Biography

Active contester and DXer since 1970.
Career in telcommunications as wireline/wireless and now as wide area Ethernet sales engineer for large USA Tier 1 telco. Married with five children+ four stepchildren.

Member of Minnesota Wireless Association, Yankee Clipper Contest Club Lake Vermillion DX Association and Minnesota DX Club.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Thanks to W0AIH who helped me get started in this hobby at age 15, the contesting bug bit early. At my parent's home in Northern Minnesota I built a 90 ft (27m) SEVERELY overloaded Rohn 25G tower with a Christmas tree of 10-15-20/40 Yagis with a double extended Zepp for 160m. Thankfully the tower never collapsed! At St. John's University, I hung a long wire out my dorm window as well as became university ham club president to fund a club tribander on the science building. Married after college, spent 25 years on small lot in St. Paul, MN with HQ-1 mini-quad on a roof tower and stealth inverted L across street.

Career in telcommunications as wireline/wireless sales engineer. Married with nine children+stepchildren

Member of Minnesota Wireless Association, Yankee Clipper Contest Club, Lake Vermillion DX Assoc. and Minnesota DX Club.

Built 90 ft (27m) tower with Christmas tree of 10-15-20/40 Yagis at parent's home in Northern Minnesota as teenager with double extended Zepp for 160m. At college I hung a long wire out my dorm window as well as became university ham club president to fund a club tribander on the science building. Married after college, spent 25 years on small lot in St. Paul, MN with HQ-1 mini-quad on a roof tower and stealth inverted L across street.

Moved to current QTH in 2008 and built 76 ft (23m) 45G tower with 2L 40m Moxon at 95 ft (29m), 10mHz rotatable dipole at 85 ft (26m), 4L SteppIR at 77 ft (24m) and 3L A3S fixed South at 35 ft (10m). Shunt fed tower for 160m, 2L phased verticals for 80m and three 225 ft (63m) Beverages.


The 40m antenna is a 2L Cushcraft XM-240 that I converted on a YCCC project to a W6NL 2L Moxon, replacing the loading coils with capacitive T bars. Result: flat SWR across the band - good gain and F/B. That's at 95'. Underneath that is a 4L SteppIR at 77'.

Using an 80M 4 square with an Array Solutions phasing box in the back yard with wire verticals and I'm very pleased with its performance. Finally got 8BDXCC in November 2016 with the last contacts coming from this array on 80M.

In 1980 I visited W0AIH and saw his design for a unique "upside down" prop pitch which keeps the moisture out of the seals. I finally built one myself in 2010. The whole prop pitch rotates while the prop pitch gear is stationary, necessitating a power and control umbilical. A steel "top hat" is pinned to the case of the prop pitch. The bevel gear on top of the assembly is out of the differential of a Chevy S-10, and the Chevy axle is welded to a 2" x 22' DOM steel mast. Needless to say, I don't worry about torque or mast slippage.

The shack consists of a Flex 6600M with a Kenwood TS-590 now a backup to the Flex. Also using a Drake T-4X and a Drake R-4B (had the R-4A as a Novice and wanted, but couldn't afford the R-4B!) Thanks to help from my high school buddy NE0U, the Drakes are on the air and it's actually more fun to use them than the modern technology!

Amp is a soon to arrive RF-KIT B-26PA. More to come on this excellent SS amp.

I'm using a Green Heron RT-21PP K7NV prop pitch controller plus the new SteppIR controller both connected to the computer. A second K7NV RT-21D controller and a Tic-Ring have recently been added to rotate a 3L KLM 30M Yagi at 70'. It took years to find this antenna and although it was a major project to put it up in the summer of 2017, it's great to have gain on 30M especially with the current low sunspots.

A second SteppIR with the 30/40M element is mounted at 35' on a swinging gate providing higher angle signals on 40 and a better path for Caribbean contest contacts. I haven't decided to phase them yet, but adding another 50' of Rohn 45G tower with a rotating tower system which I have in storage may make the phasing project worthwhile.

Three 225 ft (69m) Beverages that are switched to select either the RX antenna input on the Flex, the TS-590, or a Carver TX-11A AM stereo tuner to listen to several local C-QUAM AM Stereo stations. The Carver has 15 kHz wide passbands so it's truly high fidelity.

Also use a YCCC Rx 5 square for 160/80M which is a high impedance design, 60' from the center element to each of the 4 corner elements and an ICE 135B variable gain preamp which can be switched to any of the above radios.

I've always enjoyed FM BCB DX, and am using a Sony XDR-F1HD with another hard to find antenna, a Channel Master Stereo Probe 9 at 85' between the SteppIR and the 40M Moxon. The Probe 9 is connected to a 16dB tower mounted preamp and 250' of Commscope 7/8" CATV hardline to get to the shack. Although I have to rotate the whole stack to search for FM DX stations, the pattern is sharp and I routinely hear stations 100 miles away under normal conditions. Looking forward to Es and tropo on 6M and FM BCB.

Thanks for visiting!

73,

Paul WØAD