Amateur Radio Operator – KC1SA

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Amateur Radio Operator – KC1SA

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kc1sa

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December 3, 2024

Life is a never-ending classroom, share the knowledge. Thanks to everyone who has helped on my journey!

Background Information

I grew up in Western Massachusetts and my two older brothers were a big influence on me with electrical/electronics and the “I can fix anything” attitude. I’m a latecomer to the hobby, first license in 2013 as KC1AXJ and getting my KC1SA call in 2016.

As a kid, I toyed around with quite a few electronic gadgets one such gadget was the Heathkit JR 35 workshop, which was a great learning tool. I built my first crystal radio in 6th grade with the help of one of my brothers.

As a kid. I enjoyed listing to shortwave on a very old AlIied Radio circa the late ’40s and tuning into WWV to set the clocks in the house.

After graduating from High School in the 70s I attended a local community college to start my electrical engineering degree and transferred to Purdue University graduating in 1980. I expanded my knowledge of engineering during my college years by working at Kimberly Clark’s research division designing test equipment. During my 40+ years as a EE, I’ve designed motor control systems, commercial and military communication systems, high-speed multiplexors, telephony gear and various video and digital audio processing systems. For nearly thirty years I was an application engineer teaching VHDL and other high-level design languages and designing/supporting semiconductors from companies like Intel, Xilinx, Analog Devices, Maxim, Motorola, NXP, and Wolfspeed. I’ve since retired from the day-to-day design and application engineering world and enjoying retired life while still dabbling with Analog and Digital designs.

Hobbies

I had been flying nitro RC heli’s since the mid-80s with an interest in aerial photography and branched out to quad-copter (aka drones) and fixed-wing. RC flying is the reason I entered the Amateur Radio hobby but now spend time with radio and less time flying RC, so much less time that the planes, helicopters, and quadcopters have a thick layer of dust on them now. Probably will never fly again.

The XYL and I enjoy photography, Djembe drum circle events, and winery/brewery tours vacationing at the Outer Banks and Cape Cod. I am an amateur beer brewer and have been brewing beer since the mid-80s and placed 2nd for my IPA in a local competition a few years ago. I also have a few 3D printers and dabble with creating and printing devices that aid me with my other hobbies. Most recently we have decided to embark on the adventure of living on the road (or at least part-time). Coachella Birdy is our newest addition. She’s a 32-foot-long Class C, our home during our road adventures with our three cats and two dogs. We continue to see the US with our furry five pets.

Coachella or Coach Ella (Jayco Greyhawk 31DS

Animal Farm

Our three cats (the Candy Cats – Snickers, Skittles, and Caramel) and our two miniature Long-Haired Dachshunds (Thelma and Louise) keep us occupied when hobbies aren’t filling our days. This crew is very unique from past pets we’ve owned. Skittles (female cat) enjoys hopping into the shack and being with me when I’m on the air.

The Candy Cats (Skittles, Caramel, Snickers

The shack

I can usually be found on 20m or 40m but I’m active on all HF bands. My current shack setup is a Kenwood TS-2000 and an Icom IC-7610. Antennas are a Balun-Design end-fed 52′ horizontal antenna for 40, 80, and 160m at about 25 feet and a KIO hex beam for 6m through 20m at about 30 feet, and a Ringo ranger antenna for 70cm and 2m operation. I’m an active contesting participant working all modes and enjoy operating FT8/JT65/JT9 for those slower days or when the bands just aren’t cooperating. I use a CWTouchKeyer touch paddle (I found it much easier than a straight key) for CW operation and attended CW academy. My logging software of choice is HRD for general logging and N1MM+ for contesting. Fldigi, Flrig, MMTTY, MMSSTV, WSJT-X, and MRP4066 are other programs I use depending on modes of operation. My computer is a custom I7 860 Win10 machine attached to two monitors with a home brew interface to the Kenwood for keying and audio isolation (the 7610 is just plug-n-play). Just getting into portable operation (POTA and similar), using the TS-2000, home-brew LiFEPO4 power supply, and an inverted-vee and vertical antennas. The portable shack is a new aspect of the hobby for me that is a bunch of fun.

“listen, listen, listen and then listen again before calling”

“I will only call if I can clearly copy the DX station”

“Never trust the DX cluster”

“Never tune up on someone else’s QSO”

“Be courteous of others on the air, no one owns the air we use”

“When contesting, give your call sign with every QSO or minimum every other”

I found this a good read, more Hams should read this and operate accordingly;

Don’t Be a Lid

Look forward to a QSO with you.

73 – KC1SA

Confirmations

Save the planet. My logs are uploaded and synced to LoTW, QRZ, HRDLOG.net, LoTW, eQSL, and Club Log at least weekly and most times daily. My POTA activations are uploaded to the POTA/app site at the end of each activation. With many ways to do electronic confirmation, sending paper is not needed. Effective 12-1-2024 I will no longer send confirming QSO cards.

I am a stickler for the FT8 volley cadence and I do not record a QSO without grid square, sig report, and RR or RR73 (no shortcuts, just the full volley of exchange).

Organizations

I am a member of :

ARRL Volunteer Examiner (although not really active)

Connecticut ARES Region 2 http://ctaresregion2.org/