WB5NHL Ham Home Page

This the home page for the ham activities of this oldcyberdude. I started as an SWL in the early sixties with a Hallicrafters S-120 receiver. With this receiver and a long wire antenna I learned there was quite an exciting world of foreign broadcast. Here are several QSL cards from that time (My SWL cards). I have been a ham since I was 16 years old. My first station was like many in the mid-sixties; a Hammarlund HQ-110C and a Heathkit DX-60B. As a novice the transmitter was crystal controlled, a requirement for novices back then. When I got my General license I added a Knight VFO to the transmitter.

This was my only station until I graduated college and served in the Army. While stationed at Ft. Huachuca I upgraded to a Yaesu FT-101. This remained my primary rig until just recently. Here are some of my QSL cards from almost 30 years ago. While at Ft. Huachuca I experimented with many different antennas. I left the service and lived in Dallas Tx. for several years. It was at this time that I really had a "shack". At this location I operated from a separate building in the backyard and setup a 70 ft tower with Mosley TA-33jr.

With a change in employment and a growing family I left Dallas and entered a long period of very limited ham activity. The recent growth in PSK31 along with becoming an "empty nester" has prompted my renewed interest in hamming.

While living in Exton, PA my station was in an antenna restricted townhouse community. Thus, it took some creativity to become an active ham again. While I wasn't be able to compete with "big guns" of 700 watts driving a 75 ft tribander, with some research and creativity a townhouse can accommodate ham activities. I have provided several pages on this site to document my experiences and alternatives for indoor attic antennas. See My Restricted Space Antennas.

Moving permanently to Aiken, SC has once again provided an opportunity for outdoor antennas.

Below you see my current station.

The station consists of a Kenwood TS-570DG transceiver. With ample large trees on my suburban lot I now have good supports for a wire antenna. Currently, I using a full size all band center-fed doublet. The antenna is fed with an 450 ohm open wire feed line entering the house eaves and strung through the attic to shack. The MFJ-949E tuner works well with this arrangement. An old Kenwood TM-221A 2 meter transceiver provides an APRS digipeater. The computer is a 2.2Ghz AMD Phenom quad core machine that serves very well for PSK31 and logging duties. The station is connected full time to the internet via Atlantic Broadband cable modem.

I am a member of the Quarter Century Wireless Club (Member #31218). With my recent interest in PSK31 and QRP I have joined the Amateur Radio Club International (Member #10887) and the 070 club (Member #143). I have also participated in some PSK contests since 2001. Here is my logbook