New Ham Radio Operator for less than a year.

Love working DX, talking with other hams all over the US and the world. Work 80, 40, 20, 17 meters, mostly phone. Some FT8 also. Member of local Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club. Enjoy 2 meter and 70 cm radio. WIRES-X and C4FM.

I started with an Icom 7100 and a 10-40 MFJ endfed antenna. Could not hear much or get out at all, and electrical noise was terrible. Nearly gave up the hobby. Made a decision to upgrade equipment, and the electric company got rid of the noise. So I went from the beginning to what I have now in less than a year. I am limited by living in a residential area, but the equipment I have allows me to talk all over the country and world.

I am very fortunate to have had good people guiding me through my journey. From a Technician in July 2020 to an Extra Class today, this hobby has given me much pleasure. Here are some of the people who have helped me:

• Main Trading Company in Paris, Texas—Local and great people.
• HRO Plano—Great place to order parts.
• W6LVP—Larry Plummer. Great loop antennas. Great person.
• ZeroFive—Best vertical out there, and Tom is great to work with.
• KIO hexbeam—Best hexbeam; Leo is also great to work with.
• 3916 net—My main hangout net.

What’s Next

As ham radio operators, we are always looking to improve our shack. I have my “phase 1” nearly complete, but I have some wish list items for future upgrades:

Near Term:

• W2IHY EQ gate—Want to add this to my 8 band EQ.
• Scanner with discone antenna—To listen to other frequencies.
• Weather station—Why not?
• Upgrade to my AL80b—Looking for more power.
• Add a dedicated 80 meter wire antenna.

• Upgrade my mast to a tower and move my hexbeam to it.
• More radios, backups for all components.

• Icom 7610—Love this radio. The dual receivers allow me to use diversity reception.
• Yaesu DTM-300 (2)—One home and one car. Use WIRES-X, and this radio is perfect for that function. Also use a Pi-Star hotspot.
• Icom IC 2300—This is my dedicated radio for my Mirage amp.
• Yaesu FT70R—First radio I got. It gets some use.

• NCC2 phasing unit and two W6LVP loops—Can't say enough good things about Larry Plummer, who makes these. This is a killer combo for reducing noise or peaking a signal. I use this with my vertical and hexbeam in a diversity mode on my 7610 for reception.
• I had excessive electrical noise when I first started out. The NC2 and loops removed all the noise and let me operate; without this setup I would have been lost. Now I use it for peaking signals and diversity reception.

• ZeroFive 43 foot vertical—This is another good story. Tom at ZeroFive is top notch; he has answered so many questions. His 43 foot vertical is built like a tank. I use it with a MFJ 2910 matching coil for 80 and 160 meters to get SWR down. This combination is killer; it has replaced a Buckmaster OCF. The performance on 80-40-20 is excellent.
• KIO hexbeam—New addition to the shack. Materials are outstanding, and support is great. Leo at KIO helped quite a bit with getting this addition installed. I use a Yaesu G-800 rotator. At 26 feet I know it is not the best height; but on the afternoon I installed it, within 30 minutes I worked the Cook Islands.
• Comet GP-6—Have this at 35 feet high on a mast, shared between my two VHF/UHF radios. Very nice antenna. Got it from my friends at Main Trading Company.
• I use LMR 400 on all my connections and choke baluns on my transmit HF antennas. The MyAntennas choke is the best out there.

• I am a Heil man. I use a PR781 and a Pro 7 headset for my primary microphones, and I use the PRAS system with Heil speakers. These are very good products. I can also use my computer for sound using my Audioengine A2 Plus speakers, which are very good.
• I also use the W2IHY 8 band EQ system. It allows me to take my PR781 dynamic mic and act as a pre-amp into my 7610. This is another example of great support by Julius Jones.

• Ameritron AL80B one-tube amp—Very robust and forgiving. Can drive this amp to 1 kw if I need to; normally run it at 800 watts on phone. My version has been very stable. I use a tuning pulser and can tune up in less than 10 seconds, using a dummy load to tune.
• Mirage 160 watt VHF amp—Use this for 2 meters. Don't need it but nice to have.

• Ameritron ATR 30—This is one beast of a manual tuner. According to Tom Rauch, this thing will handle 5 kw or more and is built like a tank. Highly recommended.

• MFJ 4035MV power supply 35 amp linear—Use this with my 7610 and supporting components on the HF bands.
• TEC power supply 30 amp—Dedicated to my Mirage amp.
• MFJ power supply 30 amp—Dedicated to my two VHF/UHF radios.

• High end Intel I9 with 64 GB RAM and top end Nvidia graphics card.
• 34 inch widescreen monitor and 50 inch monitor.
• Audioengine A2 Plus speakers.
• Logitech Kraft keyboard and MX mouse.

• Icom RS-BA-1—This is rock-solid remote control software for the Icom 7610. The pandapter feature works very well.
• HDSDR—This is must have software and acts as a third receiver for my 7610. The integration is fantastic with the 7610.
• Log4OM—My logging and DX cluster software. My favorite logging program.
• CATSync—This program allows you to take websdr websites and integrate the frequency with your receiver. It uses Omni-Rig. Again, a very nice program. I use this to see how I am getting out and occasionally as another way to receive stations on a net.
• NetLogger—Very handy when logging into a net.
• JTDX —For FT8 work. I like this version the best.
• Ham Radio Deluxe—Good product. Do not use it anymore since I have the RS-BA1 software and Log4OM.
• Win4Icom —Really nice piece of software for the money.

Ham Shack

• Icom 7610

• Ameritron ATR-30 and AL80B

• W6LVP phased loops

• Comet GP6 VHF/UHF antenna and KIO hexbeam

• 43 foot ZeroFive vertical and MFJ 2910 matching unit

• KIO hexbeam

Gear:

• Icom 7610
• Yaesu DTM-300 (2) one home and one car
• Icom IC 2300
• Yaesu FT70R
• Pi-Star MMDVM
• WIRES-X node
• Mirage 160 watt VHF amp
• Ameritron ATR-30
• Heil PRAS and two Heil speakers
• Ameritron AL80B
• Ameritron AT102 tuning pulser
• Ameritron AWM-30B SWR meter
• MFJ VHF/UHF SWR meter
• MFJ 4035MV power supply 35 amp linear
• TEC power supply 30 amp
• MFJ power supply 30 amp
• KIO hexbeam 6-20 meter
• Two W6LVP loop antennas and rotator phased together with DX Eng NCC-2 noise device
• ZeroFive 43 foot 10-80 vertical antenna
• MFJ 2910 matching unit for 43 foot vertical
• Comet GP6
• Heil PR781 mic
• Heil Pro 7 headset with Icom element
• W2IHY 8 band EQ
• Audioengine A2 Plus speakers
• 34 inch Asus wide screen monitor
• 43 inch monitor
• Yaesu G800 rotator
• NCC2 phase controller
• Desktop computer tower (Intel Core i9-9900K, 64 GB memory, 4 TB SSD)
• Ham Radio Deluxe
• Winsdr
• Icom remote control software