2006-2011 N7BHC Norh Carolina

I moved to North Carolina in early 2005. The neighborhood I lived in until September 2009 did not permit outdoor antennas, which seriously restricted my VHF operation from home as you can well imagine. Minimal attic antennas have only resulted in minimal DX. Nonetheless, good openings do happen, and CT1 and EA were worked in the summer of 2008 on 6m. Tropo openings on 2m have produced QSOs as far away and Maine on 2m and 70cm, and Es into Texas.

As of 2008, the old Kenwood TS-2000 was my primary 6m radio. The antenna is a 2 element Moxon. On 2m, 70cm, and 23cm. an Icom IC-970A did all the work. A Mirage 600 watt amplifier was used on 2m into a 6 element WA5VJB dirt cheap yagi in the attic. In 70cm, an RFC 100 watt amplifier fed a 12 element WA5VJB yagi. The IC-970 ran barefoot on 1296 MHz; the antenna array was a 4 bay array of 10 element WA5VJB yagis. My trusty old Yaesu FT-1000D was the main HF radio, with a delta loop and SGC SmartTuner, or a M2 WARC band dipole, in the attic.

My main outlet for ham radio is remote operation, and research into trans-oceanic tropospheric ducting. Research and experiments are actively underway in the Indian Ocean, and the South and North Atlantic Oceans. During 2008, the existence of the South Atlantic and SW Indian Ocean ducts was proven, with an actual 2m QSO between FR5DN and ZS2GK in August. My beacon in FM15PA was also heard by CT1HZE south of Lisbon in August 2008, a range of 3707 miles across the North Atlantic.

In 2009 we joined the staff at TWR, formerly Trans World Radio. Our family was assigned to serve in the Americas region, based on the island of Bonaire (PJ4), in the Netherlands Antilles. TWR is a Christian ministry, and operates many high power MW and SW transmitters from many locations worldwide broadcasting the Gospel and good news of Jesus Christ. See www.twr.org for much more information. 2009 has been a busy time raising support as my position with TWR as broadcast engineer on Bonaire requires us to raise support of $6800/month. Our house sold before we even had a chance to put it on the market, and the latter months of 2009 are being spent in a small rental home.

The new neighborhood did permit minimal outdoor antennas, so a 10' tower and mast were raised to support minimal antennas. The station in 2011 was being reworked for the move to Bonaire. The equipment is housed in a 4-wide rack console. The primary HF radio is a Flex-radio SDR-5000A. The VHF-UHF modules were added to it in 2011, replacing Elecraft transverters on 2m and 70cm. My secondary radio is an Icom IC-756ProIII. The trusty Yaesu FT-1000D is still there, and you can see the TL-922A amp I got to use from PJ4. A TS-2000 is also used a lot.

The right side rack in the console is the receiver rack. At the bottom is the Ten-Tec RX-340, arguably the best HF receiver I have ever used. Above that we have an Icom R-9000 and a Rohde & Schwarz ESM-500A both for VHF. The old HQ-215 rounds up the current receiver lineup. The Flex has its own rack-mount PC and monitor in the bottom right location in the console. The two upper monitors are both fed from a second general purpose shack PC, also rack mounted. The monitors are all Dell 2405FPWs.