My daily Ham activities here (and some other "nice" staff I hope) : http://f8afc.over-blog.com/

Looking for zone 12 on 80m to complete the 5-band WAZ

A bit of history:

I obtained my call in 1996, following the steps of my dad, F5CKM, who very sadly passed away in June ’07. He transmitted me his passion for the radio when I was a young kid, spending hours watching him behind his transceiver turning its buttons to catch a voice lost in the noise, climbing on the roof to install a new vertical / wire antenna, looking on a world map where these little rocks were. In the past few years, due to illness, he could not be active anymore, but he was still listening with care my “ham stories”, fighting in huge pile-ups such as for BS7H (remember?), contacting Antarctica with QRP conditions, looking at the new QSL arriving… I could read in his eyes his happiness. Radio was a way for him a way to escape his everyday constraining illness, and I'm sure that where he is now, he doesn't have to worry about SP or LP, grey-line, solar cycle or whatsoever.he must just smile when he sees me turning the VFO to catch the low signal stations, or hunting new IOTA's and/or DXCC's, as he showed me how to, a couple of decadesago.

QRT for studies in 1999, back on the air in 2005, witha simple set-up (FT-920 + homemade G5RV). Slowly but surely upgrading the aerials/shack, hard to put up all I'd like to within 500m² garden with house in the middle

Today's working conditions are:

-Transceiver:

• Yaesu FT-920 (100W) fitted with INRAD CW and SSB filters
• MD-100 desk microphone and MFJ564 Iambic double paddle
• TS450SAT as back-up rig

- Antennas

• Hexbeam Hx5Bi @ 35 feet. Designed for 20/17/15/12/10, it also works for me on 6m with the internal TRX tuner.

• Modified Butternut HF2V (12m long, 160m TBR160s kit, 40/80m coils at 3m high + 30m parallel radiator from September 2012), installed with 48radials of 30 feet (10m) each

• Thinking (soon working) on a dedicated RX antenna

- Amplifier

• Ameritron AL811H (mainly for the low bands). Steady 500-600W out, enough !

- Accessories

• Homemade HF Low-Noise preamplifier (0/20/40dB gain), including tunable HF preselector for each low-bands, see my blog for more info. Not used that much since there is no RX antenna so far.
• MFJ1026 noise canceller, very useful for local noise cancelling with an RX antenna made of.10m long wire on the ground !
• NO PC in the shack : I do it the old way, with ears and hands !

I'm living on top of a small hill (Loc IN98fe) with an almost 360° panoramic view. A big advantage for the radio, but a huge drawback due to the high winds (above 100 km/h sometimes).

My motto:

- As my father always told me, a good antenna is ALWAYS the best amplifier in a station. I even like to run QRP sometimes.

- Always listen before call; it’s better to wait 10 minutes and get an answer after 1 or 2 calls than shouting 1 hour in vain.

- Courtesy: Don’t be upset if you miss a QSO and don’t make QRM because of your frustration. Give a chance for the “little pistols” like me to enjoy a good propagation opening if you don’t have it on your side.

- Chasing multiple-band DXCC and WAZ (owner of 5B-WAZ #1707, 199 out of 200 zones wkd so far), Antarctica stations, IOTA's. Looking for zone 12 on 80m

- Start CW operations from Sept 2011, 160 & 30m from Sept 2012. A new world somehow.

- More and more addicted to low bands

My family:

Happy daddy of 3 "little" kids (resp 6,10 and 11 y.o.), it's hard sometimes to get some "spare" time for radio and homebrewing, but I do try.

QSL route: I only appreciate QSL'ing the old way (Paper QSL).

- French buro is working fine but, as for all buros, it requires a bit of patience (I send some QSL packages twicea year)

- Direct QSL to the above address is quicker of course. Contribution for direct QSL is NOT mandatory, but appreciated to speed up my answer. Postage costs have now reached up to 0.77 euros within EU, 0.89 Euros Worldwide. 1US$or 1 IRC are appreciated, but not mandatory.

If you have any question or whatsoever, please drop me an email!!!!

I hope to C U on the bands one of these days!

And don't forget : http://www.dx-code.org

Ronan, F8AFC