Kelvin D. Olson

APRS

I tend to have my Yaesu FTM-300D on when I’m driving. When it’s on, its APRS Beacon is active. Hence, if you search for my callsign on aprs.fi, you will see where I am.

FT8

Though I do sometimes get on SSB phone on HF, and sometimes CW during contests, it’s safe to say most of my ham radio activity is FT8 and similar digital modes.

Tune-A-Tenna

When I first got back into ham radio, I got an OCFD that could get down to 40m. Not long thereafter, I found I wanted to get down to 80m, so I added a MyAntennas EFHW for that.

Then I learned about the amazing Tune-A-Tenna. Summer 2019 or so, took all the other HF antennas down, and had just one HF antenna up - an Inverted Vee that is fed from a box with a motor in it with two spools of stainless steel wire. A set of switches here in the station allow me to spool out or reel in the dipole elements, and thereby set it to a perfectly resonant length for whatever frequency the rig is at.

DX Commander

The Tune-A-Tenna doesn’t handle freezing rain so well. I have since gotten a DX Commander Classic, to which I added an element for 75m. Though there are trade-offs, but since the vertical sits on the ground, it’s a bit easier to tip it down, adjust something, and stand it back up.