Hi, I'm Dan YO3DAN!
operating 4U1ITU

Welcome to the

YO3DAN - PA2LA's

RADIO dedicated page

Dear VISITOR,

This page is dedicated to my interest for RADIO.
Radio is not just my hobby or my profession, it is an important part of my life.
So, you'll find here next things - mainly radio related :

- radio engineering, RF/microwave design (circuits, Spice, etc) and projects ;

- antennas and propagation ;

- QRP ;

- Linux / Android in the shack;

- CW/Morse telegraphy ;

- radio scouting and educational projects ;

- miscellaneous ;

- links and photos .

My first steps...

My interest for radio has started at age 11, when I was in the 6th grade of primary school and when I've built my first receiver, a crystal set receiver - which was my first radio project. Later on, I added to this receiver a three stages audio amplifier and a two stages RF amplifier. All stages of the receiver were using, at that time, Germanium transistors. But, radio did help me to discover the world, when, I finished building an HF regenerative receiver. With that one I was able to hear short wave radio stations from all over the world. The BBC, Radio Luxembourg, The Voice of America, and many others became my every evening "friends". The "exit gate" to the world was a simple long-wire antenna. Another key-words for that time were: a very good earth ground connection and an Hi-Z phones pair.
Later, at age 16, I got my amateur radio SWL license, as YO7-6034/AG and I became member of FRR (Romanian Federation of Radioamateurs). After two years I passed the amateur radio examination and I got the license for the beginner HF class, allowing me to operate a transmitter having a maximum of 25W (output) on 10, 40, 80, 2 meters and 70 centimeters bands. The issued call-sign was YO7DAN (my nick-name is Dan), a call-sign sounding quite nice in Morse code (CW). During the following years, I got the advanced HF license (100W in all HF+V/UHF bands) and the first class license. In the beginning of '80's I moved from Pitesti (YO7 district) to Bucharest (YO3 district) and my call-sign changed to YO3DAN.
In the Autumn of 2005 I've moved in the northern part of The Netherlands, in a beautiful universitary city - Groningen, I got a Dutch call-sign - PA2LA and I became member of VERON. Later on, I joined ARRL.
I operate mainly in the bands between 160m and 70 cm. Whenever is possible, I enjoy QRP. My favorites modes are SSB and CW, but I'm active in some digital modes, too.

My station ....

During the years I've built and I've used many homebrew equipments.
I've also used some commercial equipments as: Sommerkamp FT-277ZD, Yaesu FT-7B or Icom IC-726.
The present configuration of my station includes an Yaesu FT-847 HF/50/144/430 MHz satellite transceiver, accompanied by its FC-20 automatic antenna tuner, an Icom IC-7000 with a LDG AT-7000 automatic tuner and some QRP equipments, as well. For portable/mobile VHF/UHF I use a Standard C500-EX and an Yaesu VX-6E handheld transceivers.
On HF bands, I use a Cushcraft AV-5 vertical (10-15-20-40-80m) or a slopped dipole for 20m band fed with a 300 ohms ladder line. Living in a city, I have a just a small yard/garden and these antennas are two of the few practical solutions possible.
I acquired some time ago a Mosley MP-33 HF tribander 3 elements antenna, I've restored it with the hope that I could use it, somehow, in the next future.
For VHF/UHF operations I use a Diamond X-200 vertical antenna (2 x 5/8λ @ 145MHz and 4 x 5/8λ @ 435MHz), a 11 elements cross-Yagi for 2m band (satellites), a 10 elements long Yagi for portable in 2m band, 2x19 elements Yagi antenna for 70cm band.
My mobile operations are supported by a Diamond MR-77B 2m/70cm vertical and a Moonraker SPX-300 - a 9 bands (80m-6m) HF based loaded taps coil antenna, both of them having a magnetic mount for the car roof.
For my experiments, I'm using several pieces of measurement equipment, the most important being a KIKUSUI 7201A 4 channels 200 MHz digital oscilloscope.