Biography

On the air (and in person) I go by MATT - not 'Jim' or 'James.'

I bought an Icom IC-7610 and put on the air for the first time on August 22, 2019. This is my first new purchase 'high end' radio ever and I'm very impressed. The QSK is silky smooth and I've made about 10 QSOs in the last few days and have yet to open the manual to look for anything at all. I still have my IC-7300 and my older IC-7100. After being a die hard Kenwood fan for decades, it just occurred to me that I suppose I've become an Icom fanboy. :) (Update: almost three months into the 7610 and I still have yet to refer to a manual.)

I have an inverted L antenna of very modest size - it goes up about 20 feet vertical, then out for about 40 feet or so roughly horizontally. I have two counterpoise wires mounted on a wooden fence just above the ground and it's fed through a battery powered tuner which sits inside a weather proof enclosure on a wooden fencepost at the base of the antenna. More folks should try this arrangement; the SWR stays extremely low on the feedline, thus preventing huge dB losses in a mismatched coax line. You guys that run the tuner built into the rig or an external in the shack don't know what you're missing. I monitor the SWR on the rig's meter and the only maintenance on the remote tuner is changing out the batteries or keeping them charged inside the outdoor box about once every six months. Most of the high wattage tuners need a bit more umph and require external 12V fed from the shack in some fashion, but for you guys running 100 watts or less, the LDG Z11 Pro II tuner has latching relays, so when it's not tuning, it only draws 25 micro amps (way less than 1 milliamp) of current. Give this a try - it's way cool and gets as much of your rig's power to the antenna as possible. Ask me about it and I can go into more detail on the air.

Novice - 1974 ... General 1975 ... Advanced 1976 ... Extra 1983. No real breaks in operating during those years, just brief 'slowdowns' for family and kids, but with the kids now on their own, I'm operating quite a bit now (for me) ... about 15 QSOs per week.

Let me know if you need grid square EM55, Shelby County, TN - or the state of Tennessee in general for an award. I'd be glad to schedule a QSO and have recently gotten new QSL cards after being out of them for ... well, years. You won't find me on SSB, but if you need any of the above locations for a phone award, I'll even be glad to QSY to the voice section of the band (s) and work you. I don't fiddle around with digital modes any longer. Yes, I know you can do DXCC or WAS in a month with FT8, but I tried it and for me it's about as much fun as watching paint dry. I no longer have a computer interfaced to any transceiver. My mode of preference is CW. I cannot explain why. I learned it at age 13, licensed at 14 ... so naturally it's now almost 2nd nature. I tend to prefer 25 wpm or so for an 'average' QSO, but I never answer anyone faster than they are sending. Occasionally it's fun to work someone on VERY slow CW and I like letting folks run at the speed they like. I'm limited to about 45 wpm or so (anything over that is simply not 'pleasurable' for my ears or 'easy' without total concentration on my part) but if you hear me, call me at whatever speed you wish and I'll adjust.

I'm not a member of very many clubs or ham radio organizations and haven't been nominated for any that I'm aware of. I simply love operating and ragchewing. I've learned so much from other hams about antennas and transceivers and at my age I'm not ready to stop. Finally, if you are on CW, please take the time to listen for those slower speed senders - and I'm pleasantly surprised recently at the number of folks with 'only' 10-12 years in the hobby who are extrenely proficient in the 20-30 wpm CW range. That's very cool and my hat is off to you (relative) newcomers!


73,
Matt, AA4MB

SKCC # 10992