W3RGA's Homepage

About Me

Synopsis

Hi, my name is Pat and my callsign is W3RGA. I’m an avid ham radio enthusiast. I share some information here about me and my ham radio hobby. I’ve been a ham for over 23 years. Most of my friends are hams, and the hobby has greatly enriched my life.

Ham radio is a lifelong hobby that contains hundreds, if not thousands, of sub-hobbies under its umbrella. To learn more about the greatest hobby in the world, visit the American Radio Relay League.

Timeline

1990s:  As a teenager, I was a CB operator, AM DX'er, and scanner enthusiast. I would go to the local bookstore every month to get the latest issue of Pop Com.
2003:   I was licensed as KB3JKV and was active on 2M FM and EchoLink.
2006:   After a period of inactivity, a friend at work, Randy, KB3DZL encouraged me to get active in the hobby again. Thank you Randy!
2007:   I got interested in weak signal VHF and started teaching myself Morse code so I could work more DX on 6M CW.
2008:   I upgraded to General and received my W3RGA vanity call.
2009:   I began experimenting with VHF Contesting and had some limited success in the QRP Portable category.
2010:   I put a 20' piece of wire out the window and made my first HF contacts.
2011:   I became fascinated with RTTY, it remained my favorite mode for about a decade. I still enjoy it very much today.
2014:   I became involved with APRS and packet radio and played a key role in bringing APRS digipeaters back to the area.
2016:   I began exploring more serious HF contest participation. See the Contesting⇣ section of this page for more info.
2017:   I was honored to be asked by John, K3MD to join the prestigious Frankford Radio Club.
Today:  HF contesting is still my focus but I dabble in many other aspects of the hobby.

Homepage

During the COVID lockdown in 2020, I decided to learn a little HTML and build a simple homepage.

Career

In the spring of 2000, I joined the Bingaman & Son Lumber team. Over the years, I’ve worked in many roles across the company, and since 2014 I have been serving as the night-shift production supervisor at the main Kreamer headquarters.

We are a global supplier of premium hardwood products. I feel very fortunate to be part of such a great company for over 26 years now.

Contact Me

✉ Email 

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Station

OFF-AIR. My RBN Node⇣ is still functioning, but my station is currently dismantled for upgrades.

Rig

Elecraft K3S transceiver SOLD

Elecraft P3 panadapter SOLD

Bose QuietComfort noise-cancelling headphones with Brainwavz replacement earpads

Antlion Audio ModMic Uni noise-cancelling mic SOLD

K1EL WKUSB-AF WKUSB with a pure sinewave audio output

CW Morse LLC Outdoor Pocket Paddle with Magnets on a steel block

N4BKY & N4FFF Duo Straight Key One

TX Antenna

True Ladder Line 125' doublet, inverted V @ 35'

100' of 600Ω open wire ladder line

Balun Designs Model 1151 1:1 ATU current balun

LDG RT-100 remote antenna tuner FAILED

75' of LMR-400 with DXE Next-Gen PL-259

Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun

At the output of the rig there are two 12-turn RG400 chokes in series, each wound on 2.4", mix 31 toroid, from the K9YC Choke Cookbook

RX Antenna

W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground

DXE RXFC-75 feedline choke

200' of DXE quad shield RG-6

DXE RXFC-75 feedline choke

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

Turn Island Systems 60 MHz Filter-Preamp

Mini-Circuits ZSC-2-2+ splitter

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

Accessories

DXE TFK46-HD fiberglass mast

KF7P anchor stakes, Atwood Rope 550 Paracord

Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16, see the RBN Node⇣ section of this page for more info

Samlex SEC-1235 14V DC supply

RIGrunner 4007U DC panel

APC BR1500LCD UPS

Every cable in the shack has multiple turns through Mix 31 Ferrite

Favorite Tools

DXE Ratcheting Crimper with Prep Tool and Gripper
PACE ADS200 Soldering Station and a good assortment of tips
Halibut Electronics RF & Digi CMCC test rigs
R&L Electronics NanoVNA-H4
Parts Candy Test Leads
Harbor Freight Mini Toolbox

Computer

Beelink EQR5, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U, 32GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro

BenQ EX2780Q 27", IPS, 2560x1440 display

Unicomp Mini M buckling spring keyboard

Logitech Signature M650 mouse

Software

Day-to-day Software
N1MM Logger+ logging program
G3YYD's 2Tone RTTY encoder/decoder
VE3NEA's GRITTY RTTY decoder
W7SST's Morse Runner Community Edition copying practice
NA0N's Iambic Master sending practice
ARRL's TQSL LoTW upload program
Meinberg NTP software
K1JT's WSJT-X FT8/4 encoder/decoder
Skimmer Software, see the RBN Node⇣ section of this page for more info
VE3NEA's CW Skimmer Server, my current SkimSrv1.ini and SkimSrv2.ini
VE3NEA's RTTY Skimmer Server, my current RttySkimServ.ini
K3IT's HermesIntf
CWSL_Tee
W2AXR's CWSL_DIGI, my current CWSL_DIGI config.ini
W3OA's Aggregator, my BadCalls.txt contains over 900 commonly busted calls
PowerSDR_STEMlab_Edition

QTH

I moved into my current Snydertown QTH in September of 2003. It's a quiet little borough in Northumberland County with fewer than 400 residents. I love living here, it's just not a good QTH for ham radio.

I didn’t give much thought to ham radio when I purchased this townhouse. It is located in a valley 200' below the average terrain and the backyard is only 30' wide. Luckily I have enough room to run my 125' doublet north & south.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of local noise lately, which is very frustrating! If I'm having trouble hearing you, I apologize.

Because of nearby neighbors, a detailed RF exposure calculation is provided. My station operates well within established limits, even on 28 MHz.

Portable

I have a QRP station that I occasionally take out into the field.

Rig

QRP Labs QMX transceiver (80,60,40,30,20 version), with a Tufteln Protection Cover

Earplug style Headphones

K6ARK QMX microphone kit

HamGadgets Ultra Pico Keyer kit with a KM4CFT designed button cover printed by Craftcloud

CW Morse LLC Outdoor Pocket Paddle with Magnets and a KM4CFT Leg plate and strap

Backup paddles are the VK3IL v2 pressure paddle and the N6ARA TinyPaddle-Jack

Antennas

Reliance Antennas Bugout Mini 49:1 efhw Transformer and 80-10m wire assembly

ABR 25' RG316 coax with ferrites

N4BKY & N4FFF Just OK Mini 20M antenna and metal tripod

Accessories

GigaParts Explorer POTA20 carbon-fiber mast

Tufteln Ground Spike, amazon aluminum tent stakes, Atwood Rope 95 Paracord & Micro Cord

Anker Nano 30W power bank, and USB-C PD 12V Trigger

Everything fits in a Small Backpack

Logging

KI2D's PoLo android app

Logitech K480 bluetooth keyboard

VHF/UHF

Baofeng UV-5R Mini

Activity

I enjoy CW, RTTY, and occasionally a little SSB. When I want to torture myself you might see me on FT8...

I have all the usual awards WAS, DXCC, and WPX but I don’t really consider myself a DX'er.

QSL

I no longer send paper cards, please 🙏 QSL via the ARRL's Logbook of The World.

Member of

American Radio Relay League.

Frankford Radio Club.

CW Operators Club.

Susquehanna Valley Amateur Radio Club.

Long Island CW Club.

RBN Node

I started running an RBN node in 2017. I enjoy using the Reverse Beacon Network and wanted to contribute to the project.

My node is spotting CW on all bands 630M through 6M, as well as RTTY & FT8/4 during contests.

When operating my station, my node will only spot calls in the SCP database, and my BadCalls.txt contains over 900 commonly busted calls.

If you're a sysop with a special use case, you can telnet directly to my W3RGA-# node @ w3rga.ddns.net  port 7550 (w3rga.ddns.net:7550).
Otherwise it's recommended you get skimmer spots from an RBN enabled "retail" DX cluster node. Give my DX-Spider Node⇣ a try.

See the last 100 spots it has sent to the Reverse Beacon Network .

See the latest spots it has sent to PSK Reporter .

SDR Receiver

Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16 running Pavel Demin's SD card image

Acrylic case and 30mm fan

Bel Power Solutions HC5-6/OVP-AG 5V linear supply

RX Antenna

W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground

DXE RXFC-75 feedline choke

200' of DXE quad shield RG-6

DXE RXFC-75 feedline choke

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

Turn Island Systems 60 MHz Filter-Preamp

Mini-Circuits ZSC-2-2+ splitter

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

Computer

See the Station Computer⇡ section of this page for more info

DX-Spider Node

Info

My W3RGA-1 DX cluster node is now running G1TLH's DX-Spider software.

Node is running on a Ubuntu Server VM under Proxmox.

Node is connected to multiple DX-Spider, CC-Cluster, and ARC-V6 partner nodes, providing a highly reliable cluster connection.

Node also maintains a robust connection to the RBN, making Skimmer Spots⇣ available.

Log In

Telnet to W3RGA-1 @ w3rga.ddns.net  port 7373 (w3rga.ddns.net:7373).

Login: with your amateur radio callsign.

You can only log in once with your callsign, but simply adding a SSID 1 through 99 will allow you to log in up to three times. (each SSID can have a different set of filters)

Filter Structure

Take note, the DX-Spider filter structure is completely different than CC-Cluster or AR-Cluster.

I struggled to understand the Spider filter structure and flow until it was described by Dave, K2XR. His excellent description is below↓

Execution Sequence      Slot Number     Filter Rule
        1                 Slot0         reject/spot 0 <pattern>
        2                               accept/spot 0 <pattern>
        3                 Slot1         reject/spot 1 <pattern>
        4                               accept/spot 1 <pattern>
        5                 Slot2         reject/spot 2 <pattern>
        6                               accept/spot 2 <pattern>
        .                 .
        19                Slot9         reject/spot 9 <pattern>
        20                              accept/spot 9 <pattern>

Filter Builder

Try my DX-Spider Filter Builder for an easy way of building custom filters.

Documentation

The latest DXSpider documentation wiki.

The latest DXSpider User Manual.

The latest DXSpider Filtering Manual.

The latest DXSpider User Command Reference.

The Original User Manual (2004).

The Original Filtering Primer (2003).

The Original RBN Client Announcement (2020).

RBN/Skimmer Spots

Node has the full CW/RTTY and FT8/FT4 RBN feeds available.

A little more about my nodes RBN/skimmer connections:
On a separate Windows VM, I run DF7GB's SkimCon v2, which connects to all three RBN servers.
I also maintain direct connections to 20+ skimmer operators worldwide as a backup if the RBN servers go down.
SkimCon automatically fails over if any RBN/skimmer connection drops, ensuring a continuous and reliable stream of skimmer spots.
It also de-duplicates and aggregates the feed before ingestion into my node.

RBN/Skimmer Commands

set/skimmer   (turns on skimmer spots for ALL modes)
set/skimmer cw   (turns on CW skimmer spots)
set/skimmer bea   (shows BEACON skimmer spots)
set/skimmer rtt   (turns on RTTY skimmer spots)
set/skimmer ft   (turns on FT8 and FT4 skimmer spots)
set/skimmer cw bea rtt   (you can combine modes)
unset/skimmer   (turn OFF skimmer spots)
set/seeme   (display ALL skimmer spot of your callsign when you call CQ)
unset/seeme   (turns OFF all skimmer spot of your callsign)

RBN/Skimmer Filters

If no RBN filter is set, RBN spots will use your regular spot filter for RBN spots. This is preferred by me.
I personally don't recommend setting a separate RBN filter. But the option it there if you want it.
The filter structure and syntax is the same as the regular spot filters. With one addition.
There is a new spot "Qwalitee" filter (q X+), with (X) being the minimum (Q) you want to accept.

accept/rbn
reject/rbn
clear/rbn all   (Clears your RBN filter)

RBN/Skimmer Spot Format

                                                      ("Z" Comma separated list of all
                                                      the CQ zones where this station
                                                      was heard by another skimmer)
                                     ("+" Station has |
                                    been spotted more |
                                     than once on the |
(Spotter/Skimmer)                     same frequency) |
        |                                           | |
        |       (Frequency)                 (SNR)   | |             (Time in Z)
        |            |                        |     | |                  |
DX de W3RGA-#:    14088.6  WV4P         RTT 16dB Q:9+ Z:5,4,3       TN 0628Z PA
            |               |            |       |                  |        |
(Every RBN spot is given    |         (Mode)     |             (DX State)    |
a "#" to distinguish it     |                    |                           |
from a human spotter)       |         ("Qwalitee marker" node         (Spotter State)
                        (DX Call)     has received 9 copies of
                                      this spot from different
                                      skimmers)

Busted RBN/Skimmer Spots

Every skimmer spot is checked to ensure that the spotted call is in a valid format and that the prefix is valid. If either of these checks fails then the spot is ignored.

By default my node will only distribute RBN spots with a "Qwalitee" of Q:2 or more. This also help cut down on busted spots.

My node is also ignoring a list of 900+ baddx that appear regularly on the RBN.
If you're a DXS sysop, feel free to use this baddx file with your node

US Database

My node is using a more up to date usdbraw.gz that I build fresh every few weeks from the latest FCC database to determine US State.
If you're a DXS sysop, feel free to use this usdbraw.gz to update your node.

Maintenance & Outages

I perform all system maintenance Monday mornings around 04:00 UTC. Expect weekly outages around this time.

My internet connection occasionally goes down due to circumstances out of my control. I'd recommend everyone set their filter preferences on at least one other backup node, for a quick transition during outages. See my nodes Uptime.

Contesting

I enjoy posting to VA2WA's Contest Online ScoreBoard, it adds a real-time racing element to the game.

With only a low wire, I try to keep my expectations realistic. Below↓ is a list of some of my better scores. See ALL my claimed scores.