Licensed since 1992, I am currently operating / living in the panhandle of Florida. I got involved with Ham Radio when I was a kid when a few hams came and visited us at my Boy Scout Troop. I caught the 'bug' and got licensed as a 'Tech Plus' (needed CW back then) at the ripe old age of 12. Eventually I upgraded to General, luckily I kept my license active throughout these years. I was really active as a kid. College, work, and marriage kept me inactive for awhile, but I got back in and remembered how much I love it. Something about fond memories from my childhood, and the sight and smell of old tube radios listening to far away voices makes the hobby really enjoyable for me.

I have always used tube radios. Dad (KB2OUQ) had a big Heathkit collection, and I have great memories of listening and talking around the world with old Heathkit SB-100s, SB-300/400s, the old HW & DX series rigs, and the Mohawk / Apache sets. Dad also had what we called the 'Dissection desk'. He would put the non-functional rigs there, and I would take them apart with a soldering iron and a screw driver learning about circuits trying to 'fix' them. In truth I had no idea what I was doing, but it was fun 'working' on radios with my Dad.

My Station (so far) consists of:

• Yaesu 101ZD MK-0 (The radio that got me back in to Ham Radio)
• Heathkit SB-101 (Great memories on this rig as a kid)
• Kenwood TS-430S (Deployment Radio)
• Hammarlund 129x
• Heathkit SB-200 (Restored)
• Heathkit 2060 Tuner
• Heathkit SB-600 Speaker / Power Supply
• Bunch of Heathkit diagnostic / repair gear

I Have nothing against the newer rigs, but just enjoy tube radios and the nostalgia that goes with them. I would have used a tube radio for my deployment rig, but lugging a 50lb radio around the world is not my idea of a good time, so I made a compromise with the TS-430.

The antennas I am currently running are:

• Home brew 'Sky-Wire' Horizontal loop. 2390' 12 AWG Stranded copper at 70' above ground. Fed with home-brew ladder line, works on all bands.
• Garage-sale-find Mosely tri-band beam (10/15/20) on a 30' tower (Works awesome, but the 'fun factor' of my wire antennas is just not there!)
• 560' Beverage oriented NW
• 575' Beverage oriented NE

Antennas of the past:

• Home brew 10m 1/2 wavelength inverted V dipole, suspended 1 Wavelength high (My favorite, seems to have a direct pipeline to Australia)
• Home brew 40m 1/2 wavelength inverted V dipole, 1/2 Wavelength high (Worked really well all through the U.S. and Europe)
• Home brew 10m full-wavelength Delta Loop (Worked alright, but top fed with coax. Would have been better vertically polarized and fed with balanced feed line)
• Home brew 10m 1/2 wavelength "Jungle Antenna" vertical groundplane (Worked really well on transmit, not my favorite receive antenna)

My favorite part of the hobby is building my own antennas. So far I have built a bunch of Dipoles, Loops, Wire Verticals, and Wire beams. I've made a few mistakes and learned a lot along the way. I love cooking up an idea in my head, running some numbers, stringing up some wire and seeing how it works.

My current project, a long awaited one, is a 'Sky-Wire' horizontal loop . I have been wanting to get on 160m, but not with a 'Cloud Warmer' The original plan was for an inverted L for 160m, but then I stumbled on a few discussions of multi-wavelength horizontal loops. The multiple wavelengths of a loop begin to cancel out the high angles of radiation inherent with the (relatively) low height of a 160m antenna. So, construction has begun on a 4 Wavelength + Skywire for 160m, at an average height of 70' (Pine Trees), fed with home brew balanced feed line to a Heathkit 2060 tuner. This should be an awesome antenna for all bands, fingers crossed!

• 12 Guage Insulated, Stranded Copper Wire
• Total Length: 2390'
• Average height: 70'
• Feedline: Homebrew 600ohm balanced feed line (14 guage stranded copper)

Hope to hear you on the air!

73,

Jesse

Station 2.0 is complete! Finally installed a dedicated station ground (3x 10' copper rods 16' apart, connected with 2" copper strap and tied to the service entrance ground), fed through a dedicated entrance panel, lightning arrestors / static discharge, and a single point ground for all equipment. Installed underground coax to a distribution box where all antennas will feed to (much more lawnmower friendly!) And of course, built a dedicated desk for the station! All transceivers output through a Radio Shack DSP, which outputs to the Heathkit SB-600 speaker.

Station ground / coax entrance panel with PVC window pass-through, tied-in to common ground behind the radios

Inside the station ground / coax entrance box. (Used 2" copper strap to tie everything together)

Underground coax run to a remote distribution box. No more moving coax to mow the lawn!

The new skywire antenna, can't wait to see how it works!