USA
AB9TA William A Springer 4717 Washington St. Downers Grove, IL 60515 USA Lookups:   548 Ham Member
Email: Login required to view QSL: PREFER DIRECT: PO BOX 3386, GLEN ELLYN IL. 60138-3386. NO BUREAU

QRZ Record: 1614753 Login to manage/edit Lookups: 548 (628) Mailing Label... QRZ Admin: AB9TA Last Update: 2009-11-01 19:55:44 Class: Extra Codes: HAI Effective: 2009-04-21 Expires: 2019-02-12Apply for a Vanity callsign... Latitude: 41.801081 (41° 48' 3'' N) Longitude: -88.007070 (88° 0' 25'' W) Grid Square: EN51xt US State: Illinois US County: Du Page Previous: KC9YJ ITU Zone: 8 CQ Zone: 4 GMT Offset: -6 hours ULS Record: 3078248 FCC page... QSL Info: PREFER DIRECT: PO BOX 3386, GLEN ELLYN IL. 60138-3386. NO BUREAU QSL by Mail?: Yes (e.g. Will this ham QSL by Postal Mail?) QSL by eQSL?: Yes (e.g. Will this ham QSL with eQSL?) Uses LOTW?: No (e.g. Does this ham use ARRL's LOTW ?) Admin For: (1) AB9TA

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QSL Address: PO Box 3386, Glen Ellyn, IL, 60138 - 3386. No SASE needed.

 Greetings!

I'm 52 years old, and married to a lovely XYL who tolerates my obsession with all things RF.

  

We have four kids between us who are all college age or older.

I work as a Public Safety Radio System Manager, and enjoy that line of work very much..

This is my second time around as a ham, I was originally licensed in 1980 as a novice, KA9KQQ. I upgraded to Advanced shortly after that and became KC9YJ. I lost interest after entering fatherhood, and that license expired.

Fast forward to 2009, and The Bug bit again.. So, I studied up and retested for my Extra in March 2009 at one of the monthly DuPage ARC VEC exam sessions..

The station here is nothing fancy, and as we are currently renting, the antennas are definitely stealth. My 160M to 30M bent & twisted dipole is laid around the edge of the roof and tacked to the side of the garage, and my vertical antenna for 20M to 6M is a 10' (3M) copper pipe with a birdhouse on top.

The shack consists of a Kenwood TS-480 SAT, Yaesu FT-7800 VHF/UHF, Kenwood R-1000 receiver, and a BC-348-Q receiver. Support equipment includes an Astron power supply and an LDG autotuner.

I run mainly digital modes, PSK, MFSK, Olivia, and RTTY on HF. (EPC# 8593) I currently use Ham Radio Deluxe and DM-780 on an e-machines desktop, and I occasionally use Airlink Express and Hamscope. The best thing about digital modes? They work in the most adverse conditions with low power. I rarely run over 35W..  

I never could copy CW by ear very well, but if one of the modes in your communications software is CW and you'd like to try it out, e-mail me.. I think it would be fun to have a CW QSO at 50+ wpm with the computer doing all the work.  

I'm also a bit of a history buff, and am especially interested in the US Civil War, and have been learning a lot about the Signal Corps activities of that era. They pioneered some of the earliest battlefield uses of cutting edge electical digital communications technology.

Prefer to QSL Direct ( I'm an old school QSL fan, just stick a stamp on it and send it my way , I like 'em postmarked and a little bent. Gives a card character.. ), but do use EQSL.

Hope to see you around the dial, and especially on the waterfall..

Bill AB9TA

 The Shack (a.k.a. "The Bunker"):

 

Operating Digital:

 

 

The equipment ranges from the 1940's to the 21st Century:

Shown are the TS-480 and Tuner, Yaesu VHF/UHF Radio, R-1000 (1980's), and the BC-348-Q, a workhorse military aircraft radio receiver from World War 2.