Below the Noise Floor
Below the Noise Floor is a self-education project turned podcast. One licensed amateur radio operator learning HF radio and AetherSDR from the ground up - the bands, the waterfall, the voice chain, the digital modes, the antennas - and sharing the process. These episodes are mostly AI-generated content built around real curiosity and real equipment. If you are new to HF or new to software-defined radio and want something that starts from zero and builds methodically, this might be exactly what you were looking for.
Below the Noise Floor
Latest Episodes
Below the Noise Floor — Episode 13: "The AetherSDR Voice Chain, Part Two: EQ and Processing"
With a clean baseline signal established in Episode 12, this episode covers the refinements: transmit equalization, speech processing and compression, VOX sensitivity and hang time tuning, and how to save everything as a profile. Part two of two.
Below the Noise Floor — Episode 24: "CW for People Who Do Not Intend to Become CW Operators"
This is not an attempt to talk you into becoming a CW operator. It is the narrower argument: that a small amount of Morse knowledge makes you a better listener and a better judge of what your antenna is actually doing, even if you never send a ...
Below the Noise Floor — Episode 12: "The AetherSDR Voice Chain, Part One: The Basics"
The AetherSDR transmit voice chain has enough controls to be genuinely overwhelming the first time you open it. This episode cuts through that by starting from zero and walking the signal path from microphone to antenna one stage at a time. Part o...
Below the Noise Floor — Episode 23: "Bonding, and the Panel Where Everything Comes In"
Lightning protection is not really about lightning. It is about potential difference, and once you see it that way almost every decision gets easier.Your radio is connected to two separate worlds at once: the coax that goes outside and u...
Below the Noise Floor — Episode 11: "Noise Reduction and AGC"
Noise reduction and AGC are two of the most misunderstood controls in SDR software - not because they are complicated but because they solve different problems. This episode explains what each one actually does, when to use it, when to leave it al...