First licensed in 1975 as a Novice, I quickly upgraded to Technician in early 1976.  Being in the military, it was difficult to set up a permanent station but, I managed to put up some sort of antenna to work CW on HF where ever I landed.  I had LOTS of fun working anyone who would put up with my bad fist.  I found out later that straight keys and me don’t get along well.  Hi

I’ve never been much of a VHF fan preferring instead to work foreign countries.  Something about being able to communicate at extreme distances without wires fascinated me. 

I was on HF phone exclusively for years after upgrading to General and totally lost any proficiency (if anyone dare call it that) with CW.  However, about 3 years ago I took up CW again with a vengeance.  I downloaded an excellent program by G4FON and began to build my copy speed.  I quickly found that I had totally forgotten all but, about 4 characters.  Fortunately, I found a willing Elmer who worked with me every evening for about a month before he pronounced me “no longer a speed bump” on the CW bands.  Many thanks Tim, N5IIT.  I finally reached a copy speed of a little better than 20 wpm and figured I had arrived.  I REALLY enjoy CW and joined FISTS.  A great organization dedicated to the perpetuation of CW and Morse Code.  I’ve earned a modest number of awards through FISTS but, I’m not really a “paper chaser”.  However, the awards do serve as an incentive to stay at it.  

 

My first HF transceiver was a Tempo One built by Yaesu for Henry Radio.  I bought it used, shortly after getting my Novice license.  I used that rig for many years working CW but, when I landed in a location where I couldn’t get on HF, I gave the rig to my brother, W5EWA.  It stayed in the family all these years and we've swapped it back and forth many times.  In the middle of trading the Tempo back and forth, I acquired a Galaxy V Mk II and used that for a while.  Boy, the Tempo sure had a lot of advantages over the old Galaxy.  The VFO in the old Mk V defined “drift” but, it worked for me and I had fun with it.

 

In more recent years I’ve owned an FT101E, IC745, IC751A (great receiver) , Alinco DX70TH mobile, and am currently running an FT920 … which is a great rig with an excellent DSP receiver.  I drive a Drake L75 single 3-500Z amplifier into my antenna system. 

 

Antennas:  For 20, 15 and 10 meter I’m using a Tenedyne/Hygain TH3JR at 48 feet that gives me about 1 S unit gain on those frequencies.  For the lower bands, I’m experimenting with a Double Bazooka cut for 75 meter strung up in inverted vee fashion at 50 feet. 

5/26/07 — DOUBLE BAZOOKA UPDATE:  It’s working very well on 75 meter.  Atmospheric noise is down by 1 S unit compared to my neighbors (1 mile away) inverted vee but, signals remain the same.  Transmit appears to be better too but, don’t see how that’s possible.  Signal reports are consistently better but, how much better is hard to tell due to fluctuating band conditions every night.  In any case, it has met my expectations and I’m ready to begin experimenting with a Double Bazooka for 30 meter.  I’ll post the results here.

I use my LDG 1000 Autotuner to tune it on 40 meter and it does a fairly good job although it’s a bit touchy to tune.  It also will tune 20 meter.  However, it mimics a high impedance dummy load on 30 and 17 … deaf as a post.  So, I need to put up 2 more antennas … or one that will load on 30 and 17.  Because of the success I’ve had with the 75 meter Double Bazooka, I’ll probably build one for 30 meter and find out if it will tune 17 meter.  The results will be posted here.

A bit of history ….

Check the weather in Arlington, TX

Interesting Ham Radio Links:

 

QTH.Com — Lots of goodies for sale.

 

Ham Universe — Mucho info.  (rigs, rules, antennas, etc.)

 

FISTS CW Club — For the perpetuation of CW and Morse Code.

 

Eham.net— Excellent webiste for Hams with call sign look-up.

 

QRZ.com — Excellent website - the most used site for call sign look-up

 

Wavenode — Intersting Watt Meter.  Wn1 is the newest addition to my shack.

 

 

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Weekly HF Swap Nets:

 

Texas Traders Net  - 7.245 Mhz  - Sunday mornings at 15:00 GMT

 

Continental Traders Net  -  3.922 Mhz  -  Sunday evenings at 22:30 GMT