA Challenge: VHF/UHF Focus Summits on the Air (SOTA) has launched a new challenge for 2026 focusing on 2m and 70cm SSB/CW. It’s a great excuse to take your IC-705 or FT-818 to the nearest hill and see what kind of VHF DX you can manage. https://www.icqpodcast.com/news/2026/1/25/sota-2026-challenge-brings-back-activity-to-2m70cm-ssbcw
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DIY: The “Spider” Ground Plane Antenna for 2 MetersA classic weekend project for new hams. Using just an SO-239 connector and some stiff copper wire (or welding rods), you can build a high-performance omnidirectional antenna for your local repeaters. http://www.arrl.org/your-first-antenna
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New Ham Satellite: QMR-KWT-2 (Moon of Kuwait)A new 1U CubeSat has been deployed from a recent Soyuz launch. It carries an FM transponder (Uplink: 145.920 / Downlink: 436.950) and a camera capable of transmitting SSTV images. https://www.amsat.org/ans-004-amsat-news-service-weekly-bulletins/
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Web-Spectrum: Browser-Based GPS Signal Analyzer A new open-source tool on GitHub that allows you to analyze GPS/GNSS signals using an RTL-SDR directly in your web browser. Excellent for testing signal interference or antenna placement. https://github.com/topics/sdr
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S0S Western Sahara Special Event on QO-100 From February 3rd to 8th, look for S0S on the QO-100 geostationary satellite. This is a rare opportunity to log Western Sahara via satellite. https://www.dx-world.net/s0s-western-sahara-qo-100/
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HamAlert: Push Notifications for Rare DX If you’re busy at the college and can’t monitor the radio all day, HamAlert will send a notification to your phone the second a station you need appears on the DX cluster or PSKReporter. https://hamalert.org/
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Experimental HF Stations Lose Callsign Waiver The FCC and international regulators are tightening rules on experimental HF stations. All stations must now provide a clear callsign ID, impacting some automated propagation beacons. https://www.arnewsline.org/
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The “Non-Resonant” End Fed: The Ultimate Stealth Antenna A deep dive into why 9:1 baluns and “random wire” lengths are often more practical for restricted spaces than resonant dipoles, especially when paired with a good tuner like the one in your sBitx. https://hamradioprep.com/hf-ham-radio-antennas/
Want to contribute?If you found an interesting circuit, a new SDR software, or a helpful radio blog, please email me or leave a comment below. Your link might be featured in next Sunday’s digest!
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