April 3, 2025

XM Power Amplifier Carousel Installation

We have installed a heavy-duty rotating carousel to support large power amplifiers for the W1XM dish. Because the RF slip ring used in the W1XM “Big Dish” antenna cannot handle legal limit RF power, the power amplifiers for the XM radar need to rotate with the dish. To support them, we constructed a heavy duty rotating carousel that sits underneath the structure for the dish within the radome out of scrap steel.… (more ...)

March 24, 2025

Thank you to Analog Devices for RF Test Equipment!

Thank you to Analog Devices! Thank you to Jacob Gordon from Analog Devices for the enormous donation of RF test equipment to the MIT Radio Society and UHF Repeater Association! Analog Devices is a cutting-edge designer of analog and RF chips with a long history with the Radio Society–their founder, Ray Stata, was in the club when he was at MIT. The metrology department at ADI, which oversees keeping all of their test equipment in calibrated and fully-working condition, had a large cache of older instruments in partially-working states or that were too old for the production work that ADI does.… (more ...)

February 13, 2025

Thank you to Keysight Technologies for our new FieldFox!

Thank you to Gean Stumbaugh (Worldwide Support Manager for High Frequency Measurements) and Christopher Rich (FieldFox Manager) from Keysight Technologies for the permanent loan of a Keysight FieldFox N9918A to the MIT Radio Society W1MX! This remarkable instrument combines a vector network analyzer (VNA), spectrum analyzer (SA), real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA), and an RF power meter into a single ruggedized handheld instrument. History of HP/Agilent/Keysight Instruments at Radio Society The MIT Radio Society W1MX shared workshop has a long history of using HP/Agilent/Keysight instruments, and the club has many members who collect and repair older HP electronic test equipment.… (more ...)

May 7, 2021

Update on Radome Project

Hello, I write on behalf of the MIT Radio Society to share some long-awaited good news. After a years-long process involving countless hours of meeting, writing, negotiating, and planning across half a dozen entities within MIT— After an intense, large-scale fundraising campaign to save the W1XM station atop the Green Building Roof— We did it. We met our goal. We will keep our station, and we will get a shiny new radome around the 18-ft “big dish”.… (more ...)

May 3, 2021

Steve Finberg, W1GSL SK

The MIT Radio Society is mourning the loss of Steve Finberg, W1GSL, founder of Swapfest and an active member of the club for over 40 years. Steve passed away on the evening of Friday, April 23, 2021. To remember and celebrate Steve’s life, we have created a memorial page on this website. We also invite the community to share any stories or memories they shared with Steve by reaching out at w1gsl-memories@mit.… (more ...)

February 2, 2021

New Officers Elected

The MIT Radio Society and UHF Repeater Association elected new officers on 2 February 2021: W1MX - MIT Radio Society W1MX President: Aaron Yeiser KC1MRF (ayeiser at mit dot edu) W1MX Vice President: Fischer Moseley KC1MRB (fischerm at mit dot edu) W1MX Treasurer: Tanner Packham KM6JEY (tpackham at mit dot edu) W1MX Secretary: Daniel Sheen KC1EPN (dsheen at mit dot edu) W1MX Station Manager: Matthew Cox KX4MM (coxm at mit dot edu) W1XM - UHF Repeater Association W1XM President: Milo Hooper AI1XR (hooper at mit dot edu) W1XM Vice President: Rihn Hong KC1MFU (rihn at mit dot edu) W1XM Treasurer: Alexander Tsao KC1MCA (alextsao at mit dot edu) W1XM Secretary: Mitch Berger N2YIC (mitchb at mit dot edu) W1XM Station Manager: Josh Noguera KC1REV (jnoguera at mit dot edu) … (more ...)

October 26, 2020

New HF Beam Installed at W1MX

After over two years of planning since it was damaged in a severe windstorm in the fall of 2018, the W1MX primary HF beam antenna, a Mosley Pro-96 that has served the club for over 20 years, was replaced on Monday. After much debate, the club decided that, given the historical performance of the Pro-96, the simplest and safest option would be to replace it with a new antenna of the same model.… (more ...)

October 22, 2020

MIT Radio Exam Team Conducts 250th Fully-Remote Exam

If you’d like to take a remote amateur radio examination with the MIT team, please visit the Ham Exams page for information about how to register for an upcoming session. Since 1985 — just after the inception of the Volunteer Examiner (VE) system the previous year — once a month, volunteers with the MIT Radio Exam Team have offered amateur radio exams to both aspiring new operators and existing hams seeking to upgrade their license class.… (more ...)

September 17, 2020

Updated W1XM Station to Remain on Green Building Roof

When we set out in search of support in late 2019, the fate of our VHF/UHF and microwave contest and research station, W1XM, which has graced the roof of the Green Building since 1981 was far from certain. A renovation was soon to begin, and we were required to fundraise simply to preserve the space we occupied, let alone to rebuild. Thanks to the outpouring of support from our alumni, we can now say with surety that W1XM will remain on the Green Building roof and will continue to be a resource to students for many years to come.… (more ...)

May 16, 2020

COVID-19 Response and Community Support

All in-person MIT Radio Society facilities are closed until further notice. Ham Exams and Swapfest are canceled through May. No decision has been made about June's events. Watch our website for confirmation about June's events. Remote facilities such as the W1XM repeaters are still available for the community to use and are still being maintained. The COVID-19 pandemic has directly impacted the MIT Radio Society’s operations. MIT’s campus is currently closed to students, visitors, and most staff.… (more ...)