 |
W7IN Lawrence H. Gerhardstein Plains, MT QCWA # 19594 |
Larry Gerhardstein, Plains, Montana USA. On 5/10/2014, I celebrated 60 years in ham radio. I operate SSB, CW, and occasionally digital modes. Due to a 1992 fractured right arm, I can no longer use an electronic paddle to send CW. So I now send CW with a World War II vintage straight key, a J-38, never needs adjusting.
Amateur Extra Class since 1977. Continuously licensed as W7WCC from May 1954 until November 2007. I received W7IN, my vanity call sign, on 2/15/2008. I never held a Technician or Novice Class license; always been General Class or higher.
Elmers who helped me get started in ham radio included Carl Mienke W7TQC, Bill Clark W7VUF, Vern Phillips W7KG and Carl Gerhardstein my non-ham father.
If you need a schedule to work Sanders County, Montana or the DN27 grid, send me an e-mail. I can work any HF band 160 through 10m. Sorry but presently, I am working neither Oscar satellites nor EME---needed the tower for my HF Yagi.
Member of ARRL #6087625, WAS #25740, DXCC #24436, QCWA #19594 (life), AMSAT #36787, 10-x-10 International #17433 (life), MARAC R-4314, RAS-MT #21, Echolink #67614, grid DN27NL. Retired Staff Engineer at the Pacific N.W. National Lab, Richland, WA (Feb. 2004).
On HF, I operate mobile from my RV and 2003 Dodge 3500 RAM diesel truck. My mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-857D 100 watt transciever with hamstick antennas and a FC-40 auto tuner. At home, I use an Elecraft K3 into a SteppIR 3 element Yagi on a 40 ft. tower or a 347 ft. longwire. My 40 year old 1-KW linear amplifier is broken down so I am limited to 100 watts at this time. Soon, I will acquire and build a KPA-500.
I occasionally check into 3 nets: 1) 3.910 Montana Traffic Net daily 00:30 UTC, 2) 3.975 WARTS Net daily 01:00 UTC, 3) various county hunter frequencies including 14.0565, 18.0915, 7.0565, 14.271, 14.336 and others. I've been actively chasing counties for about 4 or 5 years. I presently have about 180 to go for USA-CA.
If you are DX, you can QSL to me direct or via the W7 QSL Bureau. For county hunters, I recommend the MRCS bureau.
I currently am not submitting to LoTW, as my certificate expired. I've tried to renew my certificate without success, and ARRL has not replied to my request for help. When I get a renewed cert. that works, I may start using LoTW again.
Unfortunately, I am no longer submitting to eQSL either as, I'm told by the eqsl.cc advisory board, my eQSL cards for mobile operation, do not meet their requirements. You'll have to mail me an MRC or QSL request instead and I will gladly confirm my mobile county. Sorry for this inconvenience; if you have eQSL confirmations for my past mobile operations, they are acceptable to CQ/USACA. In my experience paper confirmations are the most reliable way to go.
In my judgement, neither LoTW nor eQSL are very compatible with mobile county hunting. I have suggested changes in policy to both that should improve this. However, neither seem interested in alleviating the amount of labor involved in registering over 3,000 counties of operation. Even to register the nearly 300 U.S. counties that I have run is outside my energy level.
Also see:
http://www.qsl.net/w7in/ -- Another biography of W7IN / W7WCC
http://www.qsl.net/w7in/log/ -- Logs of W7IN / W7WCC
http://www.qsl.net/w7in/mobile/ -- Mobile installation photos
July 31, 2015