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CQ de AD0QM
I've been an amateur radio operator since 2011, Extra Class. Most of my work lately has been CW and digital modes, 160 - 40M. In the past I did a lot of park work but now I'm pretty exclusively night time operation from my house. 84ft random wire running up to 100W.
A short gemlog of stuff I've done on the radio.
QTH is in SW suburbs of Minneapolis. I usually work HF or hit up the Insomniacs Net on the Oakdale Repeater (146.8500/-0.6 MHz) at midnight between Saturday and Sunday.
From my home QTH I qm usually running an Yaesu FT-897 for most modes. I have run portable off batteries with it, but for being a 100W portable rig its quite heavy. My other HF rig is a YouKits HB-1B 4 Band CW transceiver.
For my digital interface I have been running a home brew setup. Created an attenuator circuit, dead bug style, and connected it to jacks from headphones and the cable from an old PS/2 keyboard. It has worked well for over a decade but I finally decided to get a real interface with CAT control. DigiRig kept showing up in conversation, fits both my wallet and is super small. Works well so far for FT8, PSK and if someone actually responds one of these days SSTV.
Radio related development projects
Door County Amateur Radio Club
The only club I currently am a member of is the SDF Amateur Radio Club.
For those looking for club contacts I'm members of the following:
As I don't have a ham shack, I need to setup my HF rig on the dining room table. This means only playing radio at night time, when everyone is asleep. As of late I have been pretty much confined to Digital and CW modes. I can usually be found 05:00 UTC and on 160-20m bands working either FT-8 or VARA HF.
I'm also on DMR. Most repeaters around here are BM connected, but I also have a hotspot where I'm on TGIF and DMR+. Try to hit up a few nets through out the week but its usually hit or miss due to kids.
If you want to find me on my Internet and Digital Modes:
Since I'm super bad at CW and I'd like to get better to the point where I can bring my HB-1B or buy an illusive Mountain Topper and be able to activate POTA or just get on the air random places, I've decided to dedicate 2023...err 2024 to working on getting better at receiving. Sadly with never having availability of normal people I can't do a class.
After reviewing both programs I now think that the methodology from the Long Island Radio Club might be a better option. Less about Fixed milestones and more about the process.