Ham Radio – WT2P
Welcome!
This site is mostly dedicated to my passion/hobby, Ham (Amateur) Radio. I primarily focus on Contesting, however I am active in DX’ing. Primary mode of operation is CW (Morse Code) but am active in Phone and RTTY contests.
Please feel free to browse around, I also am active in drone flying and have taken a lot of pictures in various places around Chicago and beyond.
The station underwent a bit of an upgrade in late 2018/2019 and it lost a lot of weight! Now using Flexradio 6600 instead of the KX3 and IC-7300 and all the assorted outboard switching required for SO2R operation. See the old station here
Current Station Layout (2020)
Station 1 (Main): FlexRadio 6600 + Maestro – Full SO2R
Station 2 – Backup SO2R
- ICOM IC-7300
- Kenwood TS-940S/AT (with Piexx computer control interface)
- DXDoubler SO2R Controller (with Piexx SO2Rxlat interface)
VHF
- Q5 Signal 2M Transverter
- RM Italy LA-144 Linear Amplifier
Other Equipment
- SPE Expert 1K-FA Solid State amplifier
- Alpha 76PA Amplifier
- LP-100A Digital Vector Wattmeter with dual coupler option
- Array Solutions Six Pack 2 radio antenna switch.
- Green Heron Everyware wireless interface/software for antenna switching from any computer (local or remote).
- StreamDeck programmable keypad to control various Green Heron switches
- VA6AM High Power bandpass filters for 160, 80, 40 and 20 Meters
- (New – Spring 2020) Homebrew coaxial stubs for 40 & 20 Meters, in parallel with the VA6AM HP filters to achieve greater isolation between these 2 bands.
- Low Band Systems 40/20/15/10 1500W Quadplexer
- Vibroplex and Bencher BY-1 morse code paddles
Logging: DXLab for general/DX logging, N1MM+ for contest logging.
Antennas
“The Antenna Room” – High Power Bandpass filters and SO2R antenna switch
160 (Winter Only): Reduced Half-Sloper, apex @ 45ft.
160-80M Receive (Winter Only):
- NE-SW BOG (250 ft.)
- NW-SE BOG (250 ft.)
- E-W BOG (150 ft.)
- N-S BOG (150 ft.)
80/15/10: Inverted V @ 30ft.
40/20: Inverted V @ 45ft.
6M: Dipole @ 15ft.
All band/antenna combinations automatically selected by Green Heron software driving the Array Solutions 6 x 2 switch.
Callsigns
1994-1998: N9YXA, 1998-2005: K9YO, 2005-Present: WT2P
DX Operations: 1997: Z2/N9YXA (Zimbabwe), 2016: P40XA (Aruba)
Also have operated remote as W3/WT2P, W4/WT2P, W6/WT2P
Interesting Links
Contest Awards Received
Previous Contest Results/Analysis/Audio
Want to know if I’ve been spotted on the air? WT2P RBN | WT2P/9 RBN
The WT2P Planned Contest Activities Calendar
Claimed contest scores for WT2P on 3830 Scores.
Articles
Young Contesters – The Promise of a Future (K7BV) [NCJ, 2000]
Contest Audio
WT2P Livestream | WT2P Contest Facebook Page
OLD: Raw Recordings (All)
Search WT2P contest QSO recordings archive:
Clublog Logbook