W3RGA's Homepage
About W3RGA
Synopsis
Hi, my name is Pat, my callsign is W3RGA. I'm a ham radio nerd and computer geek. I share some information here about me and my ham radio hobby. I've been a ham for more than 20 years. Most of my friends are hams, and the hobby has greatly enriched my life.
Ham radio is a lifelong hobby that contains hundreds, if not thousands, of sub-hobbies under its umbrella. To learn more about the greatest hobby in the world visit the American Radio Relay League.
Website
During the COVID lockdown in 2020 I decided to learn a little HTML and build a simple homepage.
Timeline
1990's: As a teenager, I was a CB operator, AM DXer, and scanner enthusiast. I would go to the local bookstore every month to get the latest issue of Pop Comm.
1999: I purchased my first PC, this started a passion for computers and networking.
2003: I was licensed as KB3JKV and was active on 2M FM.
2006: After a period of inactivity, a friend at work, Randy KB3DZL, encouraged me to get active in the hobby again. Thank you Randy!
2007: I got interested in weak signal VHF and started teaching myself morse code so I could work more DX on 6M.
2008: I upgraded to General and received my W3RGA vanity call.
2009: I dipped my toes into VHF Contesting.
2010: I put a 20' piece of wire out the window and made my first HF contacts.
2011: I became fascinated with RTTY, it was my favorite mode for about a decade. I still enjoy RTTY very much today.
2014: I got interested in APRS and packet radio.
2016: I began exploring more serious HF contesting, see the Contesting section⇣ of this page for more info
2017: I was honored to be asked by John K3MD to join the prestigious Frankford Radio Club.
Today: HF contesting is my focus but I still dabble in many other aspects of the hobby.
Work
Fresh out of high school in 2000, I joined the Bingaman & Son Lumber team. I've held many positions over the years, but since 2015 I have been serving as the nightshift production supervisor at the main Kreamer headquarters. We are a global supplier of premium hardwood products.
Station
I try to keep my station as simple and low maintenance as I can with just 100 watts and a wire.
- Rig
- Elecraft K3S transceiver
- Elecraft P3 panadapter
- Bose QuietComfort headphones affiliate link
- Antlion Audio ModMic Uni affiliate link
- HamGadgets Ultra Pico Keyer
- CW Morse LLC Outdoor Pocket Paddle on a 4"x4" bench block affiliate link
- N4BKY & N4FFF Duo Straight Key One
- TX Antenna
- True Ladder Line 125' doublet, inverted V @ 35'
- 100' of 600Ω open wire ladder line
- DXE-TFK46-HD fiberglass mast affiliate link
- KF7P anchor stakes
- Atwood Rope 550 Paracord guide/support rope affiliate link
- Balun Designs Model 1151 1:1 ATU current balun
- LDG RT-100 remote antenna tuner affiliate link
- Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun
- 75' of LMR-400 affiliate link with DXE Next Gen Connectors affiliate link
- Balun Designs Model 1116 isolation balun
- Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun
- Multiple RG-400 High Isolation affiliate link chokes wound on Mix 31 Ferrite affiliate link, using K9YC's Choke Cookbook
- RX Antenna
- W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground
- DXE-RXFC-75 affiliate link feedline choke
- 200' of DXE quad shield RG-6 affiliate link
- DXE-RXFC-75 affiliate link feedline choke
- Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter
- Turn Island Systems 60 MHz Filter-Preamp
- Mini-Circuits splitter affiliate link
- Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter
- Mini-Circuits splitter affiliate link
- Accessories
- Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16 affiliate link see the RBN Node section
of this page for more info
- Airspy HF+ Discovery used as an N1MM spectrum display
- Samlex SEC-1235 14V supply affiliate link
- RIGrunner 4007U affiliate link
- APC BR1500LCD UPS
- Every cable in the shack has multiple turns through Mix 31, Ferrite Toroids affiliate link
- Running WBØOEW's HamClock
, run your own HamClock on Ubuntu Linux, see a Live View of my HamClock
- Cisco SPA525G2 affiliate link connected to Hams Over IP, Ext.: 100753
- KMTronic Relay board used for some Node-RED automation
Tools
NanoVNA-H4 affiliate link
Halibut Electronics CMCC Test Rigs
PACE ADS200 soldering station affiliate link
Silicone Soldering Mat affiliate link
Helping Hands Soldering Station affiliate link
Universal Tabletop Clamp Vice affiliate link
MG Chemicals Soldering Supplies affiliate link
Solder Spool Holder affiliate link
SS-03 Solder Sucker affiliate link
Parts Candy Test Leads
DXE Crimp Tool Kit affiliate link
DXE Coax Prep Tool Kit affiliate link
DC Load Tester affiliate link
DXE Powerpole Crimp Tool affiliate link
Variable DC Power Supply affiliate link
Klein Tools Precision Screwdriver Set affiliate link
Wire Stripper/Crimper affiliate link
DeoxIT Contact Cleaner affiliate link
- Computer
- GEEKOM Mini PC with an Intel i7 processor affiliate link 16GB of RAM running Win11
- BenQ 27" IPS QHD display affiliate link main monitor
- LG 24" IPS FHD display affiliate link secondary monitor
- Keychron K3 v2 keyboard affiliate link
- Logitech Signature M650 mouse affiliate link
- VHF
- Yaesu FT-3165RASP affiliate link
- Comet GP-1 Vertical affiliate link just a few feet above ground
- 40' of LMR-400 affiliate link with DXE Next Gen Connectors affiliate link
- Meshtastic
- Heltec V4 with GNSS Module affiliate link node=W3RGA
- MEAN WELL RS-15-5, 5V supply affiliate link
QTH
I moved into my current Snydertown QTH September of 2003. It's a quiet little borough in Northumberland County with fewer than 400 residents. I love living here, it's just not a good QTH for ham radio.
I didn't give ham radio any thought when I purchased this townhouse. It is located in a valley 200' below the average terrain and the backyard is only 30' wide. Luckily I have enough room to run my 125' doublet north & south.
My powerline noise is back! That combined with all the noise from nearby LEDs, solar panels, plasma TVs and a plethora of cheap switching power supplies is very frustrating at times.
Portable
I have a small QRP station that I occasionally take out into the field.
- Rig
- QRP Labs QMX transceiver (80,60,40,30,20 version), with a Tufteln Protection Cover
- K6ARK QMX microphone kit affiliate link
- HamGadgets Ultra Pico Keyer kit with a KM4CFT designed printables button cover
- CW Morse LLC Outdoor Pocket Paddle on a KM4CFT Leg plate & strap
- Antenna
- Reliance Antennas Bugout Mini 49:1 efhw Transformer and 80-10m wire assembly
- ABR 25' RG316 coax with ferrites
- GigaParts Explorer POTA20 carbon-fiber mast and a Tufteln Ground Spike
- Aluminum tent stakes affiliate link
- Atwood Rope Micro Cord guide/support rope affiliate link
- Accessories
- USB-C PD 12V Decoy Trigger affiliate link
- Anker USB Power Bank affiliate link
- Anker USB-C Cable affiliate link
- WATERFLY Small Crossbody Backpack affiliate link
- Logging
- KI2D's PoLo android app
- Unlocked Moto G Power 2025 affiliate link
- VHF
- Baofeng UV-5R Mini affiliate link
- Meshtastic
- Heltec V3 affiliate link node=W3RGA-7
Activity
I enjoy CW, RTTY and occasionally a little SSB. And when I want to torture myself you might see me on FT8.
I have all the usual awards WAS, DXCC, and WPX but I don't consider myself a DX'er.
QSL
I no longer send paper cards, please🙏 QSL via the ARRL's Logbook of The World.
Member of
Susquehanna Valley Amateur Radio Club.
W3RGA-# RBN Node
Loading UTC time…
I started running a RBN node in 2017, I enjoy using the RBN and wanted to contribute to the project.
My node is spotting CW on all bands 630M through 6M and RTTY on 80M, 40M, 30M, 20M, 15M and 10M.
Also spotting FT8 & FT4 during the two major contests each year.
See the last 100 spots 
it has sent to the Reverse Beacon Network.
- Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16 affiliate link running Pavel Demin's SD card image
- Acrylic case and 30mm fan
- MEAN WELL RS-15-5, 5V supply affiliate link
- W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground
- DXE-RXFC-75 affiliate link feedline choke
- 200' of DXE quad shield RG-6 affiliate link
- DXE-RXFC-75 affiliate link feedline choke
- Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter
- Turn Island Systems 60 MHz Filter-Preamp
- Mini-Circuits splitter affiliate link
- Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter
- Mini-Circuits splitter affiliate link
- Beelink Mini PC with a Ryzen 7 processor affiliate link running Win11 in a Proxmox VM with 12 CPU cores and 8GB of RAM allocated to it
- VE3NEA's CW Skimmer Server
- VE3NEA's RTTY Skimmer Server
- K3IT's HermesIntf
- CWSL_Tee
- W3OA's Aggregator
- N1DQ's CWReporter
- PowerSDR
- W2AXR's CWSL_DIGI
- K1JT's WSJT-X
- Meinberg NTP.
SDR Receiver
RX Antenna
Computer
Software
If you have a special use case, you can telnet directly to my W3RGA-# skimmer @ skimmer.w3rga.com port 7550 (skimmer.w3rga.com:7550). Otherwise, it's recommended you get skimmer spots from an RBN enabled "retail" DX cluster node.
N6TV has a great presentation CW/RTTY Skimmer & the RBN.
Visit the Reverse Beacon Network website, join RBN-OPS on Groups.io and check out N4ZR's RBN Blog.
Have a look at my Reverse Beacon Network Top Spotter Page, it's a fun way of tracking RBN node performance by turning it into a mini competition. It ranks RBN nodes by the total number of CW & RTTY spots generated in the previous UTC day.
Give my Reverse Beacon Network Raw Data Sorter page a try, it's a free web app that makes filtering and sorting RBN raw data .csv files super easy.
Contesting
Since 2016, contesting has been the aspect of the hobby that has kept me most engaged. However it's getting increasingly difficult to devote a whole weekend to a contest.
I enjoy using the Contest Online ScoreBoard, it adds a real-time racing element to the game.
With only a low wire I keep my expectations realistic. Below↓ is a list of the results I'm most proud of. See all my claimed scores on 3830.
| Year | Contest | Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | PA QSO Party | SO, Low, Mixed | 191,881 | New Northumberland County Record, First Place In State | Plaque |
| 2022 | PA QSO Party | SO, Low, Mixed | 182,100 | New Northumberland County Record, Second Place In State |
| 2022 | ARRL Digital | SO1R, Low | 4,889 | First Place Eastern Pennsylvania | Certificate |
| 2021 | CQ WW RTTY | Classic, Low | 478,762 | New Three Call Area Record, First Place United States | Certificate |
| 2021 | CQ WPX CW | TB/Wire, Low, All | 1,175,944 | First Place Three Call Area | Certificate |
| 2021 | ARRL RTTY RU | SOU, Low | 91,278 | First Place Eastern Pennsylvania | Certificate |
| 2020 | ARRL RTTY RU | SO, High | 96,084 | Second Place Atlantic Division | Certificate |
| 2019 | CQ WW RTTY | Classic, High | 383,625 | First Place Three Call Area | Certificate |
| 2019 | NAQP RTTY Sprint | High | 1,449 | Second Place Overall | Certificate |
| 2019 | CQ WPX RTTY | TB/Wire, Low, All | 854,700 | First Place United States | Certificate |
| 2018 | CQ WPX SSB | TB/Wire, Low, All | 135,642 | First Place Three Call Area | Certificate |
| 2018 | CQ WPX RTTY | TB/Wire, Low, All | 859,401 | New Three Call Area Record, First Place United States | Certificate |
| 2018 | ARRL RTTY RU | SO, Low | 63,624 | First Place Eastern Pennsylvania | Certificate |
| 2017 | ARRL SS Phone | SOU, Low | 58,940 | First Place Eastern Pennsylvania | Certificate |
| 2017 | CQ WW RTTY | SO, Low, All | 527,772 | First Place Three Call Area | Certificate |
| 2017 | CQ WPX RTTY | TB/Wire, Low, All | 741,506 | First Place Three Call Area | Certificate |
| 2009 | ARRL Jan VHF | SO, Portable | 6,965 | First Place Eastern Pennsylvania | Certificate |
Some contesting resources and information:
WA7BNM's Contest Calendar
WA7BNM's 3830scores
K4RO's Contesting 101
W1DED's Contest Crew playlist
My Contesting playlist
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