If you wish to contact me for any reason, I prefer that you use https://w3vd.radio/contact.php to send me an encrypted message. I will respond as soon as I am able to.
My custom radio related scripts and software are open source with no license and available on GitHub: https://github.com/W3VD
QSL Instructions:
DXCC #59,794
WAS #58,677
Rooster member #1373
BKG member #444
LICW member #6531
SKCC member #28920
You can follow me along on my POTA adventures with APRS: W3VD-9
POTA hunters, my CW skill is not yet ready for calling CQ and managing a pile up. If you want to work me on CW, please feel free to send an email and we can set up a sked.
W3VD Fixed Station locations:
You can you find W3VD at:
Stay tuned for details on the current shack as of 2026.
The shack circa 2023-2025 at the house I used to rent consisted of:
The equipment is located in the garage, where my central ground bus and feed lines are located. The station is operated remotely from the comfort of my air conditioned living room. A 100 ft fiber optic cable snakes its way around the walls and goes under a door to connect the network switch in the garage to the one in the living room. This has allowed me to set the station up without drilling any holes or making other permanent modifications to the house.
The Comet CX-333 is supported by a rather temporary arrangement as you can see. The base is a 5 gallon bucket filled with concrete and a piece of pipe set in it. A set of old Station Master clamps joins the two pieces of pipe and gives a place for the ratchet straps to attach. Not entirely visible in this picture is a ground wire going to the top to bond to the base of the antenna, and an Ethernet surge protector for the camera.
This was the first QTH I've seen where I was unable to locate the main ground rod(s) for the house, weird! I drove two ground rods where the cables enter and exit the ground indicated by the red circles. The cables (LMR400 coax, shielded Ethernet cable, and #6 copper wire) then enter the garage by going under the overhead door.
Where the cables enter the garage is where I set up the main station ground. Because I was not able to locate the ground rod for the house, I opted to bond directly to the inside of the service panel with a copper strap. You will note a second ethernet surge protector and a poly phaser for the coax. The power outlet is grounded by a strap to the bus; hot and neutral supplied by a cord plugged into a near by outlet. This picture was taken before the Flex 6400 and Kenwood TM-D710G were installed. This shows a Yaesu 857-D connected to the remote rig box. This was the radio cart I used to organize the station equipment in Maryland. In addition to being a convenient way to organize non-rack mountable equipment, it serves as great way to ground and bond the equipment with copper strap. You can also spot some ferrite cores with coax wound in them, used for RF chokes on the HF gear.
The Off Center Fed dipole feed line enters the garage window making use of a piece of pipe insulation. The banana connectors allow for easy disconnection when storms are in the area. In case I forget to unplug, the coax goes to a poly phaser connected on the ground bus bar. In between the poly phaser and the radio is another RF choke similar to the one in the picture.
A born and raised Delawarean, I passed my Technician exam during 2010 Field Day, and was issued KB3UXB on July 2nd. Later that August on a Saturday morning at the Bear library I passed both my General and Extra exams in one session, which was effective 8/25. Motivated by dislike of my old call sign, which was easily confused by folks as 'USB', and my desire for a 1x2 led me to apply for W3VD, which I was granted on 10/13/2010.
Prior to moving out of my original Elsmere, DE QTH in May of 2015, I had a fairly successful HF station consisting of a 80m inverted V, 40m delta loop, 20m delta loop all three of which were fed with 450 ohm balanced line. The rest of the equipment consisted of a Palstar BT1500 and MFJ 976 balanced tuners, Flex 5000 radio, DBX286s preamp, AT2020 microphone, and SB200 linear. I also had a Diamond X310 and Diamond discone with a variety of VHF/UHF radios.
After almost 3 years of not being radioactive, in 2018 I set up a station while I lived in the Elk Neck Forest, Maryland. The antenna I used there was an 80/40m fan dipole, fed with coax and tuned using an Ameritron ATR-30. I upgraded to a Flex 6400.
In October 2018 I moved back to Delaware and did not set up another HF station. In May of 2022 I moved full time to Florida, where I rented until April of 2025. I bought a houes in January of 2026 and have been working on getting a new permanent shack setup.
In May of 2024, after I had set up an HF shack again, I started an earnest effort to learn/operate CW and have been having a blast! If you worked me on CW thank you for your patience with a new OP.
My career has been spent working a variety of positions in the Information Technology field. From 2008-2011 I was unable to find IT work and spent some time working as a welder preforming maintenance and repair on rail cars. I didn't make alot of money but I did have fun living a boyhood fantasy in that I got to play with real trains! In 2011 I found a temp job working IT again in Philadelphia, and in 2012 I was hired by my current employer where I am a Senior Systems Engineer specializing in automation for Identity and Access Management processes. I design, write code for, and support custom in-house systems in addition to implementation and support of commercial software.
I've had a lifelong long love of electricity and electronics dating back to the 3rd grade, and I still love to tinker. I have an unhealthy obsession for collecting instrumentation, equipment, and tools, for which I've sought treatment but have found no relief. In the future I look forward to building a shop for purposes of metalworking (welding, foundry, machine shop) and automotive maintenance. I am also a Firearm Enthusiast.
The Delaware shack, circa 2014:
Picture of Center City Philadelphia I took from atop the W3DRA Wilmington repeater tower.
