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K1HTV RICHARD V ZWIRKO 16143 English Setter Court Amissville, VA 20106 USA Lookups:   12698 Ham Member
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QRZ Record: 19248 Login to manage/edit Lookups: 12698 (13769) Mailing Label... QRZ Admin: K1HTV Last Update: 2009-11-18 05:10:39 Class: Extra Codes: HAI Effective: 2008-11-27 Expires: 2015-11-28Apply for a Vanity callsign... Latitude: 38.651952 (38° 39' 7'' N) Longitude: -77.953963 (77° 57' 14'' W) Grid Square: FM18ap US State: Virginia US County: Culpeper Previous: KN1HTV ITU Zone: 8 CQ Zone: 5 GMT Offset: -5 hours ULS Record: 233755 FCC page... Web Page: http://www.k1htv.us QSL Info: DIRECT OR VIA QSL 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?: Yes (e.g. Does this ham use ARRL's LOTW ?) Admin For: (2) K1HTV K1WSN

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Licensed first in 1958 at age 16 as KN1HTV, Rich has been continuously active on the HF and VHF bands for over 51 years.

1958 - K1HTV began chasing DX as a novice with 50W from a Heathkit DX20 and a dipole in New Haven, CT. Heard the first Sputnik satellite on 20 MHz and got the satellite bug!

1960, passed exam for Amateur Extra license while at the New England ARRL convention at Swampscott,MA. Also began working at WELI (5 kw) in New Haven, CT as a broadcast engineer.

1963 - Married Phyllis, KN1WSN (now K1WSN). Started new job at WTIC-AM-FM-TV3 in Hartford as broadcast Engineer, working at 'TIC until 1980.

1964 - Son Andy born (ex-WB1ALW, ex-KA1GD, now K1RA)

1965 - Purchased first house in Thompsonville, CT.  Daughter Christina born (now N3JMR). Worked 36 states on 144 MHz, many of them via meteor scatter. Was a member of CWA (Connecticut Wireless Association). It was great associating with the likes of many old timers like W1BDI, W1TX, W1BIH, W1FTX, W1NJM, W1EOB (N4XR), W1JYH (W1AX) as well as newbies (at the time) like W1BGD (W1RM), W1DGL (W1XX), W1ECH and W1WEF. Have lots of memories participating in the ARRL Field Day events with the CWA gang and guest ops K1ANV (W3ZZ), W1FJJ (W1FJ) and W1NJL (K1VR).

1972 - Moved to Meriden, CT. Tried 2 Meter Moonbounce (EME) with 80 el. collinear and 500W. Ran with K6MYC, VK3ATN & Sam Harris (W1FZJ/KP4);sigs heard both ways, but never made any 2-way EME Q's with them. A few years later, worked WA6LET on 144 MHz via the moon using a single yagi. In the 70's was a control operator for AMSAT-OSCAR-5 satellite at Talcott Mountain Science Center in Avon, CT. Worked 36 states (again) on 2 Meters from the new Meriden QTH.

Made a number of Ham Radio firsts:

1st 144 MHz USA to FP8 (Saint-Pierre Is.)  meteor scatter QSO.

1st ever USA to Yugoslavia satellite QSO.

1st station in the U.S.A. to work ZC4 (Cyprus) and EA9 (Ceuta) on 50 MHz.

1st first known 144 MHz QSO between VP9 (Bermuda) and the mainland (via tropo propagation) with W1NU/VP9.

1st Packet Radio meteor scatter contact August 1984 on 144 MHz with W0RPK.

Made the second ever satellite QSO between No. America and Africa (CN8). W1NU was first.

1st New England station to earn satellite WAS (Worked all States) & WAC (Worked all Continents) using AMSAT-OSCAR 6 & 7 and the early Russian 'RS' satellites.

1974-84 K1HTV was AMSAT Vice President of Operations and member of the AMSAT board of directors.

1980 - Moved from Connecticut to Maryland to work at the Voice of America in Washington,DC (Retired in December 2008 as senior VOA Technical Support Telecommunications Manager)

1982 - Involved in Beta test of the TAPR Packet Radio TNC. With W3IWI (now K3IO) made one of the first Packet radio QSOs via digipeater. In 1985, was instrumental in persuading the west coast inventors of NETROM to allow for it's installation in the first East Coast node (UMD) at the University of MD, with a KU-band wormhole Packet Radio link to California. 1980's was sysop for numerous NETROM packet nodes in the Mid-Atlantic states. Created and distributed via on-air BBS's, maps of the connected packet nodes in the USA. Started chasing HF DX seriously again in the 1990's, always with 100W or less.

Joined the PVRC (Potomac Valley Radio Club) in '94 and have won multiple ARRL Division and section awards running low power in the annual Sweepstakes contests. I've been in the 6 Meter chair at multi-op K8GP in June and Sept. VHF contests since '94 and have been the 160M op at the multi-multi W3LPL superstation in ARRL & CQ DX contests since 1995. 

K1HTV has double DXCC (over 200 countries confirmed) on all nine bands from 160M through 10 Meters.  Over 300 countries confirmed on 20,15 & 10 Meters.   The K1HTV country total is 357 (including deleted), working all countries except P5 (No. Korea), all HF DX accomplished with 100 Watts or less.

 On 160 Meters 210 countries in 32 CQ zones have been worked with 100 Watts or less with 208 of them confirmed so far, the last being VK9GMW on Mellish Reef.  The K1HTV Top Band totals while running QRP (5 Watts or less) is 78 countries on all continents. Best 160M QRP DX to west=VK6HD in western Australia (twice). Best QRP DX to east=4X4NJ in Israel, twice with 5 Watts and once with 1 Watt. 

I'm an Island (IOTA) chaser with 958 worked and 930 confirmed.

On 50 Mhz, 148 DX countries have been confirmed. The K1HTV 6 Meter grid total is over 760 grids confirmed, running 200 Watts output into at 6el yagi at 30 feet. I'm back to chasing meteors again running the new WSJT software on 6M and 2M. After being away from the mode since the 70's started running RTTY again. Have worked 243 countries with 80W on RTTY and PSK31. Just starting to play with digital SSTV. What shall we try next?

I'm K1HTV and am still having lots of fun in Ham Radio after over a half century of operating.