Welcome to the WB8YXD Home Page
I have been a licenced Radio Amateur for 34 years, having
been first licensed as WN8YXD as a Novice. In those
days, you could only hold a Novice ticket and not the
Novice and Tech licenses together.
I spent many years pounding brass and got my code speed up
to 40 WPM at my high point. Since I operate mostly
mobile these days, I don't use CW the way I used to, but I can
still pound out 15 to 20 WPM.
Today, I enjoy mainly SSB and FM rag chewing. I like
to talk to old friends and enjoy getting to know new friends,
which is really hard when you are in contest mode.
My main station these days is my car. I currently can
operate from 40 meters through 70cm from my mobile. For
HF, 6m, 2m and 70cm SSB, I operate a FT857 into a Comet UHV-6,
which is the best HF mobile antenna I have ever
operated. To improve the audio, I use a GAP
Hear-It DSP Speaker. For FM, I use a FT-8900, which
gives me 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cm. For the 1.25m band, I
only have my trusty TH-F6A Kenwood Handheld, which does a good
job for 5 watts.
My home station consists of an old Kenwood TS-430S and an
old Icom IC-725, both good radios, but pretty useless
without the GAP Hear-It Speaker to improve the audio
performance. I run both radios barefoot into a short
G5RV up about 25 feet, facing almost completely north-south,
giving me good east-west performance.
Most days, I have Mid-Cars on in the background on 7.258
MHz and I can almost always be found on the 442.300 MHz WB8VSU
Repeater in Miamisburg, OH.
73's
Email WB8YXD: WB8YXD@daytonIRLP.com |