Hi there,

That's me in my father's shack back around 1954. I've been around Ham Radio since, well, my whole life. I didn't get my license till I was in Nursing School though my Dad had me sweating bullets learning the theory back when I was in 2nd grade. I'm now a Chiropractor and have played acoustic music since I was 12 and professionally for the last 30 years. My favorite instruments are the Mandolin, Fiddle and flatpicked guitar.

My Novice call was KA1DQG & then the Advanced call was KA1IC & finally became KA1J which I earned in 1980.

I've had a lot of different equipment over the years but have settled on mostly Ten-Tec equipment. However I am currently using an Elecraft K3 with sub receiver which I assembled from their kit. My old transceiver is a Corsair II and I will have that radio till it's sold at my estate sale.

My Amplifier is an Ameritron AL-1500 which replaced my trusty TenTec Titan 425. I miss the QSK of the Titan (and the low profile of the remote RF deck) which did give a beautiful signal but I have had a long time love affair with the 8877 tube and this particular Ameritron sports the 3CPX1500A7 tube. The big gun on the street? No, far from it but it is a consistently strong signal with far more reserve than I will ever feel like using.

This amp is like a Buggati on the local interstate; far more power than you'll ever use but you know the power is there if you ever wanted it and that satisfaction makes you smile.

Antennae are a ground mounted Butternut HF9V which is on the edge of a Salt Marsh on Long Island Sound. 1/2 of the radials are on the salt marsh and the other half are on the boggy soil next to it. there are around 40 160' radials. I hope to be adding 10 more 130' radials, I just need more wire.

For 160 I use the same radial field and plate for the butternut and use a 168' total length Inverted L with the wire over the top of the trees. It's more akin to a fishhook in appearance as the wire hangs straight down on the distal end instead of kept horizontal. There are a 90pf Jennings fixed Vacuum cap and a 200pf ceramic doorknob in parallel at the center coax feed point which gives me a 1:1.5 swr in the lower end of 160M

I also have an 80 meter Inv-L in the same manner and use the radial field for it as well. I don't have the right combination of doorknobs to make the 80M inverted-L happy so I'm using a beater Vacuum variable which does the job just fine. The butternut works just fine on 80 but the full length L for 80 is most effective for DX.

The transmitting antennae are switched via an Ameritron RCS-8V Antenna Switch.

For receiving on the low bands I use a K9AY loop which may not be as good as a full length beverage (which I do have the room for) but the K9AY sold by Array Solutions is an excellent receiving antenna indeed.

Surprisingly, the K9AY works very well on higher bands with the diversity capability of the K3. It's not directive or with pronounced nulls as seen on the low bands and I need to use a different preamp (I use the DXEngineering preamp) as the one internal to the K9AY cuts off above 5 MHz but indeed, using the K9AY with the butternut vertical is absolutely a plus when it comes to receiving in QSB conditions. That true diversity mode is amazing indeed.

I mostly chase DX although I enjoy CW contesting as well. My logs are kept with Logic software and I make my own QSL cards using Logic's internal printer software and then I cut the 120 pound card stock with a large old guillotine style paper trimmer. It would be easier buying pre-made cards but I like making the cards I send; more personal & all that.

Thanks for reading this! Now go & hug your radio & go work some DX :)

73,

Gary - KA1J