WB9AYD Gary L. Wells Sarasota, FL QCWA # 36377 Chapter 53

I started in this great hobby in 1968 by taking a novice course thru the Waukegan Amateur Radio Club, WA9LIV. I was an avid SWL'er prior to that listening via a classic Zenith Transoceanic B600. My first call was WN9AYD and then WB9AYD. Moving to the east coast saw my call change to KA2GWT, then KD2EE. After that nostalgia set in and after moving back to the midwest I requested my old call back which is now WB9AYD.

My first novice station was a homebuilt transmitter from a breadboard design posted in an Electronics Illustrated magazine using a 50C5 and handwound coils. My receiver was a Hallicrafters S-40A. I eventually graduated to an Eico 720 for a transmitter.

My next station consisted of the Yaesu FL-101 transmitter and FR-101 receiver combination. This was eventually traded for a Kenwood TS-450, a great radio.

Now located in Sarasota, Florida I am on the air either with a Kenwood TS-940SAT connected to Ham Radio Deluxe into an R7 from the Sarasota Power Squadron station or a Kenwood TS-480 operating remote via Remoterig units to a Cushcraft AV-640 above. You can find me on PSK31, JT-65HF and SSB usually on the Maritime Net, 14.300.

The station on the left is running 24/7 as an HF Winlink RMS Pactor 1, 2 and 3 station on 20 and 40 meters for boaters throughout the gulf and Central America as WB9AYD and Winlink Packet RMS on 145.05 as WB9AYD-10.

July 26, 2015