Biography

50 Years of K2WH History.........

Hello, and welcome to my Amateur Radio biography. I grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey and have lived in this state my entire life. Went to local public schools in the 70's and moved on to studying electrical engineering. First working for General Electric in their Transportation Division, Locomotives design and propulsion systems and then with a small engineering firm in Industrial Power Generation, Protection, Transformation and Network Transmission of bulk power. I retired in June of 2015 at the age of 65. I have been an Electrical Engineer most of my adult life, and have been a licensed ham since 1971. I was familiar with impedance, resistance, inductance, capacitance and radio communications when I entered high school. That is why I credit amateur radio for steering me to electrical engineering as a life long profession

My original call was WA2AEH. I started out as a technician with code in 1971 (AKA as a Tech+) and stayed at that level for at about 30 years enjoying the weak signal VHF/UHF characteristics of VHF AM mode which is really my first love of radio but, I upgraded to General in 2000. After a taste of HF, I decided to upgrade to Extra and changed my call to K2WH since WA2AEH was a too long and a disadvantage in working DX. My QTH location is on a 1200 foot mountain called Bearfort Mountain in Hewitt NJ.

When on the air, I use many different modes but primarily I use digital mode(s) FT8, RTTY, MSK144, etc. and also having fun working the LEO satellites with M2 eggbeater antennas. Generally I operate 160m up through 70 cm on a regular basis. For a time, I owned and operated a homebrew 33cm repeater In addition, I also monitor the 2200 and 630 meter band and supply "Heard" information for PSKreporter and the Whisper net. I have also done some mountain topping way before SOTA on 2 meters with home brew broomstick beams and a little ICOM 202 SSB rig in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I also use 2 meter and 70 centimeter beams for long haul DX using FT8 and SSB with my new ICOM-9700. I also use FM on repeaters serving the NNJ area on my tri-band vertical.

My HF antenna: I use a simple 80 meter wire dipole up about 50 feet fed with 450 ohm ladder line via a 5kw 4:1 balun for all HF communications. The balun is fed with a short run of RG-8u coax cable from my Palstar HF-Auto tuner. The dipole is in the shape of an inverted "U" center fed with the feedpoint up about 50 feet. 32 feet either side of the feedpoint is horizontal, the remaining length is straight down for another 32 feet on both sides.

My Rigs: I have had many rigs from many manufacturers over the past 50 years but presently, my HF rigs are the Yaesu FTdx3000 (Primary), the ICOM 756pro (secondary), an ICOM-9700 and a Swan 700cx from time to time. In the mobile, I use a very nice Yaesu FTM-400xdr for FM repeaters and the Fusion digital mode repeaters.

My VHF/UHF antennas: I have 4 antennas for VHF/UHF. An M2 2MSSB, 9 element horizontally polarized 2 meter beam and a 9 element beam for 432 MHz both for VHF/UHF DX. For local FM repeaters, I use a Comet CX-333 tri-band vertical for 2 meters, 1.25 meters and 70 centimeters. For 6 meters, I use a homebrew and very effective omni directional, turnstile antenna and use either my FTdx3000 or my older ICOM 756pro switchable for that band. For VHF, UHF, terrestrial and space communications, I use the ICOM 9700.

Satellite Antennas: In June of 2020 I decided to get back to my roots, working DX and satellites on 2 meter and 70cm with the ICOM-9700. A fabulous rig for working satellites. My antennas for the satellites will be two homebrew eggbeaters (once I finish building them) that should work great and make short work of contacts through the satellites. One eggbeater is for VHF and one eggbeater is for UHF.

Other Stuff: I am the owner / moderator of multiple Groups.io sites with over 1,100 members, here are three of them.

https://groups.io/g/HallicraftersRadios.
https://groups.io/g/Icomportablerigs
https://groups.io/g/YaesuFT847

Finally, I am a long time member of the S.W.O.T. SSB 2 meter organization, (Sidewinders on Two) http://www.swotrc.net/TheSWOTRCHP.aspx, # 579 and long time member of the S.M.I.R.K. organization, (Six Meter international Radio Klub), # 1660 http://www.smirk.org/.

I recently became a member of the Digital Modes Club # 07718 and I am a member of the NJDXA, The International DX Association and other organizations such as AMSAT.

My exact home QTH, GPS location is: -74.401769 E / 41.1514794 N

Where I Live, Bearfort Mountain: https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=7119

My Grid Square: http://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php?Grid=FN21td

My Current Weather: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-74.40121650695801&lat=41.15118510507486#.XGA9kKB7lp8

QSL Information

I Upload to LOTW Frequently

I prefer LOTW but happily accept QSL cards direct to my home address or via the bureau.

If I receive your card and also receive confirmation via LoTW, I will send a return QSL card only if specifically requested on the card.

If I receive your card without confirmation in LoTW, I will reciprocate with my card.

Lastly, if you do not receive any confirmation from me about our QSO, no LoTW, no returned Email and no hard card, I am probably dead.

I encourage everyone to join ARRL's LoTW effort, it is so much easier to confirm contacts and saves everyone money in postage.

> (I am not a member of EQSL) <

*** Please Note: The U.S. no longer accepts IRC's therefore, they are not
redeemable in the USA ***

Previously Held DX calls: VP2V/K2WH, K2WH/C6A, K2WH/VP9

For Log Information about my March 2017 VP2V/K2WH Operation to the Paradise Island of Tortola.

Click the link http://www.qrz.com/lookup/vp2v/k2wh

All QSL Card Requests for VP2V, have been sent out.

Tortola Grid Square: FK78, Bermuda Grid Square: FM72, Bahamas Grid Square: FL15

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Many rigs over 50 years but right now:

Yaesu FTdx3000
ICOM 756pro (Original)
ICOM 9700
Swan 700cx
Palstar HF-Auto Tuner
Ameritron AL800H, 2 kw amp

Antennas :

80 Meter Dipole
Comet CX333 Tri-band vertical
2 meter beam
70 cm beam
6 meter Turnstile
2 meter eggbeater
70 cm eggbeater