Biography

Winter 2021-2022 Update...............

After a tough 2021 and getting to know doctors too well it is time to move along. One of my pet projects has been implementing SDR radio projects including panadapters and other SDR equipment and learning the nuances of the SDR side of the hobby. So I have been picking up panadapters and dongles and other small things a little at a time including buying a SDR Play which I love to experiement with and also listening to Shortwave broadcasts via the varied SDR radios set up on OpenWebRX and KiwiSDR which are two of my favorites. At some point I plan on putting up a Kiwi SDR or maybe 2 or 3 once I get the equipment and start adding to the collection a little more.

Soon I am planning on giving the HF station including the TS-480 SAT, IC 718, FT 450 and Yaesu FT 1000MP a fresh new look so stay tuned. I am planning on working the contests in March including the ARRL International DX Contest the first weekend of March and the CQ WPX Contest in late March as usual and hope to have better results this year unlike last year when I dealt with illness and various other issues.

Another project is putting in a Wolf River Coils antenna system to make something relatively stealthy and portable as well as building my own traps and a 40 meter, 20 meter, 17 meter and 15 meter short vertical system along with an antenna switch to switch between the various bands on HF. Hopefully I will be posting some pictures when I get this done in the next few weeks in time for the contests and other events. I've already purchased most of the parts for the project but haven't gotten around to buildling the vertical antennas with the stingers attached and then a few other technical things that I want to figure out before completing the task. As you can tell that I like to build things going back to my experience in metal manufacturing, automotive parts, painting and various other assembly and other career jobs I have had over the years.

Recently in the fall before I fell ill for the third time in the last 8-9 months I also built a receive vertical and wire wound coil with a 3 foot diameter PVC pipe that I have been using as a receive antenna with the Yaesu FT-1000 MP as well as working on a couple of magnetic loops for 40-10 meters. Now if I could convince my significant other spouse to realize that all this is a good investment in radio fun and enjoyment. She's still a bit skeptical though she pretty much let's me run my own show so that is good enough for now.

Hope all is well this winter season despite being wracked with the COVID debacle and various other issues and you reading this are doing well. W9SUN.

Below is my main operating position for the HF station including a Yaesu FT-1000MP and a IC-718 as well as a legacy FRG-100 Yaesu Receiver that I enjoy listening to SW and HF when I am not wanting to talk which is rare because I like to talk as you can probably tell by my writings. Maybe I will even start to update the blog and discuss this and put some technical things on there including my experimentation with SDR radio and making things which I thoroughly enjoy doing. Not pictured is other vintage equipment and the TS-480SAT and my various two meter equipment that I have been adding to over the years. 73s for now, W9SUN

Main Operating Position #1 .........

Icom IC-718 with Heil iCM Gold Microphone and Yaesu FT-1000MP with M-70 Microphone (not shown) and Yaesu FRG-100B for casual listening to SW/MW/Ham





It's now August 15, 2021 and its been an eventful summer at W9SUN with some new equipment and upgrading the station and surroundings. It's been an eventful year as well between dodging COVID and couple of months of health issues brought on by COVID including a nice 15 day stint in the hospital for COVID related symptoms including a whole lot of craziness brought on by the malady. In fact, it lasted from mid April to about late May until I finally got through the worst of it then another month until July 1st when everything that had been plaguing me finally cleared up. So I ended up missing various contests from mid April until the IARU and I just wasn't all that much into it.

A couple of new additions to the state including a very nice Yaesu FT-1000MP procured off the market and a FRG-100 that is even better than the original one that I have had for 25 years in that the case is in better condition without any rust/oxidation on the rear panel. Quite the catch too. I am also operating with an IC-718 primarily as a backup rig at this point. I also have various models of Kenwood antique rigs and Yaesu antique rigs along with a Kenwood TS-480 mobile and countless VHF rigs. The picture above is my main operating position as of August 15 2021.

Since I left the hospital on May 25th it has been a tough summer at least until July 1, 2021 when things really started to clear up. However since then its been highly productive since I got most of the issues resolved and back in working order. Band conditions are still quite challenging yet I have been making contacts realtively well. Also in the works are three new antenna projects including 2 new loop antennas, some new wire antennas and a circular tuned loop antenna positioned horizontally just for fun and experimentation. I have more to say at a later date so I'll give a new update when I get some more material written out soon. 73s de W9SUN



It's January 2, 2021 and after a festive Christmas and New Year brings new ideas and new toys and new interests. Still very interested and active in amateur radio and SWL though it doesn't have the depth that it used to. However, I do enjoy listening to others SDR receivers in other parts of the world where they use SW Broadcasting more fervently than North America. Spent much of the fall listening to SDR in places like Japan, Australia, SE Asia, Europe and such. Also did my fair share of operating and working on finishing up projects and antenna improvements as well as continuing to educate myself about small transmitting loops and working on those project. Next will be working on that Extra Class license I've been wanting to do for years but never quite got around to it due to family and professional responsibilities and just getting involved in too many things that occupy the rest of my time.

The bands recently have been significantly better since we are getting into the early stages of Solar Cycle 25 and from what I read it should be quite a bit of fun since some of the scientists and space weather experts are talking of an enhanced solar cycle which if true will be a lot nicer than the one we were in from 2009 through 2020 especially from 2017 onward. Especially nice will be the ability to make more long distance contacts later in the evening and overnight on the higher bands from 20 meters to 10 meters. Sometimes its a bit difficult at times to get much action on 20 meters or 17 or 15 later in the evening after local darkness so I will welcome that change.

2020 also ended with few to little health scares unlike the mess that everyone is experiencing so far and for the first time in years I've been quite healthy and repairing past damage and physical problems so everything is improving in that way. Some years have been fraught with difficulty with health and physical issues but that's gradually going away as my condition improves and I feel much better than I have in many years. Can't beat that and the vast improvment in feeling better and more active. Hopefully that continues although this pandemic is quite concerning and horrible for so many people and their families. Will keep those folks in our thoughts and prayers for their health recovery and economic recovery among other things.

I think I have said enough for this post and probably need to come in here and clean up the rest of the earlier postings and compress them into something shorter in length and cutting it down to size. Hope to see you on the air in 2021 more often as our band conditions and outlook improves. 73s! W9SUN.



June 26, 2020.....ARRL Field Day Weekend, Loop Antennas and other musings

Well its been a busy spring working into summer but have been trying to perfect a wide variety of HF Small Loop Transmitting Antennas including using 1 inch diameter copper tubing for antennas ranging from 15 meters down through the 17 meter, 20 meter, 30 meter, 40 meter and 60 meter bands. The higher the band of course the larger the overall diameter of the antenna of which the one for 40 meters and 60 meters equals out to about 28 foot all the way around the square loop since its a pain in the butt and quite a bit more expensive to build a round loop with coiled refrigeration tubing being quite a bit more expensive than running straight copper pipe with fittings at the ends to weld the entire antenna together. Have had quite a few recent impressive contacts using the small transmitting loops including less QRN and QRM on the bands which sometimes can be quite severe especially in the late spring through early fall due to storms and other nasty noise out there. Home consumer electronics are probably the big problem though especially LED lights, computers, televisions and other nasty bugs that can be remedied by either unplugging them when not in use or using toroids and chokes to keep the noise out.

As usual ARRL Field Day portable operations in the parks or state forestry looks like a real wash since the nice summer thunderstorms are going to be in the area for much of Saturday evening and Sunday right in the middle of Field Day. One year I would like to be able to have a clear weekend so I can hoist up some 10-80 meter verticals and other antennas without having to deal with copious amounts of rain and crazy lightning around me. Maybe next year it will cooperate for at least 2 days being middle of Saturday thorugh mid Sunday. Maybe......but then again judging most of the past several years it always seems to storm pretty hard around Field Day especially the weekend. Oh well.

So I venture to guess that my Field Day will be operating 1 rig from home off commercial power or maybe a generator if I decide to drag it out for the contest. Nevertheless even home commerical opeation during Field Day is still fun though its better to be out in the wide open areas with random wire antennas, dipoles or verticals popping up out of the ground in various locations.

Another recent blurb of information would my acquiring a brand new IC-718 through the fine folks of Ham Radio Outlet. This isn't my first rodeo with the IC-718 as I had one for most of the early 2000s until about 2010. Then sold it off for other rigs and decided to try it again. Also, looking to add a couple more rigs to the station at some point especially something like perhaps one of the Yaesu contest rigs or Icom rigs for digital mode radio and easy to hook up to the computer and keyboard, etc.

I've got enough exercise working with pipe lately that I might be good for the summer but its been fun experimenting with vacuum variable capacitors and the like with a small investment in copper piping and building something that gets 5000 miles no sweat in most cases when the bands are open. A couple of recent contacts to Russia, Brazil, Japan and elsewhere in the worst band conditions of my ham radio career definitely impressed me especially running 75 watts into a square loop antenna only a few feet above the terrain.



Winter 2018

This fall and winter has been a time of experimentation with new operating techniques, new modes and of course some new technical devices and work. One of my finished projects amongst many that have already been started and not totally completed as of this date of writing 12-27-2018 include the 20-17-15 meter magnetic loop antenna that I debuted in the October and November time frame. One of my contacts was to Sochi, Russia on the 20 Meter Band with a total distance of 5,833 miles or 9,388 Kilometers approximate distance. So I would say that the Magnetic Loop works rather well considering that its pretty much antenna of 1/2 inch copper pipe built in a square measuring approximately 33 inches on each side and tuned by a 14 pf to 70 pf air variable capacitor with a rating of 5 Kilovolts. Works for me though however I would like to do some more testing especially in regard to voltages and all that fun stuff.

I was also able to in recent months contact pretty much the whole of the European continent via 20 meters since conditions on 17, 15, 12 and 10 have been less than optimal. However, I cannot complain to have contact most of the European prefixes as well as a few North African and South American ones. Central and Southern Africa seems to be a bit out of reach or not on the air at the right times. That said, I'll probably contact a few of them too soon in winter DX openings to that area of the world.

Some more creativity was when I decided that if a 33 inch square loop would work for 20-15 meters, then why not build a bigger and higher efficiency for perhaps 60 and 40 meters along with 30. Why not I say? So one day in November I decided to visit my local hardware store and haul away some 1/2 inch copper refrigeration tubing and some PVC and in essence built another magnetic loop antenna covering 60-30 meters with efficiencies of about 50 percent on 60 to around 75 percent on 40 meters. Not bad really considering that its only maybe 3 db down at most which is only 1/2 of an S unit. Not even enough to really be noticable.

So at this point, I'm building all kinds of loops for 10, 12, 15 and 17 meters of varying efficiencies looking forward to when the high bands of 17 to 10 meters come back into focus at some point. Not that there isn't activity on those bands but it has been kind of sparse this fall and winter and probably will remain so until at least late winter early spring.

Other projects have been building a vertical antenna for 20 to 10 meters using 1 inch copper pipe along with various long wire end fed antennas and a couple of dipoles as well. All kinds of fun here in the winter season.

Future operating plans including the Canada Winter Contest by the Radio Amateurs of Canada on December 28th local time 7pm to December 29th local time 7pm along with the other various state QSO parties to come up in the winter of 2019. Plus the two big DX contests of March 2019 health and time willing. So hope to see you on the bands soon.



Summer 2018

After working 2018 Field Day with a relatively decent level of personal success and well over a hundred and twenty contacts mostly on the Sunday morning portion, I'm ready for more DX. That morning when I got real serious and got the 20 meter 1.5 inch diameter vertical ground mounted and up on the air, things really took off. Not only was it a 1.4 to 1 and below on the General portion of the band but it also was about 2:1 or less on 15 meters and 10 meters which was a lot of fun. Despite the largely lousy conditons, I was able to get most of the 50 states on 20 meters for ARRL Field Day.

Future plans include working the IARU HF Championship on July 14th and 15th conditions permitting along with everyday HF operation as much as humanly possible with all my other PRIORITIES. Smile.

I've been rediscovering the greatness and past greatness of Shortwave Broadcasting SWBC via the Internet but also listening via some legacy Kenwood and Yaesu HF Receivers. Not to mention experimenting with SDR Radio including linking up to various SDR radio around the world to check out local listening and even the local ham scene in various locations around the world.

Lately, I've been working on SDR Radio projects and getting a receiver with SDR and quite possibly a SDR HF Transceiver.

Band conditons have been a little left to be desired but eventually it should tick back and conditions should start improving in 2019 and 2020 so we'll just keep trying to push some sort of signal through and even in days where the conditions are bad a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.

According to Boulder, CO the MUF today is 11.3 MHZ at 2040 UTC on June 22nd, 2018, yet I was able to work a couple of stations on 10 meters so realize that the bands aren't always as dead one might think. Just make a call and see what comes back to you on the radio. Too much spotting and then pouncing is why you don't hear enough stations on HF especially in the higher bands of 20-6m.

Operating Conditions at the QTH.

Anyway, the basic layout of the station hasn't changed much as far as equipment or antennas but I will be making some antenna related changes pretty soon that I hope boosts my signals received and transmitted over the air and probably putting in an amplifier pretty soon. Especially needed with the poor band conditions that we've had in late 2016 and most of 2017. There are glimmers of light despite the low solar levels and few to none on sunspots. Especially important to improve antennas and power issues. Propagation isn't quite what it used to be in 2012-2015 versus what it is now. It wasn't uncommon in those years from 2011 until the end of 2015 to be able to work 20 Meter long distance DX of 4,000 or 5,000 miles even at midnight US Eastern Standard Time even when it was 6 am in Europe. Now its near impossible unless you're dealing with high power, beams, etc. Much less doing it with a loop and no forward gain.

That said, the current station setup is using a Kenwood TS-480SAT with the Heil IC version headset along with a Behringer mixer, BBE audio compressor/sonic maximizer that I am still learning how to use for audio. No point in putting out any distorted audio from the station so its a learning process trying to develop a bit more audio clarity. Also I've been truly experimenting with the various condenser microphones that I've picked up over the spring and summer since I've had plenty of time to play radio. Most of the microphones that I use in my station tend to be condenser microphones instead of the stock version although it seems that the Heil headsets and Yamaha headsets also sound pretty good with the station. Add in the Sterling, Behringer, and Marshall microphones I've accumulated for condenser mics along with some Electrovoice pieces and it should be fun to experiment with audio settings and mic settings.

Logging Policy and QSL Info

I post my logs not only on QRZ Logbook but also Hamlog.eu, HRDLOG, Club Log, as well as linking them to my blogs at http://w9sun.blogspot.com/ and http://w9sunradio.blogspot.com

I also use the ARRL Logbook of the World where I upload my logs every couple of months to their server.

As far as QSLs go, I try to collect them every 3 months via the bureau as well as direct. I especially find EQSL to be useful with the massive number of cards I am getting these days. More to come in future.

This Is The Outstanding Radio Station Of W9SUN Live And In Technicolor!
Greetings all,

Well maybe not Live and in Technicolor but I always liked that when it was used way back when before my time of course. I have always been interested in broadcasting, TV, AM Radio, Shortwave Radio, and Ham Radio since the 1980s.Got my start with AM Dxing way back in 1985 at the age of 10 when I was listening to AM radios and trying to pick up stations from 500-2000 miles away and often farther. Then progressed to listening to shortwave radio back around 1990 and after a ten year stint with that finally obtained a ham radio license on February 20, 2000 with the callsign of KB9VUH. Finally upgraded to W9SUN later that year and moved up to General Class in 2007. Looking to move up to Extra class as soon as possible. This year will be the 15th year I've held the call W9SUN and I guess 10 more until I can be a member of the QCWA so I'm getting a bit closer on that. Now at 25 years since I first started listening to shortwave radio so a lot of nostalgia for the older equipment and broadcasts. Still listen to SW Radio even though in my opinion its a shell of what it was just a generation ago.

Operating conditions from here include using long wire antennas, loops, dipoles and verticals. No beams/yagis up here at this point. Some of the radio equipment in use for the station includes the FT-840 from Yaesu, FT 450 from Yaesu, Alinco DX70TH, various tube rigs including the FT-101 series, TS-520 series, and other boatanchors. Hopefully will be expanding that collection soon as well plus now new solid state rigs and modern Icom/Yaesu equipment in the works.

Also in the middle of upgrading some amplifiers and increasing the capabilites of my station. Stay tuned.

Have always enjoyed experimenting with antennas whether that be loops, Inverted V antennas, Bazookas, NVIS, wire beams, etc. Mostly enjoy building something with my hands and be able to make it work and make contacts. Enjoy working on fixing things and equipment related issues and troubleshooting. Some of my favorite were extremely long wire antennas consisting of hundreds if not thousands of feet of wire.

Remember an interesting POPCOMM article some years ago about a ham from Texas named Johnny Thorne(SK) who was experimenting with extremely long wire antennas many years ago. That got me interested in experimenting both starting with shortwave and later ham radio.

Some of my other interests in the communication field and general outdoor activities include camping, hiking, and setting up field day stations using emergency power such as solar or battery power including windpower when necessary. I enjoy spending time in the back yard or camping other places and operating stations using emergency power and small antennas.

I regularly post my logs nowadays to Logbook of the World usually doing that about once a month or so.

QRZ

http://www.qrz.com

ARRL Logbook of the World

http://www.arrl.org/lotw

HRDLOG

https://www.hrdlog.net

HAMLOG

http://www.hamlog.eu

CLUBLOG

https://secure.clublog.org

As well as my ham radio sites and social media

http://www.w9sun.blogspot.com
http://www.w9sunradio.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/w9sunradio
https://www.facebook.com/w9sun
http://www.twitter.com/w9sun

On any of these pages if you type in W9SUN you should find me and you should also be able to find logs on any of those sites as well. I don't have all of my logs from the 2007 to 2012 period as they must have been put away somewhere but I'm sure eventually I will get the entire log caught up. I also have links on my main page to streaming audio from my station and receivers (when available). I enjoy experimenting with different modes of communications whether it be learning about digital modes or just antennas, SWL, fixing and repairing equipment, troubleshooting ( Do that a lot!), camping, Field Day, contesting, and working the various QSO parties across the nation.

Other interests include working with computers, webpages, technical pursuits, electronic troubleshooting, building equipment and experimentation, antennas, reading, history, geopolitics, photography especially digital photography and videos, travel, sports, and really pretty much anything.

Drop me a line sometime at w9sunradio@yahoo.com

73s de W9SUN

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

HF Equipment
Yaesu FT-450D
Yaesu FT-1000MP
Yaesu FT-991 Coming Soon
Kenwood TS-480SAT
Icom IC-718
Icom IC-746PRO
Alinco DX-70TH

VHF Equipment

Various Yaesu and Kenwood handhelds for 2 meters and 440 MHZ
IC-28 2 Meter Radio
IC-V8000 75 Watt 2 Meter Transceiver at 75 watts and Mirage 2 meter amplifier 160 watts ERP
Radio Shack 2 meter transmitter at 25 watts

Various MFJ Antenna Tuners
Various Power Supplies
Current Antennas Used
1. Longwire Loop
2. Magnetic Loop for 40-15 meters
3. Magnetic Loop for 20-17-15 meters
4. Magnetic Loop for 160-80-40 meters (under development)
5. Vertical Single Band Antennas
a. 40 meter shortened coil transmit antenna
b. 20 meter shortened coil transmit antenna
c. 15 meter shortened coil transmit antenna
6. Receive antenna of 150 feet of wire on 3 foot diameter 8 foot tall PVC for SW Listening
7. Various 4-5 feet diameter loops for HF Shortwave Reception.