Welcom to the temporary site of W4RIS

My old site (www.qsl.net/pa3gvr) was so outdated that I had to take it down and put up this simple page.
Hopefully soon I will be able to get a nice page up with some useful information ;)

I picked W4RIS as my vanity call because of my love for whisky, radio and Scouting.
Whisky 4 for Radio Interested Scout

For some time I was a board member of the Dutch Radio Interested Scouts PI4RIS till I moved to the US. I still try to combine radio and Scouting but time is in short supply :(


Here are some of my favorite links:

PI4RIS Home page of the Dutch Radio Interested Scouts
XR3J Special event station for the 19th World Scout Jamboree
E20AJ Special event station for the 20th World Scout Jamboree
K4FAU Florida Atlantic University ARC
Museum Jan Corver A museum in The Netherlands about Radio Amateurs and a great promotor of DIY projects for HAMs in The Netherlands
My bookmarks
K4FAU / BRARA Field Day 2004 planning.
K4FAU / BRARA Field Day 2002 pictures

W4RIS Radio resume:

I was born June 17 many moons ago in Gouda (as in Gouda cheese) in the Netherlands and I lived the next 18 years in a small town next to Gouda named Waddinxveen.
My official name is Willem Jacobus van Dam with Sjaak being my nick / "calling" name.

At a young age I was already interested in electronics and I build many kits (running lights etc.) from the local electronics store.
I joined Scouting Netherlands (like Boy Scouts of America) when I was 7 years old and was introduced to the radio hobby during the 1978 Jamboree On The Air by PA2HJM.
The JOTA became the high light of every Scouting year for me and even tough the Dutch FCC didn't allow it, Henk (PA2HJM) allowed me to run the JOTA HF station unsupervised for several years.
After high school I decided that electronics was the thing for me and I persuaded my dad to pay for a private boarding school. The school "Rens en Rens" had many great teachers (one of them helped Phillips to develop the CD player) and a school callsign PI5REN! Immediately I started to use the school's callsign and decided I needed to get my own license.
In 1990 I joined the Dutch Radio Interested Scouts (RIS) a national scout troop for scouts interested in amateur radio and Hams interested in scouting. I also served on the board of directors for several years.
In the Netherlands the Dutch FCC administers the radio exams twice per year so it wasn't till spring 1991 before I was able to take the exam and get my own VHF/UHF license PE1NYX. My first radio was an old commercial radio (Bosch KF161) retuned and rewired to work on 2 meters. I still look for used equipment that I can use for Ham radio.
In the spring of 1995 I upgraded to a HF license (PA3GVR) after passing the CW 15 WPM sending and receiving requirement. Since I received my HF license I only made 5 CW contacts..... If time allows I will try to brush up my CW to do some QRP work.

In 1999 I met my wife while she was working at a scout camp in the Netherlands. We did a long distance relationship for about 3 years but after those 3 years someone had to move so I came to the US. We got married in January 2002.

While driving around Boca one evening (in 2001) Hank (N3HV) informed that he was going to a test session. I went over and took all the exams but failed the CW part and the "Extra" questions. So in December 2001 I received the US call KG4PVX. I finally upgraded to Extra and picked the vanity call W4RIS, (Scottish)Whisky For Radio Interested Scout.

Throughout my amateur radio career I operated the following stations:
PA2HJM/J - JOTA station from 1978 till 1996
PI5REN - School call operated from 1989 till 1992
PE1NYX - my call from 1991 till 1995
LX/PE1NYX - Mini DX-peditions from Luxemburg between Dec 26 and Jan 2
1992/93, 1993/94 and 1994/95
DC/PE1NYX - 1992 Stationed in Germany for one year.
PI4RIS - During various RIS activities from 1992 till 2000
GB2GP - 1993 and 1998 Gilwell Park Scout international camp near London.
PA6ESJ - 1994 European Scout Jamboree. Scout camp with 10000 scouts.
PA6WSJ - 1995 18th World Scout Jamboree Dronten Netherlands. International Scout camp with about 33000 scouts.
PA6NWK - 1997 Nationaal Water Kamp. Scout camp with about 5000 sea scouts.
XR3J - 1998/9 19th World Scout Jamboree Chile. International Scout camp with about 29000 scouts.
CE3/CE4/PA3GVR - 1999 2 week travel around the south part of Chile.
I also helped with the preparations for E20AJ 20th World Scout Jamboree Thailand (2003), but was unable to go at the last minute.
KG4PVX - My call from 2001 till 2004
K4FAU - You can find me at T6 during various contests and the JOTA
W4RIS - My call since Jan 2004.
Besides all these "bigger" events I also operated as DL/ DC/ ON/ F/ HB/ HB0/ OE/ OZ/ SM4/ G/ PE1NYX and or PA3GVR.

I am the current (and 2005) club president of the Boca Raton Amateur Radio Association BRARA / WB4QNX.

My main amateur radio interests are:
- Homebrew. Once a project works most of the time it ends up "on the shelf" to gather dust.
- ATV Amateur "fast" scan television. I have several transmitters on 1280 MHz, 2450 MHz and on 10.450 GHz but my equipment works on the European PAL TV standard.
- Temporary setups like scout camps and field day. There is nothing like the sound of a generator in the morning.....It sounds like.....camping.
- VHF and higher weak signal like 10 GHz. I got started on a 10 GHz project but my equipment and "project buddies" are in The Netherlands.
- Emcomm
- Jamboree On The Air. I think that this is a great activity to promote our hobby. I have helped the World JOTA Organizer Richard Middelkoop PA3BAR on several occasions with parts of the worldwide organization of the JOTA.
- Reuse of commercial radio equipment. I have an old UHF cell phone base station and "portable" that both work on 70cm.
- Over the past 2 years JJ, AJ2U and Fred, K9VV have shown me how much fun contesting can be so contesting is my latest interest in the radio hobby.





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