My station

A long time ago, in my SWL days I would hear some amateur radio stations that sounded much better than most of the others. I attributed this to the voices of the operators - some people have very good speaking voices. But listening more carefully I determined that voice characteristics was part of it, but good audio and good modulation were a very big factor.

I decided that when I got my license and set up my own station I would try to work on the audio to get the best quality that I could. It took me a long time to be able to afford/assemble the components needed but finally I am happy with my audio quality.

For a description of my audio chain, see this page.

For whatever reason, I have always found Icom HF radios to suit me more than any of the alternatives (that I can afford). Oddly enough I seem to get along better with Yaesu VHF/UHF hand-held and mobile.

For a description of the station equipment, see this page

For a brief overview of the HF antenna see this page.

For a description of some of the signal monitoring tools I use, see here.

I also have an Elecraft KX3 which I use for portable, and some digital work, see here.

About Me

I was originally licensed in the UK as G8FVM. In those days, the test was a written paper (no multiple choice) this is the question paper for that test. I still have that license, although I rarely get to the UK to actually use it. It was a "class B" license, Above 50MHz only, but was upgraded to full automatically when the morse requirement was dropped. I tried several times to get the hang of CW, at least to thw 12 wpm required at that time, but cw and me never seemed to work.

When we moved to the USA, after getting settled it, I dropped in on a local exam session to see if I could get a US license. I took the tech test and passed that with no problem, so asked if I could try others. They said I could keep taking them as long as I continued to pass. I passed General, Advanced and Extra. Of course, at that time, they were of little use without the CW test to go with them. So I setteled for my tech license: KC7FWB.

When the CW requirement was dropped, I re-took the Extra test, and my licensse was upgraded to match. I kept an eye open for a vanity call sign, and when I saw K7UF become available jumped on that.