Amateur Radio Station AB9BH

The following is a QST.

I am an Amateur Radio operator with callsign AB9BH, and I hold an Extra class license. I got my Technician license in 2000, and I upgraded to Extra in 2001, back in the old days when one still had to pass a Morse Code test at five words per minute. I was mostly inactive between 2003 and 2021 aside from some repeater operation and mostly failed experiments with APRS and the International Space Station. I also hold GMRS license WQRM321 (really).

Current station

After moving to Greenmore House in Shoreline, Washington in early 2021, I was finally able to set up a real ham radio station, but construction of the station progressed rather more slowly than I expected. Although much operation through 2024 was conducted by means of an occasionally deployed Buddipole antenna, I was still able to achieve significant rank in several operating awards during that time.

Construction history

Operating awards, endorsements, and totals

[Totals were automatically updated on 2024-12-21.]

Station records

Greatest miles per watt

Very distant 6m contacts

Very distant 2m contacts

Selected contest scores

🏅 2024 ARRL DX CW — SOULP — 4th place Western Washington section — 90,678 points [1.5 MB]
🏅 2023 ARRL June VHF — SO3B — 1st place Western Washington section — 35,230 points [1.4 MB]
🏅 2022 ARRL June VHF — SO3B — 3rd place Western Washington section — 2,108 points [1.4 MB]

Memberships

Station equipment

🔋 my redundant DC power system
🌐 Palomar Engineers
🌐 Buddipole
🌐 Time Machines Corporation
🌐 KF7P entrance panels
🌐 Morgan Systems
🌐 Alpha Delta

Station photographs

📷 The control point at AB9BH [3.6 MB]
📷 The station's single-point ground, mounted next to the operating position [2.3 MB]
📷 At AB9BH, safety is taken seriously! [3.4 MB]
📷 Entrance panel and lightning arrestors, connected to ground by two-inch strap [3.7 MB]
📷 Antenna for 2m/440 [4.3 MB]
📷 Two-element beam for 6m (fixed, no rotator) [2.0 MB]
📷 Three-band vertical for 20/15/10m [3.1 MB]
📷 SWR graph of the vertical [2.0 MB]

Past stations

My first station was in a campus apartment in graduate school. I had an Icom 706MKIIG connected to an AH-4 automatic random wire tuner (with a 30-foot or so wire running around my ceiling) and an MFJ 969 antenna tuner for a 6m inverted vee on my balcony. I also had a 2m vertical dipole. Since I was on the third floor of three, my antennæ were up about 30 feet or so. Due to excellent propagation in 2001, I worked stations all over South America and Europe and a few in Africa and Asia with that setup.

During the summer of 2001, I lived in Park Ridge, Illinois where I had a bit different of a setup thanks to a tripod and a bit of mast. I had a 2m ground plane at 20 feet, a 6m dipole at 18 feet, and a 20m dipole at 8 feet. I probably should have figured out a way to string up a 20m inverted vee with the apex supported by the mast. With this station, I worked stations all over South America and Europe, several in Asia, one in Africa, a VK, and a ZL on 20m. I also worked a lot of grid squares on 6m.

My right trusty and right entirely beloved friend Dr Gregory Allen Koenig, KA9YNI, and I once took over the University of Illinois's Synton Amateur Radio Club, W9YH, one of the oldest Registered Student Organizations associated with the University, founded in 1925.

📷 The control point at AB9BH (Park Ridge, summer 2001) [774 KB]
📷 Antennæ at AB9BH (Park Ridge, summer 2001) [1.0 MB]
📷 The control point at AB9BH (Champaign, fall 2001) [776 KB]
📷 Antennæ at AB9BH (Champaign, fall 2001) [741 KB]

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Copyright © 2001–2003, 2022–2024 Sidney August Cammeresi IV. All rights reserved.

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