KHAM

N0BFQ Radio, better known as Radio KHAM, is a radio station run by the amateur radio operator Desmond Pearson, callsign N0BFQ on frequencies of 102.5MHz and 7150KHz with studios located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Transmitters are located in Budapest, Hungary (FM) and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (SW) The station first opened up on July 5th, 2026.

History

The logo for N0BFQ Radio

From July 5th through the end of July, the station was in an experimental phase, with 24/7 operation happening rarely due to feature implementations in progress. The station fully opened up on August 1st, 2026. In early August, the station underwent an extreme overhaul, with a massive library of CD's being ripped and a resulting 300 songs being added to the station queue. On August 30th, 2026 the station officially began broadcasting in the RDS and Stereo standard.

Current Operations

KHAM operating in the DRM standard using the Opus codec and 16-QAM modulation.

Currently, Radio KHAM broadcasts 24/7 on the FM frequency of 102.5MHz, and occasionally on the 40m band frequency of 7150KHz. The station is sporadically testing DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) on 7150KHz and will possibly become the operation standard in the future. To catch DRM, the 40m band will need to be able to support NVIS to Budapest.

Full Station Details

Frequency	Modulation	EIRP	Status
5250KHz	WFM/AM	500kW	Decommissioned
7150KHz	DRM/AM	250kW	Active
7170KHz	DRM Testing	100kW	Rare
102.5MHz	WFM (Stereo/RDS)	10kW	Acitve

Other

• On August 19th, 2026, Radio KHAM broadcasted an exclusive live album of AJR from the Iowa State Fair, limited to only this station. The songs are randomly played in rotation.
• The host city Des Moines hosts a FM station under the same frequency in real life, KSTZ also known as STAR 102.5
• To listen to the DRM broadcast, download Dream DRM decoder and pipe the audio through a virtual audio cable. Use USB with a 10khz bandwidth.