wa2bsw.com

Welcome, my name is Ron and I am located in Dunwoody, Georgia,15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the center of Atlanta (EM73ux). The purpose of this web page is to give the hams I meet on the air a visual tour of my station.

This is my shack on 12 February 2011.

The radio on the desk surface to the left of the white shelf is a Kenwood TR-9130 (2 meter all mode transceiver). To the right of the white shelf is a Ten-Tec Argonaut V HF Transceiver, LDG Z-11 Auto Tuner, Ameritron remote antenna switch RCS-8V and a Logikey K-5 Keyer. The equipment on the top of the white shelf from left to right is a Kenwood SP-31 speaker, Yaesu FT-897D HF/6 meter/2 meter/ 70CM Transceiver and LDG AT-100Pro Autotuner. The equipment on the middle shelf from left to right is a Kenwood TS-870S HF Transceiver and an Elecraft K3 HF/6 meter transceiver. On the desk surface under the shelf from left to right are a Heil boomset HC-5 (difficult to see), Vibroplex iambic paddle, Begali Simplex paddle and a Begali Magnetic Classic paddle. On the shelving supporting the desk surface (not visible in this picture) is an Astron RS-4A power supply, Astron RM-35M power supply, a Yaesu MD-1 microphone and Kenwood KPS-12 power supply. On the wall to the right is an MFJ-1700C Antenna/Transmitter switch. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1420 running Ubuntu 11.04

The picture to the left is a closer look at the shelf housing the FT-897D, TS-870S, K3 and the keys ready for action.

This is a look at the K3. Notice the rubber floor protectors I borrowed from a living room chair to prop up the front just a bit. I will have to return them to the chair and get the K3 its very own. This transceiver has become my main radio and is used primarily on CW at the 50 watt level. Here the K3 was tuned to 30 meter CW.

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At the radio I was finally convinced to put a picture of myself on the page. This was taken by my wife on 8 August 2009. I was having a SSB moment. Conditions were not the best, but I made a few enjoyable contacts.

In the shack

Short history I was first licensed as WV2BSW (Novice) September 1958 - Plainfield, New Jersey. The V changed to an A a year later when I became a Tech. In April 1961, I took the trip to 641 Washington Street (NYC) and became a General. It was not until February of 1980 that I upgraded to Advanced. With an even longer time gap, 26 years later on 26 February 2006 I took and passed the Extra.

My First License

To the left is is my first Amateur Radio license - Novice. It was issued for one year and was not renewable. It was administered by a fellow Amateur of at least a General class level.

53 Years - This past September (2011) was my 53^rd anniversary as a ham. I have held a Novice, Technician, General, Advance and now an Extra class license. I believe that is all possible unless I want to go backwards. I have operated AM, FM, SSB, RTTY, PSK31 and CW. One day I would like to try Slow Scan.

DXCC - Not bad, it only took me 49.5 years to get my DXCC. I used the hybrid method with some confirmations through Logbook of the World and some from QSL cards checked at Hamvention 2008. I currently have at least 204 entities worked with 188 mixed confirmations and 163 confirmed on CW.

QSL Cards - One would think that after so many years in ham radio I would have boxes of QSL cards, but that is not the case. I have a bunch, but not boxes. With a few exceptions, my cards of old are not in the DX category (aka domestic cards). Also, technology has made the newer cards very impressive compared to the old. Currently the only cards I make an effort to collect are from DX stations. Therefore, most of the cards I have put on this page and on the Picasa links are newer and DX cards. See the links to the right of this page for access to a portion of the QSL cards I have received. This is a bit of a work in process.

Operating - I primarily operate CW. It presents a challenge to me and demonstrates a skill. Also, it is very affective at lower power levels (to say nothing of my weak antenna system). I enjoy chasing DX and have made a lot of nice contacts all over the world. I credit my success to those great operators that take their time and resources to journey to very remote locations and operate.

Although I spend a lot of time with Ham Radio, I do not have a very high QSO count. I tend to listen much more than transmit. Over the last few years on HF I mainly called stations that are not in North America and do not call a stations that I have worked six months or less ago on the same band and mode. (In the future I plan on calling more domestic stations.)

Below are some statistics for the last two full years:

2010

2011

QSO's by band

40 Meters 40 7.1% 0 0.0%

30 Meters 164 29.3% 206 33.5%

20 Meters 284 50.6% 178 28.9%

15 Meters 51 9.1% 91 14.8%

10 Meters 5 0.9% 83 13.5%

6 Meters 17 3.0% 44 7.2%

2 Meters 0 0.0% 13 2.1%

Total Number of QSO's
561
100.0%
615
100.0%

CW QSO's 501 89.3% 537 87.3%

SSB QSO's 60 10.7% 78 12.7%

Unique Entities 133 N/A 135 N/A

Blog - I started a blog to post current activity. I am not sure if I will keep it up. Although I have been very active on the radio, I am not sure there is much to write about. Also, I do not think to date anyone has accessed the blog (or if they have they are not admitting it).