Help

How to do this podcast thing?

Much of the content on this website is produced as a podcast, essentially an audio file that can be downloaded and played on many different kinds of devices, your computer, your phone and even in your car or on your television.

A podcast comes in two parts, a feed and the audio files. The feed is updated every time a new episode is published and you can use this to get notified that a new episode is available. The process of getting notified requires that you subscribe to the podcast feed, a so-called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

There is no cost associated with subscribing, other than your own data costs for Internet traffic. The content of an RSS file is not intended for human consumption. It's formatted specifically for a podcast player. The important part that you'll interact with is the link to the feed, a normal web-address or URL. You'll copy and paste it into your podcast player.

Once the feed is (automatically) updated, you can then (choose to) download an audio file. Again there is no cost associated with this, other than your own data costs for Internet traffic. Most podcast software provide alerts when new episodes are available.

If you do not have podcasting software, you can listen directly in a web-browser using an online podcast-player. You'll find links to these on each podcast page.

You can choose to read the transcripts in a series of eBooks. There are several radio transmitters around the globe that also feature this podcast and some amateur radio clubs have included transcripts in their club newsletter.

Listen on iOS, iTunes or AppleTV

You can follow the instructions written by Apple, but essentially, open the podcast in iTunes and click subscribe. You'll find the link to iTunes on every podcast page. You can also find the podcasts by searching for "VK6FLAB" in either the podcast app on your device or iTunes.

iTunes will automatically update the podcast when a new episode is published.

Listen on Android

You can download any podcast application and add the RSS feed to the podcast app. You'll find the RSS feed for a podcast on every podcast page.

I use and recommend AntennaPod. It's a Free Open Source application that's available from the Google Play store. After you install your podcast application of choice, you can click on the RSS icon and your podcast application should open automatically. You can listen to episodes, add the podcast to your library and keep track of which episodes you've listened to.

Google is in the process of rolling out Google Podcasts, but the application is pretty rudimentary at the moment. By clicking on the Google Podcast icon, you can automatically play the podcast episode, add the app and the subscription on any Android device.

Listen on the web

Every podcast page has links to several external web-based players which automatically update when a new episode is published. You can choose to create an account to track which episodes you've listened to, but the linked players will play the podcast without requiring you to sign up. Some web-based players offer an app which you can choose to use, or not.

Read

The transcripts for "What use is an F-call?" and "Foundations of Amateur Radio" are combined into a series of eBooks that are available for purchase from the Amazon Kindle store.

You'll also find individual transcripts on Facebook, on Reddit and included in several amateur radio club news letters around the globe.

Copies of various episodes appear in the Chawed Rag newsletter produced by the Richardson Wireless Klub (K5RWK).

If you're in Denver, the Denver Radio Club (W0TX) newsletter The Roundtable also features transcripts of various episodes.

Listen on air

The "Foundations of Amateur Radio" podcast is broadcast every week on repeaters around VK and beyond.

You can listen to "Foundations of Amateur Radio" on "This Week in Amateur Radio", heard across the globe every week as a podcast and on-air transmission.

If you're in a Dutch speaking part of the world, "Foundations of Amateur Radio" can be heard on Saturday across the PI2NOS repeater network which covers the Netherlands, large parts of Belgium, small parts of Germany, the London/Brighton area in the UK as well as on Curaçao (in the Dutch Caribbean north of Venezuela).

Saint Lucia Amateur Radio Club SLARC has used some episodes on their local ham net.

You can also listen via shortwave radio during the shows DX Headlines and CQ Serenade.