W3RGA's Homepage

About

Hi, my name is Patrick Moyer, callsign W3RGA. Amateur radio has been a part of my life for more than 20 years. Most of my friends are ham's and it has added to my life greatly.

1990's:  As a teenager I was on CB and a scanner listener. I would ride my bike to the local bookstore to get the latest issue of Popular Communications.

2003:  I was licensed as KB3JKV and was active on 2M FM.

2007:  I became interested in weak signal VHF. I began teaching myself morse code to work more DX on 6M.

2008:  I upgraded to General and received my W3RGA vanity call.

2010:  I put up a 20' piece of wire and made my first HF contacts.

2011:  I got interested in RTTY and it became my favorite mode for awhile.

2014:  I got interested in APRS and packet radio for a bit.

2016:  I put up 40M dipole at 15' to operate in the PA QSO party, this got me interested in HF contesting.

2017:  I was asked to join the Frankford Radio Club.

Today:  HF contesting is still my focus but it's getting harder to find the time and energy to dedicate to any serious efforts.

Station

I keep it simple with just 100 watts and a wire. View my RF-safety evaluation.

Below is a detailed list of everything currently in my station. See my station changelog.

Transceiver

Elecraft K3S transceiver

Elecraft P3 panadapter

Bose QuietComfort headphones

Antlion Audio ModMic Uni

TX Antenna

DXE-TFK46-HD fiberglass mast using KF7P anchor stakes

True Ladder Line 125' doublet, inverted V @ 35'. Covers 80M-10M

100' of 600Ω open wire ladder line

Balun Designs Model 4116 4:1 Hybrid Balun

LDG RT-100 remote antenna tuner

Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun

75' of LMR-400 coming into the shack. Using DXE Next Gen Connectors

Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun

Balun Designs Model 1116d isolation balun

RX Antenna

W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground.

DXE -RXFC-75 receive feedline choke

200' of quad shield RG-6

DXE -RXFC-75 receive feedline choke

Balun Designs Model 1116d isolation balun

DLW Associates high pass filter

Low Band Systems low pass filter

Mini-Circuits zsc-2-2+ splitter

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

SDR Receiver

See the RBN Node section below for more information

Accessories

Samlex SEC-1235 14V supply

RIGrunner 4007U DC outlet panel

APC BR1500LCD UPS

Every cable in the shack has multiple mix 31 ferrites on it

All of the coax jumpers in the shack are DXE RG-400

All outdoor coax jumpers are LMR-400 UltraFlex with DXE Next Gen Connectors

Computer

GEEKOM IT Series, Windows 11 Pro, Intel i7-11390H, 16GB RAM

BenQ EX2780Q, 27", 1440P, IPS monitor

Keychron K3 ver. 2, 75% usb keyboard

Logitech Signature M650, wireless mouse

Software

N1MM Logger+ contest logging.
N3FJP's AC Log general logging.
G3YYD's 2Tone RTTY encoder/decoder.
VE3NEA's GRITTY RTTY decoder.
VE7CC's CC User Version 3 DX cluster client.
Morse Runner CE CW practice.
Spectran V2.
ARRL's TQSL.
PuTTY SSH and telnet client.
WinSCP SFTP/FTP client.
Notepad++.
Plus all the software in the RBN Node section below.

QTH

I moved into my current Snydertown QTH in September of 2003. It's a quiet little borough in Northumberland county with less than 400 residents.

I didn't give ham radio any thought when I purchased this home. It is located in a valley 200' below the average terrain and the backyard is only 30'x100'.

Recently I've been seeing a large increase in the number of unsolvable RF noise sources.

Activity

I mostly operate in contests and enjoy CW, RTTY and a little SSB.

QSL

I no longer send paper cards, please QSL via the ARRL's Logbook of The World.

Member of

American Radio Relay League.

Frankford Radio Club.

CW Operators Club.

Susquehanna Valley Amateur Radio Club.

Long Island CW Club.

RBN Node

Skimming CW on all bands 160M through 10M as well as RTTY during contests.

See the last 100 spots my node has sent to the Reverse Beacon Network.

If you have a special use case, you can telnet directly to my skimmer @ w3rga.ddns.net  port 7550
Otherwise, connecting to an RBN capable "retail" DX cluster like my DX Cluster Node is preferred.

Watch N6TV's great presentation CW/RTTY Skimmer & the RBN.

www.reversebeacon.net

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