Biography

I enjoy both operating and building ham equipment. I have built and am marketing a QSK-2500 T/R switch for amplifiers. https://qsk2500.myfreesites.net/

In addition, I built and sell a low-cost cross band repeater controller which includes a CW ID. It can be used to create a 70cm to 2 meters cross band repeater using two Baofeng UV-5R or UV-6R handhelds or other radios. It is nice to use a handheld around the house and yard and still be able to access a local repeater. Otherwise, I have no handheld coverage. https://qsk2500.myfreesites.net/new-cross-band-repeater-controller.

Being bored during the covid 19 year, I designed two versions of an Electronic Bias System for grounded grid amps during 2020. The EBS keeps my SB-220/HL-2200 amps much cooler. See the website for more details.

ARRL Field Day is my favorite activity each year. It combines ham radio and camping, both of which I enjoy. Most of my operation on HF is CW rag chewing. Also, I enjoy rag chewing with the locals here in northeast Indiana on our 146.76 FM repeater. We are fortunate to have a very active group.

A little about my background: I am a retired Communications Systems Engineer with degrees from Notre Dame (BSEE), U of Ill (Urbana) (MSEE), and The Ohio State University (PhD EE). I worked 18 years designing anti-jam radios that used both frequency hop and direct sequence spread spectrum. I also had the good fortune to lead the design of 'single frequency' Direct Conversion and Low-IF Direct Conversion receivers. Now, I am having fun designing and building ham radio products. 73 ...Bill

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Transceivers are an IC-735 & a TS-590SG. Amps are a Heathkit HL-2200 & a Heathkit SB-220. Both amps use the DX Connection QSK 2500 to provide full QSK amp operation. Antennas are a Butternut HF-6 vertical on the ground with thirty-six 30-foot radials on top of the ground, and a G5RV up 30 feet and fed with a current balun on the output of a MFJ remote autotuner. CW paddle is a Bencher.

I replaced my Butternut HF-6 vertical with a 43 foot vertical and remote tuner for a year. I was curious to see if there would be any performance difference (using the same radial system). I found no difference during a 1-year evaluation period. I am back to using the Butternut without a tuner. The 43 foot vertical has found a new home and my MFJ-998 remote tuner is connected to the G5RV for all-band operation.

I recently erected a 132-foot long end-fed half wavelength antenna. I wanted to compare it to a 94-foot ZS6BKW antenna that I had up. Both antennas are at 35-foot heights. The end-fed uses a 49:1 unun impedance transformer built using two 240-43 toroids stacked together with a 2:14 turns ratio. Both are fed by MFJ remote antenna tuners. I normally run 500 watts to both antennas. The results were found to be that they are basically equivalent antennas. The interesting thing is the end fed only used a minimal ground system consisting of a metal stake in the ground about 2 feet. The coax shield of the feed line seems to have little affect on the ground system (according to my RIG-X antenna analyzer). The end-fed is a little easier to attach the feed line since the end is nearer my station. I believe both antennas benefited from having a remote antenna tuner connected directly to them.

I live in a suburban home near a small city. I have noticed quite a bit more noise from the vertical antenna compared to the 2 horizontal antennas, even though the received signal strength from the same stations are comparable. This difference may be caused by local horizontal noise and interference are being attenuated more by the ground wave than vertically polarized noise and interference. Rural hams may not notice this difference.