Continuing a tradition from Treasure Coast Ham News, Short Takes are links to useful, entertaining and educational web pages of interest to hams. (For ease in identifying new content, future additions to this list will always be added from the top.)

The DX Mentor Channel on YouTube – Per the home page, the purpose of the DX Mentor channel is to recruit, educate, and retain amateurs who have some level of interest in DX. The site hosts some interesting podcasts. The DX Mentor – YouTube

Determine a Call’s CQ Zone or ITU Zone – Some DX programs offer awards for confirmed contacts in CQ or ITU zones. Here’s a useful website that will return the CQ and ITU zone when you enter a station’s grid square. (The station’s grid square can usually be found on their QRZ page.) Results are displayed on an interactive Google map. https://zone-check.eu/

City Data Website – Here’s a site that provides an assortment of demographic data for virtually every city and town in the country. It even provides a list of Amateur Radio Licenses registered in each city and town. (Please note: We question the completeness of some of the amateur radio information, but it is an interesting site none the less.) City-Data home page; amateur radio page.

Featured DXPeditions Timeline – DX-World.net provides a convenient calendar style chart listing DX opportunities for the next several weeks. Print a copy and keep it near your rig. View chart here.

Having Trouble Connecting to a Web Site? – Here’s a useful tool that will determine if the web site is down, or if there is a connection problem is at your end: Is it down for everyone or just me. (Here’s an example that checks Logbook of The world^® status: LoTW^® Status.)

Signal Identification Guide – Provides sample sound and waveform files for all manner of digital signals encountered by hams. Click here.