W3RGA's Homepage

About

Hi, my name is Patrick Moyer (call me Pat). My FCC amateur radio callsign is W3RGA. I've been a ham for more than 20 years, most of my friends are ham's and it has added to my life greatly.

1980's:  I took apart all the electronics in the house trying to see how they worked. It's a miracle my parents didn't kill me.

1990's:  As a teenager I was a CB operator and a scanner listener. I would ride my bike to the local bookstore to get the latest issue of Popular Communications.

2003:  I was licensed as KB3JKV and was active on 2M FM.

2006:  After a period of inactivity, a friend at work (Randy KB3DZL) got me active in the hobby again. Thank you Randy!

2007:  I became interested in weak signal VHF and began learning morse code so I could work more DX on 6M.

2008:  I upgraded to General and received my W3RGA vanity call.

2010:  I put a 20' piece of wire out the window and made my first HF contacts.

2011:  I got interested in RTTY and it became my favorite mode for awhile.

2014:  I got interested in APRS and packet radio for a bit.

2016:  I put up an extremely low 40M dipole to operate the PA QSO party. I ended up winning my county. This got me interested in HF contesting.

2017:  I was asked by John K3MD to join the Frankford Radio Club.

Today:  Contesting is still my focus but it's getting harder to find the time and energy to dedicate to any serious efforts.

Station

I keep it simple with just 100 watts and a wire. View my RF-safety evaluation.

Below is a list of everything currently in my station.

Transceiver

Elecraft K3S transceiver

Elecraft P3 panadapter

Bose QuietComfort headphones

Antlion Audio ModMic Uni

TX Antenna

True Ladder Line 125' doublet, inverted V @ 35'

100' of 600Ω open wire ladder line

Balun Designs Model 4116 4:1 Hybrid Balun

LDG RT-100 remote antenna tuner

Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun

75' of LMR-400 with DXE Next Gen Connectors

Balun Designs Model 1115 isolation balun

RC-100 Controller

Two 12-turn RG400 chokes is series, each wound on a 2.4” mix 31 toroid

Balun Designs Model 1116d isolation balun

Two 12-turn RG400 chokes is series, each wound on a 2.4” mix 31 toroid

RX Antenna

W6LVP Magnetic Loop mounted on the side of a tree 4' off the ground

DXE-RXFC-75 feedline choke

200' of quad shield RG-6

DXE-RXFC-75 feedline choke

Balun Designs Model 1116d isolation balun

Mini-Circuits zsc-2-2+ splitter

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

DXE-SC-50 splitter

Palomar CMNF-500-50 common mode noise filter

Turn Island Systems SDR Front-End Filter

SDR Receiver

Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16 that shares my W6LVP Magnetic Loop

See the W3RGA-# Skimmer section below for more information

Accessories

DXE-TFK46-HD fiberglass mast

KF7P anchor stakes

Samlex SEC-1235 14V supply

RIGrunner 4007U DC outlet panel

APC BR1500LCD UPS

Every cable in the shack has multiple turns on mix 31 toroids

Computer

GEEKOM IT Series, Windows 11 Pro, Intel i7-11390H, 16GB RAM

BenQ EX2780Q, 27", 1440P, IPS monitor

Keychron K3 ver. 2, 75% usb keyboard

Logitech Signature M650, wireless mouse

Software

N1MM Logger+
G3YYD's 2Tone RTTY encoder/decoder
VE3NEA's GRITTY RTTY decoder
VE7CC's CC User Version 3 DX cluster client
Morse Runner CE CW practice
+ the software in the W3RGA-# Skimmer section below

QTH

I moved into my current Snydertown QTH in September of 2003. It's a quiet little borough in Northumberland county with less than 400 residents.

I didn't give ham radio any thought when I purchased this home. It is located in a valley 200' below the average terrain and the backyard is only 30'x100'.

Recently I've been seeing a large increase in the number of unsolvable RF noise sources.

Activity

I mostly operate in contests and enjoy CW, RTTY and a little SSB.

QSL

I no longer send paper cards, please QSL via the ARRL's Logbook of The World.

Member of

American Radio Relay League.

Frankford Radio Club.

CW Operators Club.

Susquehanna Valley Amateur Radio Club.

Long Island CW Club.

W3RGA-# Skimmer

Spotting CW on all bands 160M through 10M as well as RTTY during contests.

See the last 100 spots W3RGA-# has sent to the Reverse Beacon Network.

See the last 24 hours of spots W3RGA-# has sent to PSK Reporter.

If you have a special use case, you can telnet directly to my skimmer @ w3rga.ddns.net  port 7550
Otherwise, connecting to an RBN capable "retail" DX cluster like my W3RGA-1 DX Cluster Node is preferred.

N6TV's great presentation CW/RTTY Skimmer & the RBN.

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