Your next step into radio
Ready to get your ham radio license?
Start with our step-by-step getting-started guide, or use free practice tests to prepare for Technician, General or Amateur Extra. No account is needed to practice.
Choose a direction
What would you like to explore?
I’m Shawn, K5NWZ. Explore my working projects and plain-language guides from Northern Colorado—no prior experience needed.
More to explore
Live tools and practical guides
Try a live tool, look inside a working project, or find local people to learn with.
Listen on the live SDR
Choose a signal, open the receiver already tuned, watch the waterfall, and try built-in decoders for voice, APRS, packet, FT8, SSTV, Meshtastic, and MeshCore.
Open the SDR guide →See stations being heard
Follow live station reports, Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air activity, report age, band conditions, and propagation clues.
View station spots →Tour the Home Assistant brain
See how security, cameras, doors, windows, weather, radio, packet, and mesh tracking come together in one locally controlled system.
Explore Home Assistant →Find clubs and repeaters
Compare Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming clubs, meeting activities, public links, repeater programming details, and approximate coverage.
Find clubs and repeaters →Live from the station
See what is happening now
Watch current radio activity, mesh traffic and weather from the station. Activity changes throughout the day.
OPEN LIVE NOW →
Listen, watch, and decode
Radio is more interesting when you can experience it
The site connects explanations with real signals. Listen through the online SDR, watch APRS stations move across a map, learn what packet and digital modes sound like, or step back in time with Wayback Radio.
Questions? Join the conversation.
Ask questions, compare ideas and share what you are building with the K5NWZ Discord community. Newcomers are welcome.
ASK THE COMMUNITY ON DISCORD →