Kazimierz (Kai) Siwiak, KE4PT, was first licensed in 1964, and holds an Amateur Extra class license. He holds 41 US patents, has authored many professional papers, four textbooks, and has contributed chapters to other books. Dr. Kai is a member of QRP-ARCI, Life Member of AMSAT and a member of ARRL where he serves on the RF Safety Committee and is an ARRL Technical Advisor, and Contributing Editor for QST, and Editor of QEX. Kai is an avid DXer who carries a small “DX Go-Bag” station on his travels. Kai will present “No-cost Software for Portable DXing — Digital Modes and Propagation Prediction”, subtitled, “Plan Before You Go!”. As long as you have an HF transceiver no older than a teenager, you can add an audio interface and a small computer to create a Basic Software Defined Radio. Then, add any of the many free digital software packages to operate modern high performance digital protocols. Finally, maximize the effectiveness of your DX-GoBag station experience by using modern free propagation software packages to plan your operating mode, time and band! We will step through the Basic SDR concept, identify the digital software packages, and walk our way through free software propagation packages.
