Past Feature Stories (Newest to Oldest)


A Little Hut in a Little Hamlet - Flavio Bergamasco IK1YDB
July 2014
I couldn't title this article differently because IR1Y is not a Contest station contrary to what you might think.

In 1999 , with my family, I was looking for a house with land in a relaxing location outside the chaos of the town, and I finally reached this little village.

I can't forget the curious and suspicious faces of the realtors when I used to pull out of my pocket a compass before visiting the house, and it happened that I refused to visit some houses not well faced at 360°.

Their incredulous reaction was followed by attempts to convince me with sentences like "...but this house is well exposed to the south." My answer was that "it wasn't towards the USA!" I really started to look to them like I was crazy!    more
The PG6G Contest Station - Rob Aartman PA3GVI
July 2014
In 2006 a handful of ham radio operators from our local club got interested in contesting. At first we had no permanent place, so setting up for a contest was quite a task as everything had to be built from scratch.

This eventually changed after a field day activity at a farmers place nearby. Following talks, we ended up having a perfect spot on his property, some 700 yards from the nearby village of Kamerik. This was a perfect location without QRM and a perfect take off in all directions.

At that time we were with 7 operators and we made a plan to finance a sea container and create a Multi/Two contest environment inside. This was achieved in November 2009 and this made our contest life far easier. We even have a bed for short sleeps during marathon operator hours. Nowadays we have six operators doing the best we can in 24 and 48 hour contests. Our main goal is to have fun and be competitive at the same time.    more
The WX3B Multi/Operator Multi/Transmitter Station - WX3B
June 2014
The story of the WX3B Multi/Operator Multi/Transmitter station got started back in the late 1990’s when I first visited the multi-operator station of Dave Baugher, WR3L. Dave showed me two simultaneous transmitters being utilized in a radio contest, and I was fascinated by this concept.

My next visit was to the Multi/Operator Multi/Transmitter station host of Robert (Bob) Morris, W4MYA in beautiful Goochland, VA. Bob had 12 transmitters with 12 amplifiers, stacked arrays of high band antennas, quad loops and beverage receive antennas. After participating in Bob’s Multi/Multi events and learning the trade, I was totally hooked

My first Multi-operator station at WX3B consisted of a tribander, two quads and a bunch of dipoles. I eventually grew to six (6) high power stations on a rented half acre property.    more
HB9CA Contest Aficionados - Stephan Walder HB9DDO
June 2014
The club station now known as HB9CA was founded by 12 DX enthusiasts as the Letzi DX Group back in 1977 when the group found a very nice QTH in the north-western part of Switzerland. It wasn’t only a suitable QTH but there was an old barn that could be rented as well.

The 12 founding members spent many hours building a cozy shack inside the barn and, more important, setting up an impressive (at least for Switzerland) 22m high concrete tower that was formerly used for a high-voltage power line (the mast came free but getting it to our location didn’t).

Right from the very beginning, there were monoband beams for the 10, 15, 20 and 40 meter bands. The setup was completed with the addition of wire antennas for the lower bands.    more
The Goat Farm - NR4M
June 2014
This all started innocently enough about 14 years ago.

I had a housekeeper that had seen an ad for a small piece of land, and wanted my opinion. I spoke to the landowner over the phone and although he had nothing suitable for her double-wide, he did happen to mention some other land just going on the market. It was 68 acres, mostly open, and in the shape of a rectangle. The fact that it was on high ground, sloping downward for miles in three directions, didn’t hurt either.

You know a good site when you see it, and they don’t pop up all too often, so I did the only thing I could; I started BEGGING! My wife gave in and we purchased the property in March of 2000.    more
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