Tomas Hood - Life Member of the NRA   Tomas - Life Member of the American Legion   Tomas - Life Member of the Straight Key Century Club, Member Number 4758s   Tomas - Life Member of FISTS, Member Number 7055   NW7US - Life Member of the Long Island CW Club, Member No. 653


Click this sentence to listen to the episode of QSO Today in which Eric interviews me about my journey through the radio hobby.

QSLing:  You can send an SASE with your QSL card to me via postal service, and I will send a paper QSL back:

Tomas Hood / ARS NW7US
PO Box 29553
Lincoln, Nebraska 68529

Or, my QSL is OK via eQSL.cc, LotW, QRZ.com, or via the bureau (though, that is VERY slow).

PAPER QSL UPDATE: Now that I have finally moved into a house, and have a long-term address, I have obtained QSL cards.  I will attempt to catch up with all of the QSL cards sent to me in the past... but the going will be slow. Do know that I plan on QSL returns to everyone. Just allow me a lot of time to catch up, please. Thank you.

Here is the final design, by Jeff, K1NSS, printed by KB3IFH Qsl Cards


My station, in Lincoln, Nebraska 

My main transceiver is the venerable Icom IC-7610, control by Win4IcomSuite, running Ham Radio Deluxe and DM780.

Starting to look like a station...        

One of the most useful (and, to me, amazing) features of this Icom IC-7610, is the IP+ function, which, when turned on, improves the Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) quality by optimizing the direct sampling system performance. This function optimizes the Analog/Digital Converter (ADC) against distortion when you receive a strong input signal. It also improves the Third-order Intercept Point (IP3) while minimizing the reduction of the receiver sensitivity.

In short: I was listening to an s-0 weak signal of a DX station, when right adjacent to the frequency came an s-7 signal, wiping out my ability to copy that weak signal. I turned on the IP+ and the distortion of the adjacent signal disappeared, and once again, I heard the weak signal IN THE CLEAR! WOW!

NW7US 100-foot wire antenna at the Lincoln, NE station.

Above: This is a diagram of my 100-foot wire antenna. The feedpoint, at the chimney, is a SEA Automatic Tuning Unit (ATU). The wire runs from that ATU out to a tree, at about 30 or 40 feet high, to a pulley in the tree. There, through the pulley, the wire then hangs down about six to nine feet depending on the wind and the weight.

Below: The next image shows my planned, new 160-meter full wavelength horizontal loop antenna. My new home is in Ohio, and this loop antenna will be my first main antenna that I will engineer and deploy once I am settled into the new home.

NW7US 568-foot 160-meter horizontal wire loop antenna at the Perry Township, Ohio radio station of NW7US

 

* * * *

I tend toward pursuing Morse code--by way of the tried-and-true CW (continuous-wave radio signal) keying either by a straight key (the typical up-and-down lever style of Morse code instruments), or a single-lever side-to-side paddle key that depends upon electronics to create the dits and dahs--the Icom IC-7610 has such a keyer feature, so I just plug in the key that you see, below, and the radio can be set to operate Morse code CW, keying dits when I move the lever to the right, and dahs when I push to paddle to the left. The keyer spaces everything out, I just have to control the sequence.

The key made by N3ZN, for NW7US


On-air Activity of NW7US

NW7US CW Activity Reverse Beacon Spotting

Morse code activity as reported by the Reverse Beacon Network.

Go to the Reverse Beacon Network
Club Log
Club Log is an online database with a suite of powerful tools supporting active DXers.

Once you have registered on Club Log and uploaded your log, you will be able to do a lot of cool things! Check it out.

Go to Club Log
Olivia Digital Mode
Olivia MFSK is my most favorate digital mode (other than CW).

I love OLIVIA digital mode!



Go to Olivia Digital Mode Community
HRDLog.net Logbook for NW7US
This is a listing of the most recent QSOs made by NW7US, as logged in the NW7US Logbook on HRDLog.net
QRZ.com Logbook for NW7US
This is a listing of the last 15 QSOs made by NW7US, as logged in the NW7US Logbook on QRZ.com


Go to the QRZ.com Logbook


NW7US Media
NW7US YouTube Channel
Here are some videos on my YouTube channel. Enjoy. Feedback is welcome - comment on the video page.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel... you'll get updates!

The current station of NW7US; Icom IC-7610

About NW7US

Tomas Hood, NW7US I'm Tomas David Hood. I am an amateur radio operator with the callsign of NW7US. I enjoy having two-way communications by way of shortwave radio signals, in the amateur radio hobby. The shortwave frequencies are those in the High Frequency (HF) radio spectrum. Amateur radio in the United States of America enjoys the allocation of many frequencies in a number of 'bands'; in the Mediumwave, HF, VHF, UHF, and higher radio spectrum.

NW7US is the Amateur Radio call-sign issued by the Federal Communications Commission to my Ham Radio Station, conferring the right to operate this equipment under certain privileges. This call-sign is assigned to me as both an identification of my Amateur Radio station, as well as a reference to those privileges I have been granted after having passed both a series of written examinations which cover rules, procedures, technical theory, and related knowledge, and a series of Morse code proficiency tests.

It seems that I have always been interested in radio communications. In the early 1970s, I discovered the world of shortwave radio, when I explored a radio which was owned by my parents. This Sony four-band portable radio had a shortwave band. Tuning it, I discovered a number of International Shortwave Radio Broadcast stations, like Radio Australia, the BBC, Radio South Africa, Radio Canada International, and so many others. I also discovered the time station, WWV, on which I heard the hourly solar and geophysical report, talking about sunspots and other interesting indexes. This launched my love of both radio communications, and radio propagation along with the Sun-Earth connection.

Keep calm and tap out Morse code Morse code proficiency is no longer required as an element of the FCC test; you no longer need to learn and demonstrate knowledge of Morse code in order to obtain an FCC Amateur Radio license. However, Morse code is becoming very popular among Amateur Radio, again. This is for a variety of reasons, of course: those who are into preparing for the worst-case ('preppers') are learning Morse code because they know it is an effective means of communication when the main methods may no longer be available; DXers know that you can work a greater area of the world given all of the same parameters (antenna, transmitter power, propagation conditions); others simply love the idea of Morse code as a language.

I was born back in 1965 (in Virginia) and I'm 47. I was first licensed in 1990, though I have been a real high-frequency fan since the early 1970s when I discovered Shortwave Radio. I loved hearing the foreign stations. Using HF is like traveling without leaving home. I love meeting new folks.

NW7US enjoys Morse code using CW on shortwave radio In general, my station runs 100 watts out of an Icom IC-7000. I am using the KK7UQ home-built digital interface with the Ham Radio Delux + DRM software. My Morse code key is one of two: a WWII Navy Signaling Key (originally used by the Navy for ship-to-ship signal lamps), or a modified Vibroplex key that is now a 'paddle' key (moves side-to-side, requiring an electronic keyer). My antenna is a Hustler mobile vertical antenna so my situation is marginal. I operate mostly on 20 meters digital, often on JT65A weak-signal digital mode for HF using JT65-HF software, or Olivia digital modes.

I have some very specific areas of interest in my love of radio and space weather.

My all-purpose amateur radio website is HFRadio.org, while my main personal NW7US.us callsign website is here. My YouTube Channel is here, so please visit and subscribe to the channel where I post a lot of amazing solar flare and other space weather videos. On Facebook, my Amateur Page is here, while my personal page is here. My Space Weather Facebook page is here. I am also on Twitter. I am @NW7US and my space weather/propagation is @hfradiospacewx - please add those if you are interested in following my amateur radio and space weather tweets. Thank you for your interest.

These are some of the websites I've created regarding specific interests that I have: [ Morse Code and CW (carrier-wave mode) | Space Weather, Solar Cycle, Radio Propagation | Radio Circuit & Propagation Analysis w/ACE-HF | Shortwave Radio (SWL) |- Digital (non-voice) radio modes | AM (Amplitude Modulation) Amateur Radio Resources | Radio and Space Weather Forums ]


+ I am the Propagation Editor for "CQ Communications Magazine", "The Spectrum Monitor Magazine", and previously before their demise: "CQ VHF Magazine", and "Popular Communications Magazine". I also wrote about propagation and other radio-related topics in "Monitoring Times", before its demise.

+ I am the owner, system administrator, and content provider of http://hfradio.org/ , http://SunSpotWatch.com and http://NW7US.us

+ I am a contributor to various amateur radio books, blogs, news articles, Wikipedia, and so on.

+ I am most often found on the High-Frequency Amateur Bands in the CW or Digital Modes sub-bands (look for me on 20 mainly).

+ The NW7US Ham Shack is located in Grid Square EN10pu / ITU Region 7 / CQ Zone 4



Thanks for Visiting

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