Amateur Radio Station N8NN
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Bert Garcia, N8NN |
About myself
..... I was first licensed in 1958 as KN8MHB at the age of 13 here in Moundsville, WV, started working CW and have enjoyed it ever since! Amateur Radio is lots of fun and I have tried most modes/bands at one time or another, but I always seem to return to CW. I've traveled quite a bit during my 30 years in the Army and have held these former callsigns: K8MHB, K7LKO, W1CDS, KZ5KO, DA1CF, DA1CF/HBØ, DA2NN, HI8XAG, and was guest operator at HZ1AB.Antennas.....
The antenna farm includes a 60-ft tower and a 40-ft tower. A 3-element HyGain 40m meter yagi is at 60 ft and a Force 12 C3 7-el yagi is above that at 71 ft. The 40-ft tower holds a Force 12 WARC 2/2/1 yagi for 30/17/12m plus 6m and 2m beams. My Butternut HF-2V ground mounted vertical for 80/40 meters has 58 radials under it. On 80m I use an inverted vee and on 160m I have an inverted-L.Station equipment.....
The main station is a Yaesu FT-1000MP transceiver and a Yaesu VL-1000 Quadra amplifier. I use an MFJ 494 keyboard on CW and a W9WBL V22 padel. On digital modes I use a Rigblaster and a PK-232MBX terminal unit. I use DX4WIN software and regularly telnet into the K8SMC DX cluster.Operating interests.....
I spend most of my time on CW -- ragchewing on 40m and chasing DX on all bands. I do get on SSB on the higher bands to chase DX. The 2m FM gear is turned off unless it's net night. I still need to buy a 6m rig.Boatanchors.....
I spend way too much time (and money) on old boatanchor gear! My favorite rigs are the E.F. Johnson Viking rigs. I have the Adventurer, Challenger, Navigator, Viking Mobile, 6N2, Ranger, Valiant, Pacemaker, Courier, Thunderbolt, Invader, Invader 2000, and Viking 500. I match those with several Hammarlund receivers: HQ-100, HQ-110, HQ-145X, HQ-170. The Hallicrafters gear includes an HT-32B transmitter, HT-33B amplifier, and SX-101 Mark III and SX-115 receivers. Many other boatanchors await my presence in the basement, such as the Knight twins (T-150, R-100A), a WRL DuoBander, and a large collection of Heathkit gear.More to come.....
This page was updated on September 9, 2004.73
, Bert N8NNCFO #400, AMI #408, TSARC #925, member ARES, member
ARRL.Note:
The background music is the CFO theme song. CFO (Chicken Fat Operators) hang out around 7030 KHz and run high speed CW. You can still hear us occasionally signing off with the "Dit Dit Dit.... Dit Dah" cluck at the end of the QSO.