My Radio Shack and Vertical Antenna

My Callsign is AA9DY. I am an Extra Class licensed Ham, a volunteer examiner, and current QSL Manager of KM0TO (Motorola Amateur Radio Club) in Libertyville, IL. My QSL info, as well as KM0TO, are good in QRZ.com. I started back into ham radio in late 2004, after a long hiatus. Within the past year, I have completed a few different flavors of Worked All States awards, and I am slowly working on my DXCC.

My wife, Michelle, is KC9BLP. She participated in her first radio contest in the 2006 Sweepstakes Phone Contest. She will hopefully upgrade her operating privileges to General/Extra soon, so we can start using here callsign for contesting.

Amateur Radio areas of interest to me include: Contesting, Home-Brew projects, QSL Card Collecting (paper and electronic - LoTW / eQSL ), paper chasing (Awards), and High Speed Meteor Scatter (HSMS) Communications.

I QSL via LoTW, Direct, ARRL Bureau, OMISS Bureau (info at www.OMISS.net), "AG" on eQSL, and now the 3905-Club's WM9H Bureau. I'll send you a QSL via the route it came, unless otherwise noted on QSL Card. Please QSL to me via Logbook of the world, if you can.

Rig:

• Yaesu FT-920 HF/6m Multimode Radio

Antenna(s) and Bands Operated at home:

• 40/20/15/10/6/2 meters with a MFJ-1796 Center-Fed Vertical Dipole Antenna mounted up on an pipe at 8 feet.
• I put up a Saturn-6m halo antenna up on a 24ft fiberglass mast temporarily for VHF Contests.
• I can string up a 140' longwire up a tree and over my house for 160m. But I only have it up for the contests in December/January. Read about my experience getting the antenna set up for the first time.

Portable Ops:

• I've worked portable with my home station and a G5RV antenna in Jo Daviess County for the 2006 Illinois QSO Party. Read about it here.

Awards:

• WAS Mixed Mode/Band (#52,082) - granted 26-Aug-2006
• WAS on 40-meters - granted October 2006
• WAS RTTY (#507) - granted 28-FEB-2007
• WAS CW Mode - granted FEB-2008
• WAS RTTY - 40M - Have not filed yet

Modes Operated: SSB, PSK31/63, RTTY, CW, Olivia, Feld-Hell, MFSK, MT63, JT65A, JT6M & FSK441 (the last two modes for High Speed Meteor Scatter - HSMS).

Modes/activities I want to try (or get back into): Packet, APRS, amateur weather-spotting, and working the amateur satellites.

Awards and Certificates (adding them as I find the info)

American Radio Relay League - WAS, WAC, VUCC, DXCC
CQ Amateur Radio - DX, DX Field, WAZ, WPX, US-Counties
TARA (Troy ARA) Digital Awards - PSK31 and RTTY

APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System)

APRS Client for Windows - The Official UI-View32 Web Site
APRS Page - WA0VSL, Doug Wilson
APRS World: Welcome!
APRS
http://www.aprs.net/javAPRS.html
KB9VBR APRS Information Page
Tri-State Area Working Group
http://www.winpack.org.uk/

Packet Radio

http://www.packetradio.com/bbbb.htm
Welcome to www.PacketRadio.com
TAPR - Home Page

Antennas

The Buddipole - hf portable dipole antenna system
AC6LA MoxGen
http://www.moxonantennaproject.com/index.html

Propagation

Aurora Predictions - Custom longitude maps for ...
PropNET (BeaconNET) Live Propagation Research -...
Propagation
50 Mhz PROPAGATION LOGGER!
K9SE E-Layer Propagation Assessment Page
Near-Real-Time MUF Map
HF (high frequency) and VHF Radiowave Propagati...
Understanding Solar Indices

Weak Signal / Meteor Scatter

WSJT - FSK Meteorscatter by K1JT
WSJT Home Page
Working Weak Signal Modes - Seven Necessary Steps

Contesting

RTTY Contesting
NCJ Web Home Page
CQ WAZ Rules
Contest News
Contesting Online Home
WriteLog for Windows Home Page - Contesting Software
The Contest and DX Library by KA9FOX
US State QSO Parties
WA7BNM Contest Calendar Main Page

RTTY

AA5AU's RTTY Page
AD1C's RTTY Worked All States Honor Roll
RTTY.com

DX

Announced DX Operations
W9DXCC
Telnet Access to DX Packet Clusters
The DX Notebook: Main Page
DX Atlas: Amateur Radio software
DX Cluster / Packetcluster
DX Summit
DX-Central DotCom : News & Information for the...
DXAWARDS
DXtuners.com - The real Time Radio Network
Working DX on a Dead 50MHz Band
Ham Radio DXpedition, Calling & Simplex Frequen...
DX.QSL.NET

PSK31

General PSK information
DigiPan - Digital Panoramic Tuning for PSK31
070 club
IMD Measurement
PSB - An improved digital mode reporting system
The Very Best Pages For PSK31 And Software / I...
N1NKM's PSK31 ELMER page
RASCAL GL ''KIT'' Home Page

Amatuer Satellite

AMSAT - The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
CelesTrak WWW: NUGE Transition Notification Req...
Cubesat - UIUC
Satscape Home Page
Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page

CW

CW / Morse Code World-Wide - NW7US
CWguide
A Morse Trainer using the Koch method

Ham Callsign Databases

QRZ.com Callsign Database
WM7D dot Net

Misc Clubs / Organizations

OMISS Home Page
ARRL Central Division: Director's Page (Main)

Nets and Repeaters

A Sampling of Nets of Interest to Illinois Hams
Amateur Radio Repeater database - Updated daily
Amateur Radio Repeaters

Commercial Links

Kenwood USA
ICOM
Yaesu/Vertex Standard
The R.F. Connection
FlexRadio Systems - Software Defined Radios: Home
HEILMICROPHONES

Sorting...

HFRadio.org - by NW7US
Cypher and Crypto Bookmarks
Famous Ham Radio opperators
HAM radio software - Programs for amateur radio
http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/
http://www.eham.net/
http://www.qsl.net/ac6la/mnoverview.html
http://www.qsl.net/w9bureau/
http://www.qsl.net/wa7s/
KJ4QF :: ARS KJ4QF
KL7J HAMRADIO OR AMATEUR RADIO SOFTWARE
Ken Harker WM5R - Amateur Radio
Kenwood TS
MMSSTV/MMTTY
http://mailman.qth.net/
N4MC's Vanity HQ
QRP ARCI - QRP Amateur Radio Club International
RAMS Home Page

SpyNumbers.com
Steve & Kelly's Virtual Home

Sure Grip Xstamper Samples
QSLMaker
UX5UO print - world of QSLs

W5YI : Resources for Amateur & Commercial Radio

WW9R Amateur Radio Station

Worked All Continents Award
W6RK County Hunting Spots
US Islands Awards Program Homepage
RSGB HFCC Site. IOTA.