Biography

I have always loved audio, radio, communications, electronics, antennas, etc... I've worked in high tech for over 40 years as an engineer.

Built my first Heathkits in 1974, a VTVM and a SW Receiver. That lit the fire that took 50 years to fully ignite.

I've been an amateur for 30+ years as a Technician and this past Christmas (2023), my wife made my HF dream come true. She gave me a Yaesu FT-710 (with a Yaesu M-90D microphone) which kicked my license studying into high gear. Made General in January '24 and then Extra in February of '24.

Took about 8 weeks to get my 286' (87m) End Fed Dipole (45' / 14m maximum height) up due to scheduling and weather conflicts. This antenna is fabulous and tunes the phone section on all bands 160m-6m edge to edge. It is a Palomar BAS-500-155 which I extended to 203' from 155'. As the Coax shield also radiates from the UnUn to a choke on the coax used to tune the antenna, the total radiating length is 286'. This worked very well as I did not need to drop the feedline down from the middle and can continue the feedline (elevated) from the choke directly into my man cave. The antenna slopes down to about 25' (7.5m) at the far end. The whole antenna looks like a very tall Z from above with the center section run the bulk of the length at about 200'. I also use the Palomar CMNF-500-50 Common Mode Filter at the radio and one of their RFI kits on all the other leads of the radio and power supply. That all made a huge difference in the level of the background noise and interference of the received signals. My location is generally quiet, but now the radio is extremely quiet and I have very little QRM. I have no linear, so only run with my 100 watts.

Made it on the air for the first time on HF Saturday, March 2, 2024 right during the ARRL 2024 DX Phone Contest and made contacts to 36 countries with my 100 watts that weekend. That was a steep learning curve for sure, but loving it!!

I enjoy DX very much and have 88 countries thus far.

73s and God Bless!

Marty

I follow the DX code of Conduct and hope that you will too...

Equipment

Yaesu FT-710
Yaesu M-90D Microphone
286'/87m EFOD at 45'/14m