W8BYA (ex WD8BYA, WN8BYA).

Home is near Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and for the first time in my life I have room for antennas, towers, and a shack. Prior to moving here I struggled to put up any HF or even VHF antennas while living on various postage-stamp sized lots. Currently, 3 self-supporting towers grace the grounds at the QTH. I have been blessed with my XYL & best friend (KC9MOM) who supports my every endevor. I also have two older brothers who I can always count on for a fun & spirited QSO on the air (N8AUM & N8CVV). My current interests center around VHF/UHF weak signal work (EME, MS, Au, Tropo, etc), as well as just working DX on 40M or 15M SSB. I have been known to mess around with analog SSB SSTV on HF & VHF.

I really enjoy 6M/2M/432 SSB, CW, or WSJT, and welcome skeds with anyone needing EN70 as a new grid or with anyone who would like to have fun making a long distance contact. My normal range on 2M, under flat conditions to a good station is around 500 miles. My furthest 2M (non-EME) DX is to DM53 in Arizona via MS at 1410 miles with K7NX. Also, many thanks to the many portable stations like: K7NX, K3NXH, WQ5S, K9KNW, N5TM, VA3ELE and N6DLH who bust their butts to go setup at remote locations and put rare grids on the air for the rest of us. My current state count w/o EME is up to 43 and 286 grids. Here is a map showing the grid squares worked on 2M from this QTH over the last 18 years:

http://w8bya.com/var/albums/Misc/HAM-1/2m-Grids%2C%20April-2014-1.jpg?m=1396755227

Other interests, time permitting, include astro-imaging, photography, and goofing around with antennas, and antenna design. I especially like modeling directional antennas for 40M and then trying them out.

The VHF/UHF station consists of a Flex 5000A, and TS-2000. A Commander-II 2M kW and Harris 6M kW PA help out when conditions are rough. On HF I like to use either the Flex or a FT-1000MP, both with the AL-1200 amplifier, when needed. The current antennas on VHF/UHF are a pair of CC 17B2s at 85', 25-elem 432 yagi at 80', and a CC 5-elem 6M beam at around 75'. Mast-mounted pre-amps are used on 2M and 432 and are both fed with almost 280' of 7/8" 75-ohm hardline. The HF tribander is on a different tower and is a CC X7 @ 75'. That tower & antenna are currently down. The 3rd picture down is from the 40' level of the 70' X7 tower looking north (tnx N8CVV). I also use a R8 vertical, a 2-elem 40M rotatable phased array, and an assortment of experimental 40M/75M wire antennas. If you get a minute, do a search on YouTube for my call to see some F/B tests on my home-brew 2-elem rotateable phased array for 40M. I QSL 100% direct andcurrently do NOT use the ARRL QSL bureau or LOTW.

I will be keeping an image gallery with lots of Ham Radio and Astro related pictures soon at http://w8bya.com

73, Gedas, W8BYA