Bill - N4SV

Bill been a ham since the late 80’s but have been involved in the hobby since I was an adolescent, having learned about ham radio from father when I was a kid.  He was an avid SWL’er when he was young but could never afford to become a ham.  Listening to his stories over the years of my youth it moved me to look into ham radio.  Turned out I lived only a couple of miles from Henry Radio in Los Angeles when I was younger, and spent many days bicycle riding there and drooling over all the used boat anchors they had on their display shelves, along with one my school chums who also had an interest in the hobby.  Unfortunately never was able to do the necessary to get licensed back then as CW was always difficult for me. The license didn’t come about till much later.  But I knew many hams over the years, and in my early 20’s I started to do a lot of Field Day work with them and also studying for my ticket.

 After about 15 years of being on the outside looking in as far as getting licensed goes I finally got my ticket in 1989 (thank your Gordon West!), but I was probably the most seasoned new ham there was, having nearly a decade and a half being involved in all those Field Day events.  So I’ve been active since 89, first love is DX but I like contesting (HF and VHF/UHF), I was deeply involved in VHF and UHF packet radio back in the day, and currently put most of my time into doing FT8; I like the ability to sit and be making some FT8 contacts and still be able to carry on a conversation with family and friends, read a book, watch TV, and no yelling into the mic and disturbing the family, HI.  It’s the most relaxing ham activity I’ve been involved in since back in the packet days.  But I still like jumping in on a contest or chasing down DX on phone too. After about 15 years of being on the outside looking in as far as getting licensed goes I finally got my ticket in 1989 (thank your Gordon West!), but I was probably the most seasoned new ham there was, having nearly a decade and a half being involved in all those Field Day events.  So I’ve been active since 89, first love is DX but I like contesting (HF and VHF/UHF), I was deeply involved in VHF and UHF packet radio back in the day, and currently put most of my time into doing FT8; I like the ability to sit and be making some FT8 contacts and still be able to carry on a conversation with family and friends, read a book, watch TV, and no yelling into the mic and disturbing the family, HI.  It’s the most relaxing ham activity I’ve been involved in since back in the packet days.  But I still like jumping in on a contest or chasing down DX on phone too. I use mainly a wire antenna for HF, a ZS6BKW, which is basically a computer-optimized G5RV.  This antenna has given me great service for 7 or 8 years in the two states where I have lived since licensed.  I have, however, recently been able to put in a tower and add some relatively nice antennas on it, nothing really tall (due to county restrictions I still need to dig deeper into), but I have a tri bander on it with a 40 meter add-on to make the driven element a rotatable dipole for 40, and that seems to be working out OK, plus several VHF and UHF yagis.  Also recently purchased a nice full-power amp, so I’ll have the horsepower when and if needed.