Biography

I was first licensed in 1970 and for many years I worked primarily SSB on 75 meters. I started actively chasing DX in the mid 80's and am now quite an active contester - Primarily CW and RTTY - - SSB contesting is too much like "work" for me - I like pushing buttons and flashing lights. I run 100 watts when contesting and am a member of our local Shenandoah Valley Wireless contest group.

Certificates and memberships include: 5BDXCC +17M, with DXCC on Phone, CW and Digital plus WAC, WAS, RCC, Rooster Net, Breakfast Club and ECARS. My local club is the Valley Amateur Radio Association (see w4xd.com).

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

I am currently running an Icom 756 Pro3 but you may hear me on the old Drake Twins C-Line with matching L4 amp. I also use an L7 amp occasionally. The amp I use most with the Pro3 is a Tentec Hercules II 500 Watt Solid State, however I seldom use an amplifier.

My favorite CW paddle is an old Brown Brothers but I also like the Vibroplex Classic Iambic paddles too.

Contest logging is done with N1MM+. Daily logging is done with Logger 32 on a Win10 desktop.

If you zoom on a Google Maps satellite view of our home, you can see the old TelRex (not Telex) 6 element tribander on a 100 foot Rohn 25G tower. The small beam on the end of the house at 50' is a 3 element for 12 and 17 meters. My wire antennas are all "home-brew". For 40 thru 160 I can use an extended double zepp fed with a 4:1 Radio Works Current Balun to 150'+- 300 ohm ladder line. In addition I have home brew 1/2 wave coax fed dipoles for 160, 80 and 40M. All the wire antennas are at about 80' with the exception of the 160 dipole at 50 feet in the shape of a horizontal U. All antennas are contained within our 1 acre lot.

My wife is K4PJJ but she is quite inactive since cell phones came along. She holds a General Class license from back in the day when you still had to pass the 13 WPM code test.