Couple the mysterious nature of amateur (ham) radio in microwave bands to the lack of store-bought gear that operates in this band and you have the right recipe for a home brew of equipment. So when the design of a 10 GHz ham radio station was originally discussed within the amateur radio community, one of the key missing blocks was a good low-noise amplifier (LNA). This application note describes how an LNA was therefore custom made (home brewed) utilizing NI AWR Design Environment circuit design software.