AA5AU Ham Radio Page
Updated 02/02/2012

I was first licensed as a ham radio operator in January 1972 at the age of 14 as WN9IVC.  Two years later I upgraded to General Class and became WB9IVC.  In 1979, I moved to southeast Louisiana and in 1987 I upgraded to Extra Class with my present call AA5AU.  My main passions in ham radio are RTTY mode contesting and DX'ing.  I also enjoy CW contesting and DX'ing.   I am presently on the #1 DXCC Honor Roll Mixed.  I need only two more countries on CW and one on RTTY to have them all on those modes.  In January 2010, I received the YASME Award for Excellence for my work in RTTY.  At the 2010 Dayton Hamvention, I was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame.  My RTTY Page has taken over a quarter million hits and my tutorial Getting Started on RTTY has helped hundreds of people enjoy RTTY.  I also maintain a website dedicated to RTTY mode contesting at www.rttycontesting.com.  I am the RTTY Contesting columnist for the National Contest Journal (NCJ).  It is my hope that I can help others enjoy RTTY as much as I do.

My current station is set up for SO2R (Single Operator 2 Radio) RTTY contesting.  Radio A consists of an Icom IC-756 PRO III transceiver with an Ameritron AL-80B amplifier that is capable of running 500 watts output on RTTY.  I use a Dell 4800 PC running Windows XP Pro and WriteLog for Windows software.  I use a homebrew cable for receive audio through a Radio Shack audio isolation transformer to the input of the soundcard internal to the PC.  For FSK, PTT and CW keying I use a homebrew transistor interface on each radio.  Station B consists of a Kenwood TS-870 transceiver with an Ameritron AL-80B amplifier.  The computer on this radio is a Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows XP Media Edition.  I use two Dell 20" monitors, one on each computer.  I use an Array Solutions SixPak antenna switch to switch my antennas.  For audio switching I use a Dunestar 2-radio headphone switch.  I also use two Dunestar 600 all-band filters.  For audio filtering I use a JPS NIR-12 dual-DSP audio filter on each radio.

Below is a picture of my station before Hurricane Katrina.   A new floor was installed immediately after the 2011 RTTY Roundup and the station has been rebuilt (new picture pending).  A new 3 element SteppIR was installed in October 2010.  I relocated my smaller Rohn 25 tower from the back porch to the rear of the back yard in November 2010.  I have converted a KT36XA tribander to a KT34M2 tribander and it was installed on the smaller tower on February 6, 2011.  Check the Antenna page link above for details on my antenna progress.

73, Don AA5AU

My Radio Shack before Hurricane Katrina

Receiving my CQ Contest Hall of Fame plaque from Ed, W0YK (P49X) at Dayton 2010