Mark's Ham Radio Page

QST DE KN7T

HISTORY

I received my Novice ticket in December of 1976. My callsign was WB9ZPK and I held that call for 20 years. I remained a Novice class operator for 7 years before upgrading to Advanced and then finally my Extra class ticket in 1995. When the FCC initiated the vanity call program, some of my ham radio buddies twisted my arm and I applied for a vanity call. I ended up with KN7T, which was my 5th or 6th choice on my vanity call application. (The call that I REALLY wanted ended up being given to a ham in "3-land" - I just hate the fact that the FCC didn't make folks retain the appropriate call areas for the vanity call program)

Our first shack was all homebrew, consisting of a one tube 3 band transmitter that was crystal controlled.  The receiver was a solid state 3 band unit that used plug in modules for each band.  The transmitter had an output of roughly 5 or 6 watts.  Later on, we built a homebrew linear amplifier that used 3 1625 tubes.  We squeezed about 40 or 50 watts out of that amplifier.  My early interest in ham radio was DXing and my dad, Larry, W8LHM (ex-WB9ZPL), constructed a 4 element tri-band quad for that very purpose (see photo below). We put the quad on a 30 foot tower and I spent most of my spare time trying to work DX in the Novice sub-bands - not a very worthwhile endeavour as I soon discovered. When I attended Purdue University from 1979 to 1984, much of my ham radio activity was curtailed due to studies and summer jobs. Upon graduation from college, I moved immediately to Wichita, Kansas to start my new job with Boeing. I lived in an apartment and had no radio equipment at all but I did join the amateur radio club at Boeing. My stay in Wichita was short lived and I moved to the high desert area of California in the fall of 1985. A couple of more years went by before I was bitten by the amateur radio bug once again. I was able to purchase a used HF transceiver from a Los Angeles area ham who was in the process of cleaning out his own shack. Thanks to my dad's handywork, I was able to string up a decent sized dipole on a postage stamp-sized piece of property. Not much changed over the next couple of years and finally in 1991 I was forced to move yet again - this time to Seattle. I wasted no time in setting up my shack at our new home and the details of the shack are described below.

My first experience with contesting came very early and the Novice Roundup became my favorite contest for a number of years. I think my best ever score in the Roundup earned me 9th place in Indiana but I don't recall what year that was. Eventually, the Roundup died and has since been replaced by the School Club Roundup. I started getting serious about contesting after my move to Seattle. I tried my hand at several different contests but eventually I narrowed down my participation to work just the major contests. The table farther down on this page shows the contests that I have participated in and the associated scores for each contest.

"THE SHACK"

The shack at my home QTH is very modest. I don't have stacks and stacks of radios or equipment and I've managed to get rid of most of the old electronic parts that I had collected over the years that ended up doing nothing more than collecting dust and taking up space. My main HF radio is an Elecraft K3, S/N 1371.  It is equipped with the optional sub-receiver and DVR.  My shack also has an entire Collins S-Line station, 32S-1, 75S-1, 516F-2, 312B-4, and a 30L-1.  I am almost exclusively a CW operator so I have a Schurr Profi II paddle which I use in conjunction with a Palstar CW50A electronic keyer.  I am also a bit of a Vibroplex nut and I have several bugs in my collection - an Original Deluxe, an Original Standard, a Vibrokeyer, and a Zephyr.  And, yes, I also have a Nye straight key just for SKN!!   Other station items include an Acom 1000 amplifier, Palstar AT2K antenna tuner, Palstar WM150 wattmeter, and a DL1500 dummy load.  VHF/UHF access is provided by a Yaesu FT-8500.

HF antennas right now consist of a Traffie HX-5Bi Hexbeam that is mounted on a military surplus AB-577 portable tower.  The hexbeam is used for 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 meters.  The hexbeam is turned with a Ham IV rotator adapted for a mast mount.  For 80 meters I have an inverted vee mounted on a fiberglass push up mast which, in turn, is mounted on a rooftop tripod, placing the center of the vee at about 50 feet.  I also have a 40 meter double bazooka antenna installed.  The double bazooka is co-located with the hexbeam on top of the AB-577 tower.  The VHF/UHF antennas consist of a 3 element cubical quad for 2 meters and a 7 element yagi for 440 MHz.  The VHF/UHF antennas are fed with a common feedline through a duplexer unit mounted to the side of the house.  Both antennas are mounted on a common mast that extends just above the roofline.

My mobile shack consists of a Yaesu FT-8900R along with the Diamond CR8900A quad band antenna.

CLUB ACTIVITIES

I am an active member and trustee of the Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Operators North Society (BEARONS). In addition, I am the webmaster for the club's external homepage.  BEARONS offers ARRL VE testing as a service to the local amateur radio community, and to that end I am an ARRL Volunteer Examiner for the test sessions.  I am also the main focal for maintaining the club's two repeaters, one operating on 443.925 MHz and the other at 52.95 MHz.

PHOTOS

40 meter double bazooka                                Early shack photos (circa 1978)
and tri-band quad       

RECENT CONTEST HISTORY AND SCORES

Page updated on 1-22-2010