W7TLV

SOTA

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W7WA

SOTA Activities

2/16/2014- As of this date I am now an active SOTA chaser and will be chasing SOTA contacts along with my other HF activities outlined in my Bio. I am currently running a Yaesu FT-950 transceiver fully equipped with all the options available for the FT-950 such as the micro tuning units for 20/30, 40/80, and 160M. It is also equipped with the DMU-2000 data management system. I have EQplus audio processing unit driven by a Heil PR-781 microphone. I also have Heil Pro Elite Headset. Behind the FT-950 is a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5K solid state 1Kw RF amplifier. It is coupled to my two antenna's via a Tokyo Hy-Power HC-1.5Kat automatic tuner. My two antenna's are a CCD wire dipole configured in an inverted V apex at 40 feet ends at 15. That antenna is limited to 20 and 40 Meters however is much quieter than my vertical so I use it exclusively for all my 20 and 40M work. Then I have a Hi-Gain AV-640 8 band vertical good for 6, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30, and 40 Meters. It is mounted on a 10 foot section of aluminum pipe that is mounted on a 5 foot tall tripod that is mounted on the deck on the back of our house so the base of the antenna is at rougly 20 feet AGL. I also own a Yaesu FT-897 fully equipped with all Yaesu options available for that radio. I use it for a base station at home for primarily VHF/UHF access to local repeaters. It also serves as my HF backup in the unlikely event the FT-950 ever fails. I also own a Yaesu FT-8900 4 band mobile radio that is mounted in my Toyota Tundra. I also own several handheld radios, Yaesu VX-8, Icom IC2-GAT, and an old Radio Shack 2 meter handheld model number not important. That's it for operating conditions other than a multitude of various tools, test equipment and parts, cables, adapters etc.

Personal

Name

Thomas (Tom) Voss

Bio

Licenses as a no code Tech in 1992. Active on VHF/UHF in the Tri-Cities, WA, for 6 years. Went dormant for 9 years. Retired from my day job 2007. Dug out my old Icom 2GAT VHF handheld and got back into listening mostly. Made a few contacts on local Everett Wa area VHF repeaters. Got the bug to work HF in 2009. Got my General in 2009 and started working HF. Joined the OMISS org and became active on daily nets chasing OMISS net awards. Got WAS and a multitude of other distinctions but was limited to General band segments so I studied and passed my Extra in 2012. I am still active on OMISS nets. I spend a great deal of time chasing Island contacts and have succeeded in accumulating enough contacts and QSL cards for my first 100 Islands award from the IOTA organization. I also have achieved Ham Nation WAS, QRZ WAS, eQSL WAS, and ARRL WAS. I captured my first DXCC in Jan 2014 and received my ARRL DXCC certificates 2/14/2014, valentines day ironically. On 2/16/2014 I made a contact with a SOTA activator, N7AZ, in Arizona. He gave me motivation to start chasing SOTA contacts so here I am opening accounts on the Wa St. SOTA org and I have created an account on the international SOTA web site. So current activities are comprised of IOTA chasing, adding DX countries to my log, chasing a clean sweep on the 2014 ARRL Centennial QSO party to work all states on the 6 bands I have the capability to work as well as capturing as many points as possible by contacting other ARRL officers and volunteers. I am still working on capturing as many Indonesian stations as possible in pursuit of the Nusantara Award for contacting Indonesian YB1, 2, 3, ... thru YB0 stations of which I have accumulated enough contacts for the basic award for contacting 10 of the main Island groups. Now I will be adding SOTA contacts to my work list as a chaser, for now!!

History

Member for

10 years 44 weeks

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