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 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 Mix 31, RG-400 chokes

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 1500 VA UPS affiliate link

Every cable in the shack has multiple turns through Mix 31, Ferrite Toroids affiliate link

Running WBØOEW's HamClock on Ubuntu, run your own Hamclock, 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
Parts Candy Test Leads
DXE Crimp Tool Kit affiliate link
DXE Coax Prep Tool Kit 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, Mini DP to HDMI cable affiliate link

Keychron K3 v2 keyboard affiliate link

Logitech Signature M650 mouse affiliate link

Software

N1MM Logger+
G3YYD's 2Tone RTTY encoder/decoder
VE3NEA's GRITTY RTTY decoder
Morse Runner CE code copying practice
ARRL's TQSL LoTW upload program
Meinberg Network Time Protocol
K1JT's WSJT-X FT8/4 encoder/decoder

VHF

Yaesu FT-3165RASP affiliate link

Comet GP-1 Vertical affiliate link

35' of LMR-400 affiliate link with DXE Next Gen Connectors 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

Logging

KI2D's PoLo android app

Unlocked Moto G Power 2025 affiliate link

VHF

Baofeng UV-5R Mini affiliate link

Activity

I enjoy CW, RTTY and occasionally a little SSB. And when I want to torture myself you might see me on FT8.

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

Node Status 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.

SDR Receiver

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

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

Computer

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

Software

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.

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.

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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