I don't have a lot of time, money, or real estate to invest in my station right now. However, when good deals present themselves, I collect them. As soon as my wife Sarah and I get real jobs and a house, I'll hopefully be able to put up the tower and antennas I've been collecting.
The picture above is me at my parents' 53-acre farm near Millersburg, Ohio, where I was able to put up some extensive wire antennas. I miss having room (and trees) for things like 1/4-wave wire verticals for 80 and a couple of unterminated 500-ft beverages. My current station isn't nearly as impressive. But, I've had plenty of fun with it already.
My primary interest in ham radio is contesting. The goal of contesting is to talk to as many people in as many different places in a fixed amount of time as possible. In addition to contesting, I've done a number of things. But, contesting is the big one.
Shortly before I graduated from Ohio Northern, N8ET and AD8P got me into the Mad River Radio Club, a contest club in Ohio and Michigan. Between operating with Bill and Bill at W8FT and visiting stations like K8CC, W8AV, and K8AZ, these guys introduced me to real contesting with big antennas, good radios, and the full 1.5 kW of power. But, before I really settled into the Club, I graduated and moved away.
While I was in Minnesota, I had the opportunity to be a part of the Minnesota Wireless Association. MWA is a more open and laid-back contest club that can really turn-out for contests. I was privileged to operate alongside a couple of the better operators in the area and learn and share in the collective wisdom of the Club.
On the way to another great hour running 'em on 15 meters at W0AIH in the ARRL DX CW 2005. (tnx KT0R for the photo)