Biography

Thanks for stopping by. I'm Steve. I arrived in North Alabama in the early 1950's. As far as I can tell, I had never been to Earth before. Moved to S Florida in 1973 after college at the University of Alabama. I went to work for WPTV Television. I found the Palm Beach Amateur Radio Club and studied for my Novice license. Passed the test and became WN4GOK in 1973. My Elmer was Henry Felton, WA4HXZ, a talented and generous fellow. Henry passed away in 1993. I kept my license active, but stopped operating by about 1978. Didn't know about Henry's passing, as I had moved away from South Florida several years prior.

I qualified for Advanced way back in the '70's, when this class of license was still available.

A few years ago,I changed my call from WA4GOK to W4GOK, just for the heck of it. I passed my Amateur Extra exam July 17, 2015. I figured, if I was going to get active again in Ham Radio, well, I should "go for the gold". And I'm glad that I did!

So, here's the info on my station...

I operate a Yaesu FTdx-1200. My antenna is a G5RV variant for 40 thru 10 meters. I also use a hex beam at about 45'. For Digi, I run about 40 watts. For sideband, I have an Ameritron AL-811H linear amp. Software is Ham Radio Deluxe.

I work SSB mostly... I like my 811H amplifier. With the sunspot cycle the way it is right now, I found it really hard to work sideband. with the linear, however, everything is changed. It took me a couple of years to equip my station. This stuff is expensive! However, it was worth it. with the antenna and the amplifier, I find that I can compete very well in pileups. It is the differentiating factor in this diminishing sunspot cycle. I would tell any Ham who asks, "what should I do to improve my station?", I would say, "Get yourself a linear amplifier." Sure, I would love to have an automatic tuning, full-legal-limit monster in my shack. But I can't afford one. The good news... 800 watts seems to be plenty of power. Makes all the difference in the world.

No, that's not me in the picture. That's Johnny Fever and/or Les Nessman, WKRP in Cincinnatti. Thanks for reading this far down the page.

UPDATE: So here's something I found that caught my attention. It's a design for a stealthy flagpole antenna.

https://dxengineering.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/building-a-flagpole-antenna-in-an-hoa/

I thought it was interesting and thought some of my HOA Friends might want to read it.

Please note that I primarily use LOTW. If there are any discrepancies in the QRZ log, they might not get corrected. However, I endeavor to keep LOTW up to date. Correcting entries in the QRZ.COM logbook is really time consuming, and not intuitive. So... This is a hobby, and until they make the process a bit more reasonable, I'll just use LOTW. Thanks!

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Yaesu FTdx-1200

Ameritron AL-811H

G5RV Mini

Hex Beam at 43 feet

Shure Super 55 microphone