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 2024-12-09.]

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]

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

This content may not be reproduced in any form or manner without the express written permission of the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted.


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