My Shack

Hello and welcome to KI4CKZ's shack!

My name is Tom and the QTH is Fairview, TN, which is about 30 miles west of Nashville on I-40.


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I was first licensed in 2003 and upgraded to General that same year. I'm currently studying for my Extra.

My new mode of choice is PSK31. I seem to have an easier time making contacts on it and enjoy using my computer with a radio. I tried a couple of years ago but never could get the Tigertronics interface to work. The RigBlaster Plug & Play works wonderfully with no setup hassle (as long as you follow the instructions). However, I did notice that the Yaesu 857's manual tells you to adjust for 16 "dots" of ALC. I think that's a mistake as everyone I talk to says that having any ALC showing when you transmit is a bad thing on PSK and it seems to match up with my signal reports when I tried it.

Anyway, my station info is as follows:

• Rig: Yaesu FT857
• Interface: West Mountain Radio RIGBlaster Plug & Play
• LDG Z100 Autotuner
• Lenovo R61e Thinkpad running DigiPan 2.0
• Mic: Yaesu MD-100
• County: Williamson
• Grid: EM65kx

I prefer direct QSL (I like handwritten QSL cards as they seem more personal, but I also eQSL also and don't mind that, either).

My personal info:

• Licensed in 2003 (always been KI4CKZ)
• 37 years old
• .Net developer, by trade
• Member of Fairview, TN lodge 776 Free and Accepted Masons
• Member of York Rite
• Member of Al Menah Shriners in Nashville, TN
• XYL, 1 harmonic and 4 dogs.
• Graduate of Mississippi State University and Marion Military Institute

Hope to hear from you and see on the PSK waterfall!