HELLO. My name is Vince Ponzio, and my call sign is KA3NRX. I am located in Pittsburgh, PA - USA, and I have held an extra class ham license since 1989. I enjoy DXing very much on both SSB and CW (with even a little AM and FM thrown in).
My station consists of only a G5RV, and a TS440s Kenwood xcvr. I also have a Yaesu FT-857D HF/VHF/UHF transceiver that I purchased in January of 2007 that I am nuts about. What a great little radio. To have all the HF Bands including 60 meters, along with 6 meters, 2 meters and 440mhz in one tidy package truly is remarkable. I have no amplifires, or directional antennas. Since being first licensed in 1985, and at the time if this update, I have managed to work 289 DXCC countries (including deleted countries, and including the brand new ST0 South Sudan) using all bands and modes (mostly CW and SSB), with most of them confirmed. All worked with wire antennas alone!.That, my friends, took some serious screaming, scratching and clawing!
I also have a 25 watt 10 meter mobile rig from Radio Shack, and a Workman Hamstick for 10 meters. Now that it looks like the sunspot cycle is finally starting to budge, I have been working DX from my 2007 Pontiac G6 with this operation! (A picture of the mobile operation is forthcoming). From the car, I so far have worked Morocco, St. Helena Island and the Canary Islands, plus countless South Americans. I really am loving this 10 meter mobile thing, which is something I have waited a long time for.
I am active on pretty much all of the bands, but prefer 20 meters, as the DX always seems to be there regardless of static, sunspots or time of year. 15 and 10 I love when there are sunspots, and the WARC bands are very cool to operate because there are no contests hogging those frequencies. I love working 40 meters and the 80/75 meter DX window in the cold miserable winter months, as well. I can always seem to find a good qso into Europe in the winter time in the 80/75 meter window very easily with my G5RV, even when the east coast big guns pile up.
And, of course, I enjoy clowning around with my local ham friends on 2 meters, especially now that I have a real 2 meter station putting 50 watts out toa J-Pole. Did I mention I love my FT-857D?
I also enjoy sports of most every kind, especially Baseball and (American) Football(GO STEELERS!!!!!).
As well as geography, world events, politics, travel,computers, the internet, and shortwave radio listening. In fact, I have my own web page dedicated to shortwave radio information. It is located at www.angelfire.com/electronic/shortwaveradio/. Please check it out. My shortwave interests include being a fan of the 1950's vintage Zenith Transoceanic radios.
This is one of my Transoceanics, which dates back to October, 1953! It still plays nicely, picking up stations from around the world (that still broadcast on shortwave). You can't beat the audio on these radios. They are true classics.
I discovered back in 2006 that Ihave a knack for playing the drums. How's that for a 40+ year old?:-D.
And, I am also a HUGE beer (and wanna-be wine) snob!
No Budweiser, Coors, or Miller gag water consumed here!
Hey, here's wishing you good DX, and I hope to work you on the bands, especially if you are DX, and really especially if you are in MONACO, as Monaco is the only European country I have yet to work to complete the continent. If you are in Monaco or know someone that is,(tell them) I would be willing to set up a QSO schedule sometime for a new one so I can complete Europe! Many thanks.
73's
Vince P -- KA3NRX
