Located in Talbott, TN 37877 Grid: EM86hd
CQ Zone: 4 ITU Zone: 8
My journey into amateur radio begin around August 2013. I was raised in the electronics and computer age, and the thought of amateur radio always interested me. In September of 2013 I decided it was time to get my license and dive into this hobby. After passing the Technician test I was issued the callsign KK4UFA. Along the way, I learned of the vanity callsign process and found that my initials were available, so I jumped on that opportunity to get W4CDK. In October of 2013 I upgraded my license to General class and began making contacts on HF, and on June 19th 2014 I upgraded to Extra class! I am a VE for my local radio club, and I am particularly enjoying the digital modes on both VHF and HF. My next main focus is learning morse code.
I joined up with my local ARES group, JCARES, and thoroughly enjoy working with a great group of guys. They have provided so much help and guidance to me since getting into the hobby, I can’t thank them enough.
My current rig at the QTH is a Yaesu 897D transceiver connected to a homebrew 80m center fed dipole (I use an LDG YT-100 to get on the higher bands). For portable/deployment HF work I use a Yaesu 857D either on an Eagle One vertical antenna or an End Fed 9:1 UNUN Long Wire antenna with an LDG YT-100 tuner. For VHF/UHF I’m using a mixture of Vertex commercial rigs and an Icom ID-880H connected to homebrew J-pole or 2m/440 vertical dipoles. The Tigertronics Signalink decodes all the digital modes.
I’m currently active on several nets, including the Tennessee Phone Net on 3.980mhz in the evenings, as well as several other local ARES nets on VHF. I mainly monitor the LARC 147.030 repeater as well as the KI4OTR/W4KEV Linked repeater systems (145.410, 145.370, 147.195, 147.345). The linked system has echolink capabilities as well, and that’s been a fun thing to learn also. I’m also very active in SkyWarn and our local National Weather Service Field Office in Morristown, TN…WX4MRX. I’ve also as of late dove into the world of satellite amateur radio, making several contacts on SO-50 as it passes by. DSTAR is quickly earning my attention also since getting the Icom 880H.
Thank you for visiting, please come back often for updates!
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