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W8FN Randy H. Farmer Arlington, TX QCWA # 32671 Chapter 72 |
Born in Owensboro, KY, I was first licensed as a Novice (WN4TTE) in 1964 and then Conditional (WA4TTE) in 1965. I moved to Newburgh, IN in 1967, where I held WA9VZM and upgraded to Extra just before Incentive Licensing established restricted frequencies. After graduation from college, I relocated to the Dayton, OH area in 1972 and was issued WB8MKZ. W8FN was issued in 1978 in the original wave of vanity calls and has remained my call since. In 1997 I relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area. From 1997 to 2005 I lived in Parker County west of Fort Worth. In 2005 marriage moved me to Arlington, TX. I expect to remain in Arlington for a few more years, but eventually hope to move to a better radio location after retirement.
My primary interests are CW contesting and DX. I do the best I can with a good SO2R station and very limited antennas from a small 0.2 acre lot in Arlington, Texas. I hold 5BDXCC, WAZ, and 6 meter VUCC awards. My current DXCC total is 345 Mixed, 333 CW, 258 Phone and 48 RTTY. I am a Life Member of ARRL and also belong to DFW Contest Group and Lone Star DX Association.
Primary Station:
Elecraft K3 transceiver with KRX3 second receiver
Elecraft P3 panadapter
Elecraft KPA500 amplifier
Elecraft XV144 2 meter transverter
TE Systems 1410G 160W 2 meter amplifier
Secondary Station:
Yaesu FT-1000D
Antennas:
Tree mounted inverted L, approx. 30' vertical and 60' horizontal -- L-network matched for 160 meters. Will soon be installing a K2AV Folded Counterpoise for 160 meters
S9V 43' vertical fed with SGC SG-230 antenna coupler. Just a few radials now; will be adding more this fall and winter
44' vertical with top hat wire for 80 meters fed with SGC SG-235 antenna coupler (used as mast for 40 meter and 30 meter antennas). Multiple radials; expect to add more this fall and winter
40 meter inverted vee at approx. 48' apex height (shares mast with 30 meter antenna)
30 meter PAR EndFedz with feed at approx. 45' (shares mast with 40 meter antenna)
3 element SteppIR on Create 10' roof tower mounted on roof of two story house -- approx. 35' high
Cushcraft 13B2 for 2 meters at approx 32' (on same mast as SteppIR)
Pixel Technologies RF PRO-1B magnetic loop for receive
Station control and switching is done with a microHAM MK2R+ 2-radio controller and a pair of microHAM Station Masters does antenna switching and other associated control functions for each radio. A microHAM Double Ten antenna switch selects any one of up to 10 antennas for each radio. For single radio operation the alternate antenna selection from the Double Ten switch can be fed to the receiver so that different transmit and receive antennas are available. The second receiver antenna is very useful for Dual Diversity reception using the second receiver of the K3, especially on the low bands. I have designed and built a considerable amount of custom control circuitry to control receiver antenna switching and other station functions. The station continues to evolve.
I use DX4WIN as my daily logging program and N1MM Logger for contesting.
I QSL primarily via Logbook of the World, although I'm happy to respond to old fashioned paper QSL cards as well.
Hope to see you on the CW bands and in the contests!
January 27, 2015