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Greetings Station, and welcome to my QRZ Info Page!

After a many year hiatus from all-things ham, I have returned to enjoy the “big tent” hobby of amateur radio once more.  The world has moved well-past my earlier experiences—and with many essential truths about ham radio and my person reconciled during in the interlude .  I am finding the ‘now‘ a remarkable time to explore the possibilities of SDR and ham radio–all the while meeting new friends and reconnecting with old.  A glimpse of the old “ham salad days” can be seen at the very bottom of this page …

An impulsive Amazon buy of an RTL-SDR V4 stick in February 2026 led me to exploring the spectrum–including listening in on the ham bands.  Such voyerism refreshed my interest in ragchew radio–and I began thinking about resurrecting some part of the old basement shack.  I was driven to get back up to transmitting soon–as I heard so many hams who were dead wrong about so many things.  I knew then that  it was my mission to set them straight.  75M, right?   Perhaps I could resuscitate a few ancient shelf queens?  Maybe even warm the wires with some heavy-metal, old skool East Coast Johnson AB2 class AM!

That idea gave me a smile, and a plan began to coalesce–until it was really clear that all I want to do is sit down and play radio.  The intent for my new round of this journey simply doesn’t include me fretting over an assortment of geriatric, boomer-era gear headed for some belabored repair crisis—a situation far too reminiscent of my own daily journey.  I can save that time for the 40M geritol nets.  Did I mention my hernia surgery–accomplished by a mechanical marvel straight out of H.G. Wells?  Anyway, four years ago I moved my office and studio out of the entirely Heathkit Green basement (as named by my wife, the ‘troglydite zone‘) into a breezy, windowed second floor dayroom space.  Other functions in scattered locations were quickly integrated into this space the first summer.

A return to radio meant that my studio needed to include the new post as well.  Looking for gear that would ‘be a good neighbor’ in my space, I considered the IC-7300–but my budget pointed to a more affordable, used IC-706MII. Then an listing for a like-new Icom IC-7300 was appeared right before my eyes (it was listed here in Swapmeet, $700USD shipped) and the deal was brokered and in transit–all in two hours.  A lot of really good stuff at the best prices goes just that quick on the Zed.    Now, forming the cornerstone of a new station, many little setup projects have happened quickly–lending a nice station to my studio world.  Minus of course the Heathkit Green wall vibe.

More about my journey may be found in the Brief History section below.

► STATION INFORMATION

• Icom IC-7300
• SDRPlay RSP1B
• Baofung BF-F8HP & Diamond X200A 2M/70CM Vertical @ 40′
• Ham Radio Deluxe v6.9.x (Logbook, DM780)
• SDR Console, MULTIPSK, Fldigi, CW Skimmer, and SDR Trunk
• QJ-PS30SWI 30A DC supply
• Icom HM-219 stock mic
• Shure SM10A dynamic boom attached to an Audiophase MD-04 headset
• Astatic DN-HZ mic w/ T-UG9 base (modified pre-amp board powered by Icom 8VDC rail)

⇒ QTH Weather Reporting Station

Ambient Weather Network–AE1PT_WEATHER_Bath, NY

This is the primary station for my studio office.  Built of insanely heavy 80s Steelcraft office components, it serves as the hub for my photography atelier–and as a production center for various consulting and research projects.  It is also a place of many random rabbit holes, time portals, and interesting idle pursuits… Unseen are photographic duplication and large format color printing work areas.  The goal was to unobtrusively include my ham experience into my daily life and varied worklife.  Except for the monitor content, nothing seems to stand out strongly as ‘ham.’ Take a break, work a band—right?

However, if I roll out this little, seriously re-tasked hanging file cart–I have a self-contained amateur station (with antenna, rig and dummy load switching) AT MY FINGERTIPS that covers 80-6M, with excellent 2M/70CM connections via a Diamond X200A 2M/70CM Vertical @ 40′ AGL.  The Diamond is also solid for piping public service frequencies to the SDRPlay. For a small form factor deployment, this station supports DC to daylight through the SDR magic of an IC-7300; a RSP1B (on the cart); and a BF-F8HP.  Special thanks go to the scores of dedicated engineers, scientists, hobbyists, coders, and companies who make all of this amazing stuff possible.

► QSL INFORMATION

I only QSL through eQSL and QRZ Logbook.

• I DO NOT participate in LoTW. 
• QSL reporting is uploaded as soon as I save the record to HRD Logbook.
• If you send a paper card, I will enjoy it–but there will be no return mail response.
• If you send money, thank you for the beer.
• If we spoke during a net and you were not NCS, your call will only be part of my net notes.
• Also, no live animals please–I am still trying to tame the emu from the last time…

► COMPUTING SUPPORT

No good technology deployment exists without a solid computing platform.  Mine is currently on Windows.  This is subject to change as Microsoft’s business model forces me to provide photo identification in order to use my own workstation–and I am unable to work around that.  The popups and requirements are already lurking in the newest updates to Win11, and it is all being peddled under the twin rubrics of ‘security’ and ‘age verification.’  Sounds legit to me, right?  This is not made up or sky-falling rubbish, learn more here:

Windows ID Verification is Here

• MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE WIFI (MS-7C79) Motherboard
• Intel Core i7-10700K Processer
• G.Skill DDR4-3200/PC4-25600 (64gb) SDRAM
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti (16Gb DDR5 SDRAM) GPU
• 4 Monitors: 1X 32″ 4K; 1X 27″8K; 2X Asus ProArt 24″
• Cyberpower 1350AVR UPS

► ANTENNAS

All of my previous antennas came down years ago due to neglect and the loss of a very tall tree.  Today I don’t have as much available height (was 80’ AGL), but have two sweet 180-degree balanced axial projections available at 50’ and 65’ AGL.  The OCF is presently occupying the lower elevation—the higher line remains to be shot into the trees.  Lucky for me that these projections are good fits for N/S and E/W broadsides.

After hoisting and cycling through an old G5RV and a 134′ Doublet, I have designed, built and hung an 80/20 OCF dipole.  With the initial bit of trimming, it has eight usable bands ( 80/40/30/20/15/12/10/6 ): 2 @ 1.8:1 VSWR; 3 @ <2.5:1 VSWR; 3 @ <3:1 VSWR— with 2 bands requiring reduced power (80%) at the top ends to remain at 3:1 or less.  It seems prudent to wait a month and see how the wire stretches and the spring leaves fill in before the next set of adjustments.

Development focus came from an article by Claude Jollet VE2DPE discussing and charting a variety of OCF ratios.  The performance of the 80/20% variation led me to choose it over the more common 1/3 (33/67%) or 1/4 (25/75%) varieties. This cut/tune nicely supports 15M, but has proven impossible for 60M or 17M, as they fall far outside the 6:1 range of the autotuner.  Follow the link below for more information on how OCF cuts differ–and to choose your own design:

Understanding the Design of the OCFD Antenna

Antenna matching is via Icom’s internal 7300 tuner board–expanded by SP9SOY’s Icom IC-7300 antenna tuner range modification:

https://pc5e.nl/downloads/ic7300/Mods/IC-7300-Antenna-tuner-wider-range-modification-by-SP9SOY.pdf

This OCF was forged in the rain and cold with the required amount of blood slathered on it; partially hung another day until it got too dark to see, then finished next morning with below freezing temps and snow flurries.  These conditions certainly contribute to why it works so well—generations of hams have always cited such things as necessary to make a top-performing antenna…

• 134′ 80M 80/20 OCF @ 50-45′ AGE (E/W broadside)

Construction as follows: #12 Braided Copper THNN Jacketed CWS Bytemark W2FMI 4:1 Toroidal Current Balun Two Fair-Rite FT240-31 toroids Cheap Amazon Chinesium electrical utility box Large Walmart prescription bottle Strain relief cable gland cord grips SO-238 bulkhead connector Electrical compression nuts and ceramic standoff insulators/egg end insulators Various stainless hardware bits and pieces, plus some of this and that…

TA DA! And here I have arrived an above ground level [AGL] of ~50’ on either end, with a central dip down to ~45’, depending upon how the wind is trending. This image depicts the southern (common) short leg of the OCF, with the current balun and common mode choke inline at the feedpoint two feedpoints.  A similar Fair-Rite FT240-31 choke is wound near where the terminal end of the Times LM-240 ultraflex connects to the homebrew window bulkhead passthrough plate. I also just took note that one can easily see this thing coming down the street…

► THE SHOP

Virtually every tinkering-type ham has some sort of shop or fix-it area.  Mine has evolved significantly in the past few years—transitioning from the classic linear, fixed bench stocked with many 80s high-tech wonders in various stages of failure–to something more precise, useful, and flexible.  During the initial transition, I built one mobile solution reminiscent of the rolling service carts of my TV shop days—but with a small instrument rack!

Pictured below is the humble evolution of 50 years creating my own personal electronics workspaces.  Resource libraries, schematics, apps, and instrumentation are all supported through a recycled Dell Optiplex 7040SFF, provisioned by an Intel i5 processor, 32Gb RAM, and a 24″ FHD display on a pole.  Keyboard is in a slide drawer.  Repeated measurements and mockups were staged, and was refined to my hand and work habits.   Regular hand tools are located to the left—small tools in stands.  The shop area will remain in the basement, and maybe one day will change from Heathkit Green to something else.  No, really not.  Sounds like something for the next owner to worry about.

The adjacent rolling cart (a retasked 90s printer cart) I refer to as the ‘dissection cart’ , and it holds a rotating carousel, 1970s magnifying lamp, and a super versitile multiposition vise (thank you once again, Harbor Freight).   At the bottom is a reconditioned Eico 667 dynamic tube tester on a sliding shelf, and a selection of T-Handle tools.  A combination of old and new friends, these rolling wonders perfectly act as an extension of myself when working a project.

A perfect assembly of moving solutions!  Those projects that are important—and active—inhabit these two rolling workplaces. As arrayed, this shop can work with vacuum tube or solid-state technologies.  Investment has been made in essential bench gear and tools for consumer radio, audio equipment,  and B&W television. The remainder steps up to handle ‘new’ technologies with as much precision as I can personally manifest.  Armed with multi-soldering capabilities—the space can handle pretty much everything I will ever throw at it.  The older, linear workbench (not seen on the left) holds an array of parts, unusual tools, rarely used test equipment–and often a couple spent IPA bottles…

At the left are all common larger hand tools and solutions—including the fearsome Dremel tool. Startup testing of older gear is accomplished through the Variac, a 150W incandescent lamp, and the voltage/ammeter seen in the small, aluminum Budd Box. Most everything commonly needed is within easy reach or a short roll of the chair.  For me, this is the most functional and happy workspace in a lifetime of tinkering!  When the time comes that this bench needs to leave the basement, it is easily accomplished.  The benchtop is mounted on alignment blocks, and the removal of just 4 carriage bolts and the monitor pole allows it to be slid away–making for two conveniently transportable components.

► BRIEF HISTORY

I recall when I spied the very new 1968 ARRL Handbook on the library shelf.  It was the old Carnegie Library in Bradenton, Florida, and I knew the feel, smell, and contents of every book on that waxed oak shelf.  The manual went home with me that day, and was renewed twice more—the limit a Junior Reader patron could hoard a book without being chastized and then made to sit it out for a month.  Previous months had seen the same fate befall certain Robert Hertzberg W2DJJ books as well.  All of this interest was the result of a summertime electronics program for kids held every Saturday morning at the Junior Science Museum.  The teacher was a striking, older Hungarian man named Albert Kossa, WA4SXN (SK), who introduced himself in what sounded like one word, “alcossa.”  Yup, Mr. Alcossa, the ham with the shock of black and white striped hair.

The real ‘showstopper’ of the manual for me was to be located on Page 2 of the catalog section—the Heathkit SB line of gear.  (Click here to view an image)  The price seemed reasonable, and I could put them together myself!  Everyone was building Heathkits.  The plan looks solid and satisfying, until we consider the fact that I was 11 at the time…   But, then it was all about dreams, right?

As it does, life came along and I spent the next 40 years working around electronics and communications—but not ‘in’ amateur radio.  I repaired many great old boatanchors, business/marine radios (even Children’s Band radios in the 70s) in various storefront TV & Radio shops (remember those?) in my own and those of others; I was surrounded by ham friends, but could not comprehend Morse code.  Then finally came sad bellows from deep in the benthic ham sea, portending the “end of real ham radio” in February 2007.

Days later I tested straight into my General Class ticket and was pool assigned KI4UMG.  Within two weeks of vanity filing, I had become N4PRT and entered the fray armed with an Icom IC-751A and a homebrew G5RV suspended 40’ AGL.  What fun, and then onward to AE1PT after earning my Amateur Extra ticket in 2011!  And note from the old photos, once the pressure was off I quickly learned to code.  Go figure…

Having spent a decade carefully acquiring and reconditioning the pieces of my Heathkit dream station, running an Icom IC-751A, along with a Valiant/NC-303 combo that celebrated my birth year–I officially made my 10K^th contact on all of it—then turning off the big switch and walking away to find other pursuits.  Segue several years forward, and I was finished with the rest of it.  All the fun had finally run out… 

Foremost in this shifting time was the development of my creative photography practice.  The result of that effort is my atelier, PapaTango Photography (please click the link to visit)

I still dabble a bit in vacuum tube projects, and am busy exploring the different possibilities of software defined radio.  My goals in this round of radio are much more laid-back, but no less ambitious.  SDR gives me amazing tools to play with that just 20 years ago could only be imagined.

My interests do not lean toward fast paced contesting, canned macro exchanges, or full-on HRO operation.  Casual and even-paced are the order of the day–along with a bit of obsessive experimentation and homebrew.  I have designed my new station with compact efficiency—one that allows it to be integrated into the activities and resources of an already productive office and studio space.  It will be perfect for nets and ragchew QSO’s, don’t you think—all the while lollygagging about in my favorite Herman Miller Ergo chair clone?

My wife, granddaughter and I claim a fief in the booming metropolis of Bath, NY—loudly and joyously occupying a sprawling old money pit made up of a cranky hundred-year-old house, four cats, two rabbits, a revolving cast of colorful characters; all situated in a yard that has gotten too damned big for my tastes.  But then there are the antennas to consider…

This is my ham radio story, and I am sticking to it.  Back to you, net control…

73,  Pat  “Papa Tango”

04/10/2026