Greetings From Whidbey Island, Washington (IOTA NA065)!

I've been licensed continually since 1962. My previous calls include: KN3TIX (Md.), WB6HSX (Calif.), WA7VAQ (Az.). I've held my current call since 1977 when I acquired it in Arizona where I had been serving with the U.S. Air Force.

I operated ham radio from Carlsbad, Calif., a small coastal city 35 miles north of San Diego,from 1980-2010. Sadly, QRN from consumer electronics in neighboring homes made reception increasingly difficult over the years.

Retirement from the federal government and a move in October 2010 to a high bluff,  1-acre waterfront home overlooking the Salish Sea outside Langley on the southeast side of picturesque Whidbey Island, WA (IOTA NA065) has provided substantial noise reduction and fresh opportunities to experiment with wire antennas.

I currently use a 80/40 meter trap dipole mounted as an inverted-vee up in a fir tree at a height of 70 feet (21 meters) above the back yard. The tree is located at the edge of a bluff that drops an additional 230 feet (70 meters) directly to the salt water below, placing the antenna about 300 feet (91 meters) above the water and giving it an unrestricted perch for over 180 degrees, from the northwest, around to the east, and extending down to the southeast.

Since reading Les Moxon's "HF Antennas for All Locations", I have been experimenting with a horizontal 30/20/17/15/10 meter fan dipole mounting on a plastic pipe yardarm suspended out over the bluff at about 220 feet (67 meters) above the salt water, oriented towards the northeast. It appears to work quite well into Europe on all bands with a reduction in signals toward the direction of the bluff in the south and west. I also tried using a Cushcraft R-5 vertical earlier in the same location but, true to Moxon's prediction, it did not appear to be a stellar performer for DX when mounted high above the water.

My equipment currently consists of a Ten Tec Orion, driving a Ten Tec Hercules II solid state amplifier with 550 watts output. My backup HF radio is a Kenwood TS-590s. My keys consist of a Hensley paddle and a CW Touch Keyer P1W. I also have a few Heil mics that I use, such as the Goldline, HM-10 and Proset with HC-5.

I enjoy DXing on 17/20/30 meters and ragchewing on CW on 80 and 40 meters but sometimes can be heard on SSB or even AM (back in the early 1960's, I had a Johnson Viking 1 and a National NC-300 "Dream Receiver"). I also can work a little 6-meter SSB with the Kenwood and 2-meter FM with an Icom V-8000. On 6-meters, I use a Par Electronics Omniangle horizontally polarized loop mounted on the yardarm over the 200-foot bluff. I use an Arrow 4-element 2-meter Yagi mounted on a short pole close to the house on 2 meters FM.

Hope to have the pleasure of another QSO with you!

73,

Vince/K7NA

Rev: K7NA - October 5, 2010